The Hodnett Family Converting Scotland

[Granwych]

13 hours ago, kunoichi66 said:

What was his job, unless it's rude to ask?

Dad was ex-Navy, worked in a shipyard, and his last career, 20+ years, was an ironworker.  Those guys would be walking across a beam 6 inches wide  like it was on the ground.  He fell off a bridge they were building, fell onto a train car.  Damn fool went back to work in 3 days.  That was the only time he ever missed a days work.

[FrumperedCat]

There's a new video up on Jody's facebook profile and it seems he's settled down in Dundee. Wasn't the original plan for them to be in Glasgow? He mentioned that a lot of their plans have changed too, and that he has a lot to learn as there have been a lot of surprises. They'd been staying in a hotel since they'd arrived but just moved into a rental house which needs a lot of work done so perhaps the Glasgow plan didn't work out? Also he mentioned they've already been preaching on the street and radio (unsurprisingly).

[Gobsmacked]

That means I won't bump into him on his Pagan/Witch hunts. Now I'm disappointed. Dundee is a tad to far away from Edinburgh just to visit for a Hodnett hunting trip.

I was planning on a little early Christmas shopping as an excuse to pop through to Glasgow.

I am very disappointed in you already Hodnett family.

He is probably surprised because not all Scotsmen run around with blue painted faces, wearing animal skin shoes wrapped with twine and carrying spears. 

Scotland is civilised Jody!!!!

[ladyaudley]

I saw on his Fb that he had put Dundee, but figured he just didn't know one Scottish city from another. Is it wrong that I am glad he's not here? Dundee is tiny though, not even 200k people. He'll make himself unpopular in no time! 

[Gobsmacked]

Love the passive begging. The house needs carpets and lots of work involving carpentry work therefore loads of money required.

Their heating bills will be huge this winter. They will find Dundee very cold, windy and wet after Georgia I imagine.

Why Dundee and not Glasow though. The Hodnetts in Glasgow seemed like a done deal.

FJrs from Dundee please make it your mission to find out for us??!!!

[Palimpsest]

So Hodnett isn't in Glasgow after all?

I expect he's desperately editing all references to Glasgow out of his fund-raising materials.  He may try to justify the change by saying that Dundee is cheaper.

It's like John Shrader redux.  Oh, we were going to Kafulafuto Glasgow but God sent us to Kafue Dundee instead!  But it really doesn't matter because all of Zambia Scotland is the same and filled with heathens needing God.

And this rented house isn't good enough for fancy Americans like us so send refrigerators and washing machines carpets and carpenters.  Pay Pray for us.   And these heathens drive on the wrong side of the road.  Who knew?  

My thoughts are with the people of Dundee.  

 

[Lurky]

I guess I'm surprised he is still in an actual city, not in a nice village in an affluent part of, let's say, countryside outside of Edinburgh - I was totally expecting his "Mission" to be going to castles, lochs, islands etc and handing out tracts while seeing all the tourist sites...

Mind you, on the other hand, the GLASGOW APOCALYPSE!!!1111!!111!11 video was illustrated with pictures of Edinburgh, so...

ETA I'm interested in what kind of rental he's got if he's grifting for carpets.  That seems like a massive waste of cash to me, as carpets are specific sizes to rooms, so it's not something that could be used elsewhere, surely?  I'm fascinated!  Is he staying somewhere with stripped wood floor/laminate flooring (which is pretty common in the UK) and just doesn't like it, or somewhere really crappy? 

[kunoichi66]

6 hours ago, Granwych said:

Dad was ex-Navy, worked in a shipyard, and his last career, 20+ years, was an ironworker.  Those guys would be walking across a beam 6 inches wide  like it was on the ground.  He fell off a bridge they were building, fell onto a train car.  Damn fool went back to work in 3 days.  That was the only time he ever missed a days work.

ex-Navy? Ironworker?  That explains everything...

 

1 hour ago, Gobsmacked said:

That means I won't bump into him on his Pagan/Witch hunts. Now I'm disappointed. Dundee is a tad to far away from Edinburgh just to visit for a Hodnett hunting trip.

I was planning on a little early Christmas shopping as an excuse to pop through to Glasgow.

I am very disappointed in you already Hodnett family.

He is probably surprised because not all Scotsmen run around with blue painted faces, wearing animal skin shoes wrapped with twine and carrying spears. 

Scotland is civilised Jody!!!!

More civilised than him and his ilk...

1 hour ago, ladyaudley said:

I saw on his Fb that he had put Dundee, but figured he just didn't know one Scottish city from another. Is it wrong that I am glad he's not here? Dundee is tiny though, not even 200k people. He'll make himself unpopular in no time! 

Good!  The sooner the better.  And I agree, he probably thinks Dundee is Glasgow because its small, and we don't have anything actually developed like the U.S. of A, do we? 

[FrumperedCat]

36 minutes ago, Lurky said:

I guess I'm surprised he is still in an actual city, not in a nice village in an affluent part of, let's say, countryside outside of Edinburgh - I was totally expecting his "Mission" to be going to castles, lochs, islands etc and handing out tracts while seeing all the tourist sites...

