God blessed our participation in Gala Day and answered our prayers for good weather. There was rain on Friday and Sunday, but not on Saturday. It was actually a hot day (somewhat unusual in Scotland) and there was a great group of people at the event. We enjoyed a constant flow of children enjoying our archery, badge (Button( making, bean bag toss, train rides and cut out photo board. We handed out a lot of literature for our upcoming ministry with NBT (10-14 July.) 

God also gave us a good Sunday. I enjoyed preaching a message on Abraham's walk to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice his son. (Genesis 22) My message was on, "Obedient Faith."

This morning 4 of our boys flew out (are in the air right now) on their way to Dublin, Ireland. Pastor Les Hill is going to transport them with his boys to a week of youth camp. Please pray for Pastor Ledbetter and his crew as they run this important event. 

In the drone photo below, our church minibus and tent are on the bottom left.

God has given us a good week of evangelism. Logan helped me put out between 4-5 hundred flyers on Monday. I was able to get out again on Wednesday with literature. I had a great Gospel conversation which I hope will lead to a future opportunity. The man thanked me and twice shook my hand in appreciation of my sharing some thoughts with him from God's Word. 

Today was different in that I studied this morning and did street preaching this afternoon. I normally preach in the mornings. It was a good outing, albeit not without oppostion. I've had my speaker kicked before. Today I had an older man spit at my speaker. I said, "That's ok. They spit on Jesus when they crucified him as well." 

Interesingly, I usually get encouragement as well. A young lady who is a believer, stood by for quite some time. As I finished up she really encouraged me in what I was doing. Praise the Lord. Please pray for the power of God as I get into Edinburgh to preach. I really feel my weakness and inability as I seek to declare God's truth on the street.

This Saturday is our Gala (children's fair) day. We're looking forward to that day of ministry. Some of the parade group will be assembling in our church car park and we hope to invite them in for some hospitality. Please pray that we can be a physical and spiritual blessing both on our property and at the park. Thanks for your prayers.

Our family packs in a lot of holidays in quick succession this time of year. Katie and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. (I know that is correct, but WOW that's a big number.) I praise the Lord for giving Katie to me as my wife. We are still enjoying serving the Lord together. 

Today is Benson's 19th birthday and we enjoyed taking a little family time this morning. Of course, Sunday was Father's day. Benson was born on Father's day in 2004. He came at 6:00 AM. I taught teen SS, led the singing at church, did nursing home ministry in the afternoon, stopped by the hospital and preached the evening service that night at church! whew! (All the women out there have no sympathy for the dad - no matter how tough his day was, because...) And, they are correct!

God blessed our work projects at the church. The external painting of the church walls is completed. We still need to paint the trim. Thanks to Josh Rowley, we now have a working shower. An extra blessing last week was when we discovered a cathedral ceiling in the sanctuary. There was another ceiling between the drop ceiling and the roof. The boys (Noah, Logan, Parker, and Nelson) helped remove the drop ceiling and we were still able to have church in there on Sunday. We're excited to see progress on the sancuary and look forward to developing this beautiful space.

God blessed us with a good Sunday. I preached on Enoch, "It's Time to Walk with God." Thanks for praying for our church ministry, family and building works. God's hand has been evident.

God is blessing our labour on the church property. We nearly have the first coat on all of the outside. There is just a small section to complete of a wall which stands on top of the flat roof. All of the lower section is completed. We'll finish this morning and then begin a second coat. Please pray for endurance and God to continue to bless us with the right weather.

The shower room (bathroom) for the cresche (nursery) is coming along nicely. God provided a door and a door fram yesterday. They don't normally have pre-built door frams in Scotland. The man said that in England they do, but not here. He said, "Your in luck" as he found it and and I said, "I prefer, you are in providence." :) We live in a great area to source materials and are buying most things withing a block of the church. I enjoy getting to know the local businesses.

God gave me a fun divine appointment last night as I took the boys to chanter (Bagpipes) practice with their pipe band. I witnessed to 7-8 boys who were hanging out around the shops. I was sitting in my car reading a book, but thought I should go and speak with them. Please pray for God to open their eyes to His truth. They thanked me for the conversation.

God allowed us to solve the uploading puzzle yesterday. Sermon Audio switched their system two weeks ago and it impacted a small number of broadcasters. They have put us back to the old system and my sermons are now uploading without dropping. I uploaded, "A No Brainer" and "You Can Do" last night and they are now able to be viewed.

I long to get back to my normal evangelism and ministry routine. However, I'm confident that building, "the walls of Jerusalem" are as important as ministering God's Word. Both, are opportunities for God's light to be seen. We appreciate your prayers.

Well, it feels like a graduation day for our church as we worshipped God in our sanctuary for the first time. We still have some deconstruction to do before we redecorate it, but it is an awesome space.

This week has tested our endurance (like a marathon) but the Lord has helped us to accomplish more than we would have thought possible. The Rowleys still have 3 work days with us. They have been a tremendous help.

