I don't always do a Wednesday update, but I have great news. A young man (27) whom we have known for 10 years attended church this evening and trusted Christ as His Saviour. He is excited and so are we. God is so very good! How we long for more people to know the joy of having Christ as their Saviour.

Our Wednesday study has been on 1 Peter. Tonight was trusting God through suffering. Thanks for praying for Southside Free Baptist Church.

God blessed our family with some really sweet times with all the kids home this summer. Kay Lee and Benson flew back on Tuesday to prepare for the start of the Autumn Semester at Ambassador Baptist College in NC. We'll miss them, but we are excited about how God is leading and working in their lives. 

On Monday, I did street preaching in Edinburgh with several in our family handing out literature. Today, Don Dillman and I met on Princess Street to do some street evangelism. Thank you for praying for the street preaching. It is Festival Season right now with several international festivals taking place. It is prime time to be in Edinburgh declaring the truth of God's Word.  I definitely need God's enablement that I may "open my mouth boldly" to proclaim the truth of the Gospel. I love doing this, but recognise my need every time for God's enablement. Thanks for your prayers.

Yesterday our ministry was helping someone catch up on their gardening after having a tough season of life. I'm thankful the Lord led us to help them and get a physical burden off of their shoulders. 

Also, Katie put together back to school gifts for kids and their parents as school resumed here today. She enjoyed seeing many that visited our NBT. Please pray for God's grace for these many families.

In other news, Katie is getting ready to start up schooling with the kids. Your prayers for her busy ministry as mom and children's teacher at church, church pianist, etc. etc. are much appreciated. 

We rejoice this morning that God's saving grace was received today at our church property. What a blessing to show someone from His Word how to be forgiven of their sins and to receive His gift of everlasting life. Please pray for this new born believer as they grow in the Lord.

Our door to door went well yesterday. Due to rain, we did instruction on door to door first and then were able to get out for a short while. The fruit today is a direct result of that effort and an encouragement to us to be faithful in the work God has called us to do.

I preached this morning on, "Spiritual Leadership Success" from the life of Joshua. We have reason to anticipate success if we follow the "way to success" which God gave to Joshua as recorded in Joshua 1:1-9.

Your prayers are much appreciated as we seek to further establish Southside Free Baptist Church. Thank you for keeping up and for praying.

God gave us some good opportunities to share the Gospel this week. On Monday Benson went with me as I preached on Princess St. in Edinburgh. On Wednesday, I joined Pastor Dillman in Livingstone to hand out tracts at the mall and do door to door. We're planning to do door to door tomorrow and have two who will be joining us for their first time. Your prayers are much appreciated for God's grace as they learn a new ministry.

We're excited to be moving forward on the building this week. On Tuesday we began the renovations of the santuary by having all of the wiring put in. The  electricians were there for four days and have nearly finished running the wires in the sanctuary.

Also, we were able to have new front doors installed. They are lovely and make our church so much more inviting. Since these are glass doors, we will be able to shut them and still have people aware that we are open. The previous doors were solid and had to be left open.

Today I began the installation of the floor in the entry. I was able to get it mostly laid, but have some finishing to do tomorrow. We enjoyed a good Wednesday night of ministry as we met again in the Activity Centre at church. I preached a message in a series on 1 Peter on, "How to suffer correctly when suffering as a Christian."

Men's camp was a lot of fun. There were 22 in total and we had 6 in attendance from our church. The village where we stayed, Cullen, is a beautiful harbor village in North East Scotland. They had dormitory accomodations with a small gymnasium, food hall and fellowship area. We enjoyed having 4 preaching session over the course of the 3 days.

It is now great to be back home and into a more normal schedule. The only thing unusual this week is a day of prayer for ministers in Blair Atholl on Tuesday. These are ALWAYS  a blessing and we appreciate your prayers for God's hand to be evident upon that day.

We've seen a good number of visitors to church lately. This past Wednesday night there were 4 children present who had never been in our Wednesday kid's club. Praise the Lord! Thank you for praying for numerical growth.

Our attendance was good this morning and we enjoyed catching up wtih some whom we had not seen for a few weeks. The AM message was from 1 Corinthians 10:12-14 on, "Escaping Temptation." SS was a discipleship lesson on finding the will of God. Both of these truths are vital to helping us keep a close walk with God. Tonight we will be doing a doctrinal study and having the Lord's table.

In church building news, new front doors are scheduled to be installed on Tuesday. We're also getting ready to move forward on the sanctuary. Your prayers for wisdom are much appreciated as we seek to complete these projects for the LORD. Thanks for praying.