Mind you, on the other hand, the GLASGOW APOCALYPSE!!!1111!!111!11 video was illustrated with pictures of Edinburgh, so...

ETA I'm interested in what kind of rental he's got if he's grifting for carpets.  That seems like a massive waste of cash to me, as carpets are specific sizes to rooms, so it's not something that could be used elsewhere, surely?  I'm fascinated!  Is he staying somewhere with stripped wood floor/laminate flooring (which is pretty common in the UK) and just doesn't like it, or somewhere really crappy? 

He mentioned that the rental was very cheap or something so sounds like they didn't have money for anything better or couldn't find anything else available given how he probably didn't give much notice. Jody did make sure to clarify though that he couldn't complain etc. It definitely sounded like they struggled to find something better so I'm thinking they're on a tight budget or getting it provided for the ministry work.

[Gobsmacked]

Average rents for unfurnished 2/3 bed houses and flats in Dundee begin at £500 pcm. They rise quite steeply after that. The cheaper end prices are all in tenement blocks. No garden spaces for the kids to play. There will be play parks around though.

Im wondering if the Hodnett house is a private rental through someone at the church at a very rock bottom price.

That would explain the amount of work required.  Most rental properties have the basics done.  Neutral coloured paint throughout, electrics and plumbing modernised and safe, floors newly laminated. Ready to move in with your own furniture. 

 

 

[alba]

There's a new video up on Jody's facebook profile and it seems he's settled down in Dundee. Wasn't the original plan for them to be in Glasgow? He mentioned that a lot of their plans have changed too, and that he has a lot to learn as there have been a lot of surprises. They'd been staying in a hotel since they'd arrived but just moved into a rental house which needs a lot of work done so perhaps the Glasgow plan didn't work out? Also he mentioned they've already been preaching on the street and radio (unsurprisingly).

Dundee? DUNDEE?!

As a woman with a long and proud family history in that city, I take it as a personal affront that it's being contaminated with the Hodnetts' ilk.

I will, however, most certainly keep an eye out when I next visit my aunt.

[Gobsmacked]

Photos please Alba!       for you.

[ladyaudley]

Churches sometimes rent stuff out really cheaply. Friends of mine have a flat above a church on the south side of Glasgow and it is dirt cheap, but was in dire need of repairs when they moved in. The church paid for the stuff that was legally necessary, but the rest has been on our friends to do. I'm assuming the Hodnetts are in a similar situation. 

[Lurky]

Just watched that video:

• "I've got a lot to learn"
• but didn't do the most basic research about Scotland in that we drive on a different side of the road in the UK than in the USA, and our towns aren't built in a grid formation!!!1!!!11!!!!!11  How can he be SUCH a bad driver that everyone else on the roads needs prayers??
• " I look forward to seeing you learn the mistakes that *I*  have learned" - WTF?  We're not some barbarian island here in the UK!!
• They got a good deal on the house, but need repairs??  They have a free hand to do whatever they want on the house??
• What radio station allowed them on?  He's hardly eloquent
• "Some of our laughter had tears in it, that I almost killed someone with my driving".....  WTAF?

TH;DR:  CULTURE SHOCK!!!!  I'm guessing they thought they could rent a mansion, and would be welcomed with open arms as the Saviours, but are finding it hard already, because they haven't done even minimal research (& I don't get how all of us could google rental prices in Glasgow, but they couldn't....)

Can't wait for their next prayer letter...  and how they take to winter in Dundee...

[Gobsmacked]

Hope the sheeple in Dundee will kindly provide the Hodnett children with warm hats, gloves, socks and footwear for the winter. 

I don't know how cold it can get in Georgia but I know that Dundee gets very cold!!

I suspect that Hodnett snr won't have planned for that. He doesn't appear to have planned for much else. Bursting into tears all the time won't help him in Dundee that IS for sure.

[Granwych]

6 hours ago, kunoichi66 said:

ex-Navy? Ironworker?  That explains everything...

Hell, yes.  He was a deep-sea diver, a scuba diver, and owned and flew his own small plane.  The man was afraid of nothing, I swear, except snakes.  Once my sister threw out a toy rubber snake in the trash.  While Dad was emptying the trash, somehow the snake fell onto his arm.   He went pale, and very carefully took the trash can lid and pushed the snake into the trash can and slapped on the lid.  My mother saw everything from the window and laughed so hard she peed her pants.  Dad wasn't so amused, to say the least.   No more toy snakes for us kids...

[seraaa]

2 hours ago, Lurky said:

Just watched that video:

• "I've got a lot to learn"
• but didn't do the most basic research about Scotland in that we drive on a different side of the road in the UK than in the USA, and our towns aren't built in a grid formation!!!1!!!11!!!!!11  How can he be SUCH a bad driver that everyone else on the roads needs prayers??
• " I look forward to seeing you learn the mistakes that *I*  have learned" - WTF?  We're not some barbarian island here in the UK!!
• They got a good deal on the house, but need repairs??  They have a free hand to do whatever they want on the house??
• What radio station allowed them on?  He's hardly eloquent
• "Some of our laughter had tears in it, that I almost killed someone with my driving".....  WTAF?

