God gave grace to dodge raindrops and still get a lot of evangelism done this week. On Monday I was able to get down street preaching. God showed His hand in a couple of ways. The first was the rain stopping when I took my gear out of my bag. The second was two young man named, "Zach" that interupted me when I was preaching at two different times. Both are young men who are involved in evangelism. The third way was a good follow up conversation with a security guard at a shop. I gave him a tract the week before with a link to street preaching and he had watched it.

On Tuesday, I had a day of prayer with other missionaries. There were just 3 of us but God blessed our time together. On Wednesay I helped Pastor Dillman over in his area as his carol sing is this evening. Please pray for the power of God for that event.  On Thursday, I met up with a man I led to the Lord about 3 months ago. God continues to work in his life and he intends to come to church. He's watching online. On Saturday, my family put out Carol sing leaflets for our church. Thank you for praying for our outreach.

Last Sunday night, God gave us a first time adult visitor. I think we'll see him again. He's a believer from our area who received our 2025 Gospel flyer a few weeks ago. 

This morning, it was a blessing to have Logan back. He arrived yesterday from Bible college at Ambassador. He slept from the time we got him until this morning, but he is awake now. He led the singing this morning.

I enjoyed preaching a message on, "United Together" from the book of Philippians. We had a special service. Please pray for God's annointing upon our work. Thanks for praying!

The highlight of our morning service was a children's "jingle bell choir." (Here is a video link on google drive.) Mac played, "Away in the Manger" on the piano and 6 other little children played their bells. It was beautiful and they did a great job. It's fun to see the kids involved in ministry.

I preached a message this morning from John 1, "Come and See." It's a fun passage where 4 different people are encouraging others to follow Jesus. You have the preacher, the brother, the Saviour and the friend. All of them are saying, "Come follow Jesus." God help us each to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ! 

Our youth activity Friday went well. I guess that was our first Christmas event since we made ginger bread houses. We also had a fun auction which the kids really enjoyed. I shared a message on "Activities of Youth" from Bible passages where, "youth" is mentioned. Please pray for God to do a great work in the teen's hearts.

Our second Christmas event is on Tuesday night as we have a, "Ladies' Christmas Evening." Thank you for praying for these special events.

Many Christmas flyers went out this week. I believe around 1200. Please pray for God to use these beautiful cards to soften the hearts of people in our community. They have an invitation to our community carol sing on the back of them.

Yesterday morning was VERY rainy as it was also last night. Thankfully, Nelson and I were able to put out flyers yesterday afternoon. We put out several hundred very nice postcard like Christmas Cards with a winter picture on the front with the announcement of Jesus birth. On the back, there is an invitation to our community carol sing service. Please pray for God's power upon these little invitations. We have 5,000 to distribute.

This morning was a very sunny morning and I enjoyed preaching on Princes St. in Edinburgh. Please pray Colossians 4:3-4 for me as I do this ministry. "Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak."

Sunday night we enjoyed setting up the church Christmas decorations. We're thankful for such a beautiful space to entertain our guests and teach them about Jesus. Please pray that many will come.

The Lord gave our church an encouraging morning. We had a great group out for SS and the AM service. We had 7 children in SS this moring representing 4 families. This is excellent. Another baby was there...but he was with his mum in her class.

Our study of Acts in SS is going really well. We are in chapter 18. I love the book of Acts and it's the case studies which go along with the doctrine found in the epistles to the churches. This morning I took up the "big brush" in God's Word as we looked at five verses. Each verse contained the phrase translated in English to, "In Every Thing." We had a really good time in God's Word and there were several hands raised in our invitation time. The mssage was entitled, "In Every Thing GOD."

We have several special holiday events coming up for which we'd appreciate your prayers.

    9 December - Ladies' Christmas Evening, 24 December - Carol Sing Service, 31 December - Film Night.

Thank you for your interest and prayers for God's work at Southside Free Baptist Church. We very much appreciate your investment in God's work in Scotland.

I'm sorry that I haven 't posted an update for the past two weeks. God allowed our family to go on a holiday (vacation) which began last Sunday afternoon. We didn't want to miss a full Sunday and so departed after the morning service. We enjoyed visiting a church near our holiday destination for the Sunday PM service. We tried attending a church on Wednesday night, but we were the only ones that showed up. (The sign said they had a midweek service.)

God  gave us a very refreshing time away. We visited places in England and Scotland as we stayed in the southwest corner of Scotland. We appreciate the Dillman's filling in for us last Sunday night. The church watched a preacher online for our Wednesday PM service.