PS. Photo of Dunottar Castle from our picnic on the way to men's camp. Photo of our new banner flag in front of our church.

It has rained most of the time we've been back in Scotland. I guess it has made it easier this week for me to get caught up on life. I've needed extra study time the beginning of this week as some of us leave tomorrow for men's camp. We have 3 men and 3 boys heading North around ten tomorrow. Please pray for God to do a great work in all the hearts of those who will be in attendance. 

In other news, our church successfully registered a new address. Our church address is now offically, "Southside Free Baptist Church, Dryden Terrace, Loanhead EH20 9JL." God has been so good to help us navigate through the business side of owning this property. Please pray for continued grace as there are some ongoing paperwork needs. 

We have enjoyed several visitors lately. On Sunday PM we had 3 visitors  and tonight we had 3 more. It is a blessing to get to minister to those whom God brings. I preached this evening on speak up, stand up from 1 Peter 4:11. We appreciate your prayers for God's work at Southside Free Baptist Church.

PS. We have loads of holiday pics. This very windy pic was taken from the French side of the English Channel.

We didn't set any attendance records this morning, but God gave us a good morning with those who were present. It was very good to be back in our church building with our church family. I preached this morning from Psalm 86 on climbing the ladder of prayer and ringing the bell of heaven. I needed our focus this morning as it reminded me of Who God is and the privilige He has given to us in prayer.

After three interesting weeks of life - NBT, holiday, familly camp, we have yet another interesting week ahead of us. This Thursday - Saturday is Scottish men's camp in Northern Scotland East of Inverness. Please pray for God to do a good work in the hearts of the men who will be in attendance. We had a great time last year. This year, instead of tents, they have rented a facility. (Perhaps our tents getting thrashed by high winds and rain as well as the primitive nature of our experience enouraged this new step.) lol ... We are looking forward to what God is going to do. Please pray for God's rich blessing on all who attend.

PS. Here is a picture from camp of our speaker and his wife. The Anderson's are dear friends and Brother Steve is also our field administrator as he oversees Africa and Europe for BWM.

Our family enjoyed a break as we got away on a holiday to England and then a week in Germany. The first week was spent on the Isle of Sheppey. God gave us some fun experiences. A highlight was our day in London... where we got to see King Charles as he left his palace. 

In Germany, we attended Baptist World Mission family camp. The preaching, teaching and fellowship was refreshing. This week is always a spiritual highlight of our year. 

It's good to be home. We look forward to getting back at it. Thank you for your prayers and there should now be more frequent updates. :)

PS. I did a video of Prince Charles' departure. Although we could see into the car well, the windows reflected. So, this image is a screen shot after he had driven past. You may spot Benson sitting on the fence in the second picture, Katie is to the right of him. :)

God gave us a fabulous week. Although our daily attendance at times was not what we desired, God gave us token blessings every day. One stat from the week is the surprising number of first time visitors who heard the Gospel. This tally includes children, parents and teens. The total was 45 - praise the Lord. We had an adult visitor in church today because of our week and we hope to see others in the near future.

I repreached a message this morning, "Go and Achieve" of Jonathan and his armour bearer who fought so valiently against the Philistines. Please pray for our church to recognise the great power of God to work through us no matter our number.

There are some special events on our calendar which need your prayers. Next Sunday, Brother Layton Kelly, will be preaching at our church. Layton is one of our church missionaries. He runs New Hope Residential, men's home, in Ireland. Also, the 24th-28th is BWM family camp in Germany. Please pray for God to greatly use that week to refresh his servants who are labouring in Europe.

With regard to our church property, we will soo be installing new doors. We are also poised to move forward on the sanctuary. A Christian Conractor (and his men) from our community is going to help us at cost to move the project forward. This is tremendous news as we should be able to move forward quickly with professional help and our resources will go further. Please pray for God's blessing on our work and on this man's business as he uses his time and talents for the Lord. 

Our week of NBC (Neighbourhood Bible Time) has been a great blessing. We've had 19 children so far and about 12 teens. Although they haven't all been present every day, we have had visitors every day. Tonight a 15 year old young man trusted in Jesus Christ as His Saviour. Hallelujah! That is the 4th person to trust Christ in our new church property and we PRAISE GOD for His amazing grace!

Please pray for God's power as we finish up the week. We have 2 more mornings of children's ministry, 1 more evening teen activity and then an awards ceremony where families are invited on Friday night.

These are really special days and we are seeing God's hand at work each and every day. Please continue to pray for God's blessing upon our events. Thanks for praying!

picture: The NBT guys (Luke and Tyler) and 4 of the Shore boys.