It feels great to be back at it. Evangelism was impacted by the holidays, but mostly it has been the weather. Thankfully, our weather is now much better and evangelism is going strong. We enjoyed doing door to door on Saturday. A teenage girl went with us and it's a blessing having her along. Katie and she knocked doors together.

On Monday, I was able to put out several hundred flyers in Loanhead. We love our village and thank God for each opporunity we have to share Christ with them. Please that God would mercifully work and that many will find the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God.

Today, I was down street preaching in Edinburgh. Thankfully, my video equipment worked and that outing is on sermonaudio.com as well as on Facebook. Please pray that God will work in the hearts of those who heard the preaching or who will hear the preaching online. God gave tremendous liberty and I appreciate your prayers for that ministry.

Lord willing, tomorrow will be evangelism with Brother Dillman in his area. We have done evangelism together for the last 15 years this coming March. I'm either getting old.... or lying. (I guess I'm getting old.) Don and Chris are good friends. Please pray for their work, Almond Valley Baptist Church in Livingston. Thanks as always for your prayers.

PS. With regard to weather, a named storm is arriving on Friday with gusts to 70 or 80 in Scotland. :)

God blessed us with a good Sunday. A young man who had been seriously ill was able to be back out with us. Some other church family were also back which is always a blessing. The attendance was good and we had a mother and teenage son visit our church. They used to attend a good friend of our's church (Brother Craig Ledbetter) in Ireland. They have since moved into Scotland and to our area. It was a joy to meet them.

We're continuing with our church theme of, "Crucified with Him" and today we looked at Galatians 5, "Crucified with Him unto LIberty." "Free from the law Oh happy condition, Jesus has died and there is remission!" Praise the Lord for our liberation by His death and our new victorious walk if we walk after His Spirit.

We didn't leave the church until 1:00PM though this preacher finished well before that. It's a blessing to be ministering to a chruch family that love one another. We had great fellowship after church. Thanks for praying for us.

The weather has been prohibitive for outreach for much of this year. We've had snow, ice, wind and rain. Thankfully, everything melted this past Monday and today the sun was shining. Pastor Dillman and I put out around 4-5 hundred flyers today. Please pray for the power of the Gospel to penetrate hearts. I had some short opportunities to speak with people as well.

Yesterday was a day of prayer with 5 other men up at Blair Atholl. God blessed us with a good prayer time despite an hour delay in arriving because of the closure of a motorway due to a fire.

Tonight we studied the story in the Word of God of Amnon raping his sister, Tamar as we continued our study of the Life of David. We had a good Bible study and God blessed us with good midweek attendance.  Thank you for praying for our evangelism and church ministries. 

God blessed us with a good morning. Our attendance in SS was low, but our AM attendance was strong. We still have some who are ill and unable to be out. Lord willing, we will see them out soon.

God blessed our morning. We miss our song leader, Logan, as he is now away at Bible College. Both of our previous song leaders (Benson as well) departed on Tuesday. On Wednesday night we did some song leading training. Lord willing, I will have some help in the very near future. Marco, who is one of our newest members, came up and read the Scripture reading this morning. That was a blessing.

I preached from Galatians 2 on our old man's position with Christ (crucified) and our new position of alive because Christ is alive in us. Our theme this year is, "Crucified with Him" and this message was, "Crucified with Him unto the Law." It's wonderful to understand that we were put to death with Christ at Calvary and that now we are alive unto God by faith in the Son of God. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me...."

An adult raised their hand acknowledging their desire for salvation and a great discussion took place after the service. Please pray for a complete work of God's grace in their life.

We are excited about what God is doing in the church. Thank you for praying.

Well, there are physical seasonal changes in 2025 and familial seasonal changes for the Shore family. We have had snow on the ground since 1 January. It is beautiful, but it has been cold. I enjoyed street preaching this morning. My audio equipment worked well, but my video recording equipment did not. I think it was the freezing temperatures. God gave me liberty and a good location. I was preaching near a bus stop and there were many captive hearers. Some others stood and listened at times despite the cold.

On the family front, our two oldest boys (of our 5 boys) headed for Ambassador this morning. Benson (20) and Logan (19) are traveling to NC right now. Benson will be finishing his junior year this semester.  Logan will be a second semester freshman. This will be his first time at Ambassador as his other college credits were from online courses. Although their first flight was an hour late, they just made their connection in London and are currently winging their way to Charlotte.

Katie and the youngest three boys will be starting school back up tomorrow. "To every thing there is a season" and we look forward to this season and each season God brings. Thanks for your prayers! 

Yesterday I was uncertain whether or not we'd be able to have church today. Thankfully, the snow has not yet been bad although it was really coming down at the end of the service. We may have to cancel tonight. 