It's always good to get home and be back with your own church family. I preached a message this morning from Philippians 4:13 - "Yes You Can." The text is, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." I hope that I and our church have a "Can Do" attitude of faith instead of a can't do attitude of unbelief. I hope that is true of you and your church as well. Thank you for praying for SFBC. God is working. A young woman who used to attend our church has been back for the past two Sundays. It's been a blessing to have her with us.

Nelson, Mac and I finished cleaning up the garden at church yesterday. I don't have a picture of the final product since we worked in the dark last night. But, I have some pictrues of the wall coming down and the very full skip (dumpster.)

The Lord also allowed me to do street preaching yesterday morning. It was a beautiful day to be out and God gave liberty to declare His Word. A Christian man whom I met intends to come to church tomorrow evening. I hope that he does. The ladies' meeting last night was well attended and there was a good spirit. Thank you for praying for them.

I enjoyed preaching this morning from Jesus' Parable of the Sower, a message on spiritual productivy. Interestingly, I've only ever focused on the soil as being man's response to the Gospel. This morning we considered the soil of our hearts in light of the truth of God's Word. As believers, our hearts can get hard, stones can kill growth, and weeds can stop productivity. How needful to guard the soil of our heart by being good spiritual farmers.

This morning was not record high attendance, but close to record lows. We had several who let us know they are ill. Please pray for grace and that God would protect our young congregation. Church planting is always ebb and flow. We like the flow tide and not the ebb tide. Please pray for grace and patience to endure.  There are some great things happening.

This afternoon is our care home service. I'm going to preach on the Good Shepherd and His sheep from Psalm 23. Praise God - he is our shepherd individually and also corporately as the Head of the Church. He will not let us want anything needful, will give us rest, provision, mercy, goodness, etc! Glory!

Thank you for praying for our ministry. May God give you liberty to pray in power for His good hand to do a great work here in Scotland and in Southside Free Baptist Church.

It was a blessing to have a Christian from Ghana visit our service last night. He's lived in the UK for just over a year. Nelson and I met him on Saturday as we were cutting the grass on the church property. Last night he came about 40 minutes early and was also able to join us for our prayer time. He said that he will see us again next week. 

This morning I did street preaching in Edinburgh. I didn't get my usual spot, but ended up preaching at another favourite location.  I had a good outing and the Lord gave me liberty to preach His Word. I very much appreciate your prayers for the power of God to open men's hearts to the Gospel and for the Lord's enablement every time I street preach. God has proven Himself faithful time and again and I'm thankfulf for His continued leading in this ministry. Thank you for your prayers!

British Summer time ended today. It's nice to get an hour extra rest. The downside is that the sun will set at 4:45 this evening. S.A.D. is a real problem here in Scotland. Please pray for everyone to stay encouraged and that God will help us reach people who are struggling with the long winter nights.

It was good to have a young girl, who has attended for 7 years, join us for an AM service. She primarily comes on Wednesday nights, but has come on Sunday PM's before. This was her first Sunday morning and she enjoyed SS and church. She's at our home for the afternoon. So, she will have a full day of church.

This morning I preached on, "Finding So Great Faith" from the Centurion in Caesarea who trusted Jesus to heal his servant. We enjoyed a focus on, "faith" this morning. Please pray for prayer warriors to grow up in our ministry. What a blessing they will be in years to come if God works in their heart regarding prayer.

Our youth activity on Friday went well. We enjoyed attending the Royal Scottish National Orchestra after having a Bible study and eating pizza at the church. Thanks for praying for God's blessings upon these events.

This week, Katie and Allison, a member of our church, are heading to Ireland for a Ladies' retreat. Katie gets to speak in one of the sessions. Please pray for the power of God upon this good work and for Jenny Hill as she organises it.

God gave us a really special night last night. It makes me praise the Lord that we have a Sunday evening service. We've struggled with our Sunday night attendance and may still struggle going forward. But, we had a good group last evening. 

We also had three generations of our church represented. Two young women who attended our church for 9 years in their childhood when we started the church were present. A young man who worked on his Masters until 2020 was back visiting. We had another couple visit who found us onine as they were on a two year anniversary trip. On top of that two families who don't normally attend the PM were present. Praise God! It's what it is all about - Worshipping God together!

God has also given a good start to our evangelism this week as I street preached this morning. It was a good outing. I had one incident where a man spoke into my head mic (photo below). It's not unusual to have opposition and there was not any danger. But, I appreciate your prayers for the power of God upon this ministry. I believe it is a vital part of what God has called us to do and pray that God will call more men to street preach. Sermon Audio has now put an "open air ministry" tab on their sermon categories. We have 80 outings recorded there. Please pray that we stay faithful even though the weather is turning colder and that God will give opportunity to get out.