It was good to get back out street preaching in Edinburgh today. God blessed us with grace and strength. Tommy has been battling a chest infection for almost 3 months. He was fit to go out this morning and we are grateful. 

For the first time we had more than verbal opposition to the preaching. A young lady kicked our speaker sending it tumbling and breaking the wireless receiver. Please pray for grace for that young lady and for God to continue to help us to get out His message to people He deeply desires to save.

Also, work has begun on replacing the flat roof on our church building. This is an exciting step as it was one of the big projects we knew needed to be done. Thanks for praying.

We have a praise tonight as a lady trusted Jesus as her Saviour this evening. We are thrilled at God's goodness and so is she. Please pray for God to help her grow in His grace and in the knowledge of His Son Jesus.

God blessed us with a good morning despite time change being today. We sprang forward into British Summer Time and still had good attendance. Praise the Lord. It was especially fun to see the children outside playing on our playground after the morning service. The fellowship inside with the parents was refreshing as well.

I preached this morning on, "Get Ready for God to Work" from the story of Cornelious. A lot of things happened which prepared for His conversion and that of his friends and family. Many of those things which happened are under the control of man and not God. They were things that were done by obedient men which made it possible for God to do a great work. There was a good spirit in our services today and I praise God for our church family.

Thank you for praying for our family and ministry. We need it! And, God IS answering your prayers.

We passed a milestone yesterday as it was the anniversary of our arrival in Scotland. God has be SOOOO GOOOOD to us and we praise Him for His many blessings. We love where God has put us in his harvest field.

Today was a fun church work day. Most of our church family were out to help us and it was time well spent together. We also are making good progress on the property. We've stripped a lot of wall paper in the front hall and are getting ready to redecorate. I'm sure that construction will be more exciting than destruction but much work that needed doing has been done. We also put up a couple of church signs which makes people aware that we have taken ownership. Exciting times!

Thankfully, the utility situation is resolved. We appreciate your prayers. This was always going to be interesting with this property and we're thankful for God's help in overcoming this hurdle.

Also, we have some works planned for our church building. A contractor will be replacing our flat roof and some other improvements to that roof including insulation. We're also going to have an electrician doing some work on the property. Please pray for good weather this Saturday as our church is doing a work day. We've got some painting plans inside and out (fencing.) Wall paper is also to be removed.  

The Lord provided a good deal on 5 large planters which will look nice in front of the church. We're also putting up some signage. So, things are happening!

Tomorrow is a day of prayer in Blair Atholl with some minister friends. It's always a refreshing time and I am looking forward to it. We have canceled it two weeks in a row due to bad weather. Thankfully, we have the all clear for tomorrow. Your prayers for God's blessing are appreciated.

There have been many extra things to do the last several weeks. But, God allowed us to get back into evangelism this week for which I am thankful. We put out our new leaflet on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday Katie and I enjoyed knocking on the doors of the church neighbours. God has put us in a delightful neighbourhood and it was a joy to meet many of the neighbours. Some have lived there for 50-60 years. 

Some of the extra duties this week were applications to change the name and use of our property. We continue to have a utiltity prayer requests and would appreciate you asking for God's provision and guidance. This next Saturday we also have a church work day and would appreciate prayers for a productive day.

God gave us a good Mother's Day Sunday this morning. For this special day, I preached a message entitled, "The Farmer's Wife" a message about Ruth. Ruth was not a mother in the story, but she becomes the great grand mother of King David. Her character, like that of David's wife, Abigail,  is a wonderful study of Godly womanhood. Our attendance was good. Praise the Lord.

Thank you for upholding our ministry in prayer. Many of our people need God's encouragement and strengthening. It seems to have been a very dark winter in Scotland this year with many needing inner strengthening. Thanks for your prayers for what God is doing at Southside Free Baptist Church.

Below are some pics from our family fun day this past week at Stirling Castle.

We had a delightful weekend with Fausto and Maria Pia D'Amelio. (Pronounced, "Dah-mail-yo") They came back to our home on Friday and flew back to Italy today. If you have a church ministry in Europe, I highly recommend this couple for your consideration. It is my hope that God will allow our church to add them to our missions family.

The D'Amelio's will be starting a church near where Fausto grew up. In Italy as in Scotland, most Independent Baptist Churches are pastored by American missionaries. It is a great joy to meet a national couple called of God to establish churches in their home nation. Please pray for God to raise up committed men in Scotland who are called of God to the ministry and to church planting.

Before they left, Fausto and Maria Pia helped me start distributing our new church flyer. We're excited about this flyer. It has our church information on the front and the Gospel on the back. Please pray for God to greatly use this simple invitation and Gospel witness to open doors and hearts for God's glory.

Well, this has been a very busy, but productive week. We were able to get our utilities sorted on Monday. On Tuesday I met the contractor at the church and went through the building. Wednesday Don Dillman and I were able to get out to do some outreach. Thursday an Italian national church planter and his wife (D'Amelio's) arrived in Edinburgh. I collected them at the airport and they stayed with our family. 

On Friday we drove up to Aberdeen to take the D'Amelio's to their first meeting today at Open Door Baptist in Aberdeen. We also received 51 very nice chairs from that sister church. We arrived back just in time for our first youth activity on our church property. Also on Friday electicians and roofers viewed the property. :) 

God's been very good to help us with our busy schedule. Lord willing, life will somewhat slow down this week.

Our attendance was down this morning. One man in our church has a lung infection and I know that some children are also ill. Please pray for their soon recovery. Next week is our missions Sunday with the missionaries.

I preached a message from Ezra 8 on how to have a successful physical and spiritual journey. This passage has really encouraged my heart with regard to what God has led us to do. It was a joy to share it with our church.

Thanks for your prayers! We definitely need them. :)

We are already feeling at home in our building as we had our first services this morning. God is so very good to His children. It's been a journey of faith and we have seen God lead every step of the way. We know that we have MUCH more to follow Him through, but it is a blessing to have arrived at our church home location.

I enjoyed preaching on a great story of our Great God and a man of faith, Jonathan. Jonathan didn't think God was limited because he didn't have an army. He didn't think God needed an army to do something great.  Jonathan and His armour bearer went up in the will of God and wrought for God.

The Lord gave us good attendance and an adult visitor as well. That was a blessing.

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to get settled into our church home. We'll begin making refurbishment plans this week.

Our church property is clean and ready for meetings to start. We set up in the front hall as we make plans to renovate the back hall for our church auditorium.