It was at an Easter People event that we received an invitation to visit the Shetland Isles. This would we thought have to be a home/UK tour but a bit limited to spend two weeks there and certainly too far for a weekend. But then we learnt that Shetland is nearer to Norway than England. So our 1999 tour took us to Norway and the Shetland Isles. We travelled by coach staying in Cullercoats Methodist Church in Newcastle before taking the ferry across to Stravanger. This was a church floor/church youth hostel type tour. We gave concerts in Stavanger and Flekkefjord on the southern bulge of Norway and then travelling north to give a concert and share worship in Oslo. Then it was cross country through some wonderful majestic scenery to reach Bergen on the west coast for another concert and stay before taking the ferry across to Shetland. We arrived after midnight but what a warm welcome we received – and the church had showers! We experienced such wonderful and generous hospitality from the Methodist folk there. Our concert in Walls must be the most remote and out of the way place we have ever played at – but what a lovely welcome and reception we received. The little chapel, as someone remarked, was shorter than our coach, and it was packed for our concert where the band had to split into two – one playing the first half and the other the second. All too soon it was time for a very choppy crossing to Aberdeen and the long ride down almost the full length of Britain to home, rest and sleep.
