The Lord gave us a good youth activity on Friday. We had 7 teens out for the activity which was very good attendance. I preached on, "Taste and See that the Lord is good." Katie provided a great meal for us and we had a really good time.

This morning was a good service. We had an older man from the community join us for the first time. It was good to have him there. I preached on, "The Answer to Man's Need for Godliness" from 1 Timothy 3:16. Please pray that God will use the audio of this salvation sermon online. 

This week is a normal week. Next Monday Katie has a ladies' meeting and she'd appreciate your prayer as she begins a new year of women's ministry.

Don and I enjoyed getting out in his area yesterday to put out information regarding their new church plant. Please pray for God to build up his group. The Lord has given them a single woman and a married couple who are attending their meetings.

Today our community newspaper, the Midlothian Advertiser, published an article which I wrote entitled, "Is that Really What the Bible Says?" Please pray that God will use it to help people to see through the error of religions that say, "That is our interpretation." The article focuses on "interpretation" vs. "misrepresentation." It is not available online yet, but here is a link to my article last year, "Do Good People Go To Heaven?" 

Please pray for our youth activity tomorrow night as well. It looks like we could have up to 10 young people come if everyone attends.

I was able to put flyers out in Roslin yesterday for a couple of hours. It was very cold but warm enough to get some work done.

I also uploaded some pictures to the webpage from the Israel trip. If you look under the photo page or click on this link you can see them. I hope to label them as well in the near future.

The Lord gave us a good Sunday. I didn't show pictures this morning but will share some of those with our folks tonight. I preached this morning on, "The Lord's Lesson on Prayer" from Luke 11:1-13.

We'd appreciate your prayers for our youth activity this Friday. God has given us a new teenager who faithfully attends our church. Lord willing, this will be her first youth activity. We hope her brother will attend as well. He's come to one church service.

Thank you for praying for our ministry.

I got back from Israel around 11:00 Scotland time today. I flew through the night and am thankful for the Lord's help getting sleep along the way. It's hard to know where to start in sharing any of our experiences over there. I can't imagine a better schedule, better weather, better group, etc. It was a very precious trip and I appreciate all of your prayers. The devotional at Engedi went very well. Thank you for praying specifically for that.

Soon, I will be sending out a prayer letter and uploading many photo's from my trip. I want to say a public thank you to Craig Hartman (Shalom Ministries) and Dr. Steadman (Baptist World Mission) for organizing this trip. I can't imagine how much though and work went into making this a great experience for all.

I'll put a couple pics below. Many more will be posted in the near future. Thank you for putting up with the "radio silence" in my absence.

We enjoyed having Don and Chris Dillman with us today. Don is preaching all the service today as I get ready to leave for Israel. I fly out later this afternoon. God gave us a great morning. We have gained some attendees since our carol sing service and hope that they continue to come. It's been a blessing having them there. Don gave us a good challenge this morning from Genesis 22, Abraham's sacrifice (in principle) of his son, Isaac.

Please pray for Katie and the kids in my absence. They are also jumping back into school this week. This is my first trip to Israel and I'm excited about the opportunity. God opened this door for me. Please pray for great benefit spiritually from my time over there. Please also pray for me next Monday as I get to share a 15-20 minute message with our tour group in Engedi. I'm going to preach on Jonathan, the Engedi Encourager.

We enjoyed the first day of the week, of the month and of the year. We had a 10:30 service this morning and then came over to our home for a baptismal service. Lilliana, a lady who was recently saved, and Nelson, our 6 year old were baptized. I'll put some pictures below.

I'm also putting a link to my father's testimony which he shared in Lasalle Peru, IL today. My dad was in a very bad car accident in the early 1970's. He was 26 years old, married with 3 little boys. God took his family that day and dad had severe injuries. Dad has always used this testimony (though very difficult) to show God's almighty grace. If you have time to listen, I know it will be a blessing to those who hear it.

God did something special tonight and gave us the highest attendance service that we've ever had. We had 50 people in attendance this evening. The children did a wonderful job with their songs and everyone enjoyed singing the carols. I preached on reasons why people don't receive God's gift. Please pray for eternal fruit in the hearts of those who heard that message this evening. Thank you for praying for this special night of ministry. God's blessing was evident not just in the numbers but also in the spirit of the service.

Below is a picture from our ministry at The Trust yesterday and our carol service this evening. Tomorrow we have a service at 10:30 and then we are going to enjoy a family Christmas. Have a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for your prayers.

This has been a fun week and ministry begins tonight as we have a special fun church service. We are going to set up our 10 foot tall Christmas tree this evening and decorate the hall for our carol service on Saturday. Tomorrow at 2:00 in the afternoon we have our carol sing at THE TRUST (assisted living facility). Saturday is our Church Carol Sing Service at 6:00. Sunday, Christmas Day, we are having a 10:30 service.

We have prepared the power point for the carol service, made Christmas cookies (Katie and Kay Lee) and will soon be pre-recording the Chrismas carols onto the piano. 

Thank you for the many Christmas gifts, cards and greetings. We are very thankful for your support of our famiy and ministry!

We are excited to be into this ministry week. The Lord gave us a good morning as I preached on the Christmas Story, Luke 2, on "You Can Trust God When...." 

This week is a good busy ministry week. Thursday night (our midweek service) we are going to set up our ten foot tall Christmas tree, decorate, have a special prayer time for the carol service and let the children's choir get one more practice. Friday is a special carol sing service at The Trust (Assisted living facility.) Saturday at 6 is our Carol Sing Service. Sunday we are doing a 10:30 Christmas Day Service. We are excited about this special season of ministry. Thank you for your prayers.