TH;DR:  CULTURE SHOCK!!!!  I'm guessing they thought they could rent a mansion, and would be welcomed with open arms as the Saviours, but are finding it hard already, because they haven't done even minimal research (& I don't get how all of us could google rental prices in Glasgow, but they couldn't....)

Can't wait for their next prayer letter...  and how they take to winter in Dundee...

It gets dark early. Moving into Nov, nights start drawing in at 4.30 pm ish. That's difficult if you're not used it. Not sure I they will be, as I don't know which line of latitude Georgia occupies

[PennySycamore]

@seraaa, Georgia lies between latitudes 30.356 and 34.985 degrees North, according to Wikipedia.  It is the largest state east of the Mississippi in land area.  One degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles so Georgia is not quite 300 nautical miles from North to South.  One nautical mile equals 1.151 statute miles.

[Gobsmacked]

PennySycamore does that mean that the winter evenings are dark in Georgia? My most recent Geography lessons happened 30 years ago!

I imagine that the Hodnetts aren't used to very short winter days with very little sunshine. They are in for a huge shock!!

[alba]

5 hours ago, Gobsmacked said:

PennySycamore does that mean that the winter evenings are dark in Georgia? My most recent Geography lessons happened 30 years ago!

I imagine that the Hodnetts aren't used to very short winter days with very little sunshine. They are in for a huge shock!!

Oh yes, they are. I was when I came here from Canada, which as you can imagine is substantially further north than Georgia

I've been here 9 years now and I'm *still* not used to it being dark for 17 hours and then grey and grim for the remaining 7. I don't mind waking up in the sunshine and going to sleep in the sunshine in July, though!

[ladyaudley]

Yeah, it's the grey and grim for the few "daylight" hours that's the worst. Nearly broke me when I moved here 10 years ago.

[Lurky]

I'm really interested in what kind of place they're got that needs extensive work on it.  A 3 bed place on a long-term let in Dundee seems to start at £450/month on RightMove (ignore the flatshares and Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO)), BUT I would imagine that a lot of those places would need a deposit, might not want kids as tenants, and would probably-definitely want references (and from my experience renting in the UK, would want references they can check in the UK). 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^452&minBedrooms=3&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=24&radius=0.0&sortType=1&index=0&viewType=LIST&dontShow=houseShare%2Cretirement&letType=longTerm&areaSizeUnit=sqft&currencyCode=GBP

I am guessing they're in a house owned by someone they know from a church - the wallpaper in the room that "ho ho I nearly killed someone on the roads" video looked nice enough.  But I'm wondering if they were expecting to stay somewhere for free, as they were grifting for $5,000 expenses to set up in Scotland, which isn't going to go far if they're paying actual rent... Fascinated how they're going to live, or if they've thought this through at all.

Next game - which church will they be associated with?   I did a quick google for Independent Baptist Churches in Dundee, and came up with a load, but I think they're just 'regular' Baptist churches (see the Baptist Union for what they're like in the UK)

This one looks like the most American-missionary-style website, but it's Perth not Dundee: http://www.bbcperth.co.uk

This seems IFB, but I don't know if that's USA-style: https://tbcdundee.org.uk/     They support missionaries to Spain and the Philippines and Edinburgh, and don't have a building - they're my nearest guess for Hodnettery, but they say they partner with other churches, so they're not full-on "everyone else is doing it wrong" IFB.

I'm guessing this one isn't for them, as they're all about supporting overseas Missions, and getting their members to go on trips, plus it seems to have an actual church building, and 2 members of staff: http://www.centraldundee.com/

This one looks like a long-standing 'standard' Baptist church: http://broughtybaptist.org/

This one, I have no idea what it is - : http://gracechurchdundee.co.uk/

What's really interesting about this little google is these are just the Dundee Baptist Churches - clearly there are plenty of churches in the city, and I wonder how the Hodnetts will find that, as they were expecting a completely godless place.  They needed a Sponsor for his Visa, so someone must have been nominally happy to have him, but looking at those church websites, I'm really wondering how he'd fit in there (though my bet is still that his "Mission" is handing out tracts and street-preaching in tourist spots) and how he's going to be funding his day-to-day life. 

[alba]

There's a pretty fundie/fundie-lite Baptist church (think faith healing and Biblical literalism) in Dundee; when I was at St Andrews I knew a guy who stopped going to the studenty Baptist church in St A in favour of this one in Dundee. We were at a party once and he started telling me about someone who went up to the altar in a wheelchair and walked away and isn't God awesome? And I tried to surreptitiously sidle away because I was drunk and not in the mood for a religious debate

[ladyaudley]

and if you don't restrict it to Baptists, there are at least 20 churches in Dundee. Heathens indeed. 

[kunoichi66]

2 hours ago, ladyaudley said:

and if you don't restrict it to Baptists, there are at least 20 churches in Dundee. Heathens indeed. 

Oh yes indeed....you can trip over churches if you aren't careful - many of which, may I add, are several hundred years old.

I don't mind the dark and the cold, but then, I wasn't built for heat at all