Josh shared from Proverbs 3 in our Sunday School hour and that was a blessing. I preached this morning on, "You Can Do" from Philippians 4:13. God has given us all that we need to do EVERYTHING He wants us to do. I enjoyed preaching on that verse. I want to share the recording, but I continue to have difficulty with uploading. I tried a different computer and that also did not work. So, I think it must be our internet causing the issues. I'm getting an upgrade, but it wont' be in for 2 weeks. Please pray for wisdom for us as to what God wants us to do.

Tonight we had a really sweet prayer and praise service. There was great participation in sharing things that God is doing in our hearts and we had a refreshing time.

I'll put some pics below of our work this week.

Thanks for praying for our work on our church building. God is helping us to accomplish much and has given us excellent weather. We praise Him for all He is doing as we continue some intense work on the property. Thank you for your prayer support.

The weather for the past few weeks has been good and now it is amazing. We are into our long days and they are beautiful just now... low 60's fahrenheit, light breeze and sunny. If anyone visits Scotland at this time, they may leave with a false impression. :) 

This prolonged period of good weather opens the door to a project which we have prayed much about - painting the exterior of the church. Please pray as we put this on the schedule for works to be soon completed.

The work list is going well. The deconstruction of our back toilets has been going very well. A skip (dumpster) is arriving tomorrow and we'll promptly fill it once it arrives. A small wall has been built to fill in a gap behind the serving counter in our front two rooms. Another room in the back hall has been gutted and other miscellaneous works have been engaged. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to beautify our church property.

We enjoyed a good start to the week as we met together for church this morning. Josh Rowley took the adult/teen Bible class at 10:00 and taught from Genesis on the beginning. I preached this morning on Joshua 24, a sermon I entitled, "A No Brainer." Very little intellect is required for any rational being to understand that serving God is the obvious decision to make. Joshua used logic and the only logical conclusion would be for God's people to decide to serve Him. Tonight, we look forward to observing the Lord's table.

I continue to have difficulty with my sermon audio uploads. Lord willing, I will soon have this morning's message uploaded. Your continued prayers for wisdom are appreciated. I updated my Mac this morning hoping that would sort the issue, but it continues. Thanks for your prayers for Southside Free Baptist Church and our family, they are much appreciated.

We are unsuprisingly busy, but God is giving grace with our scheduling. We are again doing building works as a family from the States has come over to help us for two weeks. We have begun destructing and constructing. Please pray for wisdom, strength, safety and God's rich blessing as we make his building beautiful and useful. Today we are framing in an open section between the front two halls. We have also begun some work back in the sanctuary. 

I'm having difficulty uploading to sermon audio. Please pray for wisdom how to sort that as we try to keep the preaching up to date online. I've tried rebooting my browser and switching browsers. I have not found a solution yet. It drops my upload about 20 times. :( 

Kay Lee departed early this morning for Italy and is currently in flight. Please pray for God to do a great work in her and through her while she serves with the Frank Maietta family in Grosetto.

Logan went with me as I preached in Edinburgh on Monday. I preached in one of my favourite locations in the heart of the city. (Princess St. by the Duke of Wellington statue.) God gave tremendous liberty and strength. I was able to preach for about an hour and 15 minutes. Please pray for God to continue to strengthen me as I declare His Word. It was evident to me that people were praying.

We had a visiting pastor (and his family) from the States with us on Sunday PM. We had never met Pastor David Webb before, but enjoyed getting to know him and his family. We met them on Monday and showed them some of the religious history in Edinburgh. 

Afterwards Logan stayed down there with  me and I did street preaching on Princess St. for an hour. Please pray for God to give me greater endurance. It takes a lot of energy to street preach and there are many added noise issues of busses, trams, emergency vehicles, etc. . I'd appreciate your prayers for God's enablement in that regard. 

Today I put leafletts out near our church. God gave me a couple divine appointments. Please pray for people who want to come out to have the courage to do so. Please also pray that they will overcome any obstacles in their path to get themselves there.

God has given us a great weekend of ministry. The Ladies Afternoon Tea was very well attended. We had a handful of first time visitors for our area for which we thank the Lord. The program, the food, the atmosphere was enjoyed by all and we are truly grateful to God for His goodness. 

This morning (Sunday) was a slow start to the day, but gradually we had good attendance. We also had the joy of seeing a person saved after our morning service. WE THANK THE LORD FOR HIS GOODNESS AND THAT WE WERE IN OUR PLACE SERVING GOD AND ABLE TO MEET SOMEONE'S NEED.

I preached this morning on, "If any man be in Christ." Our 3 considerations were, You must be IN CHRIST. You CAN be in Christ. You MAY NOT be in Christ. God has saved three souls in our church property thus far and we praise Him for this acceptional token of His blessing upon this facility.

As we enter this next week, we need wisdom about future projects. A family from the States is planning to be with us for most of this next month to help out with some of these needs. However, their passports are currently held up and they need them to travel. Please pray for them to receive these in the very near future and for grace for everything God would have them to do in their time with us. It will be a vacation time for them as well as a working mission trip. These are good friends of ours and we trust God will work out the details for their coming. Thank you for praying for all the happenings in our ministry and family. Kay Lee and Benson are now safely back with us. Kay Lee will leave in about a week and a half for a 5 week mission trip to Italy. Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Below: Mac was the youngest waiter yesterday.