Our attendance this morning was low, but God gave us a great morning. We had heard from several who for various reasons were unable to make it. So, the attendance wasn't unexpected. 

In my morning message, I set out our theme for our church for 2025. The theme is from the story of the crucifixion of Christ where it says of the two thieves, "Crucified with Him." This morning I preached, "Crucified with Him unto eternal life." 

Our family has enjoyed doing some special music while Benson has been back. This morning Katie and I and our two college boys sang. (Logan is leaving with Benson for his first semester at Ambassador.) It is always a blessing to minister as a family.

This week, life begins to return to more normal ministry following the holiday seaons. Your prayers are much appreciated as we seek to make 2025 a great year for the Lord's work at SFBC.

Can you believe it? Wow - 2024 was hyper speed. There are so many blessings and praises from this past year. God has been very good to our church family.

Our church family was faithful to get out this morning for SS and church. We had good attendance in both services. The message this morning was on prayer as I preached from Psalm 86 on Ringing Heaven's Bell.

Tonight, our son Benson will be preaching. Katie has also made a short year in review video for us to watch. It should be a wonderful time together. We're also looking forward to our New Year's Eve film night. We hope to see some visitors out for that service.

God's good. Thank you for praying for Southside Free Baptist Church and the good work which God is doing here.

God blessed us with a very sweet evening singing carols as a church family. We also enjoyed having several guests with us. There was a response to the Gospel message as a lady raised her hand acknowledging her need to receive God's gift. She followed through after the service and accepted Jesus as her Saviour. Praise the Lord! Thanks for praying for this special service.

We had a great Sunday as well. Our attendace was really good morning and evenig. We received 4 new members into our church at the conclusion of the PM service. What a blessing! Praise the Lord! We are currently seeing growth not just in attendance but in spiritual desire and steps of obedience. This is really exciting and we thank God for His goodness.

On Sunday AM, I preached on the Greatest Gift from John 3:16. Tonight I preached on reasons why people do not receive God's gift.

Our next special service is next Tuesday evening (New Year's Eve) as we show the film, "Sheffey. Thank you for praying for God's work at SFBC. His hand is evident in answer to your prayers.

When I was a kid, I had some health needs and I was taught Murphy's law. "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Benson and Christina just had a trip like that. We awoke yesterday morning expecting to see their flight landing in London and instead we saw it circling over Atlantic City and then landing in NYC. They circled for 5 hours. Their rebooked flight arrived today...late, making them miss their next flight. Their rebooked flight got to Edinburgh circled and was diverted to Glasgow because Edinburgh air traffic control was down. (We got back just in time for the PM service with 5 minutes to spare.) God's good. We're glad they are finally here.

The Lord gave us a great morning as we had our first baptisms in our new sanctuary. We baptised a family of 3. The 11 year old's birthday was today making it even more special.

In Sunday School they shared their testimonies and then a couple other people shared their's as well. It took all of SS plus five minutes to do that. It was a blessing.

I preached this morning on, "The Joy of Jesus" from Isaiah 12 which speaks of the Lord's second coming and setting up of his Millenial Kingdom. 

We had a good week. We had two adults visit on Wednesday PM and enjoyed having them back out for the SS hour as well. 

It was a good evangelism week as well. I did leafletts in our village on Monday. Tuesday was street preaching. Wednesday was with Don Dillman in Livingston. The Lord gave an unusual opportunity to lead a man to Christ. Don has his contact details. On Saturday we put out Christmas Carol Sing flyers.

Thank you for praying for our church and family. It's been a tough week in some ways, but a great week as well. 

Our family is more spread out today serving God than ever before. Kay Lee and John are serving today in Virginia Beach. Benson is serving in Spartonburg, SC. Logan, Parker and Nelson are serving today in Spain. (They are at a missionary kid's camp and participating with the other young people in music ministry today at a local church.) Mac, Katie and I are serving in Scotland. PRAISE GOD - WE ARE ALL SERVING HIM.

God gave us a great morning. Our attendance was good and we have an exciting schedule in front of us. We have a family of three being baptised next Sunday. The following Sunday evening we will be voting to receive them and possibly others into our official church membership. This is glorious and we thank God for His goodness.

I preached this morning on, "Keeping forcused" on your ministry for the Lord. The points are; Don't stop serving God, exhalting Christ, and proclaiming the Gospel. The text was John 3:22-36 and the example was John the Baptist. There was a great response in the invitation time and it's thrilling to see God working in the hearts of His people. Please continue to pray for the grace and power of God in our ministry.

The boys return on Wednesday. Benson and his girlfriend, Christina, arrive back here on Saturday. So, we are looking forward to some fun family times in the near future. Thank you for praying for our family and ministry. God's hand is wonderfully evident.