God blessed our Carol Sing service and our Christmas day service. It was fun to see numbers of guests present for both services.

On Christmas day, we enjoyed a baby dedication at the end of the morning service. That seemed appropriate as the message that morning was on Jesus being dedicated unto the Lord at the temple.

This coming Saturday (New Year's Eve) we are showing the film, Sheffey. Thank you for praying for these special events.

It is so good to have our daughter back from the States. Kay Lee arrived here on Sunday morning. Her flight was delayed and so she missed SS but got here in time for the AM service. We are enjoying some very good family time.

Sunday was a good day. We had a few people away because of illness and treachorous ice. However, our attendance was good. I enjoyed preaching on the Gospel in Bethlehem from Luke 2.

Today is a special ministry day as well. We took a group of 10 down to Princess St. and handed out Christmas flyers and candy canes. I street preached focusing on the Christ of Christmas. Tonight Katie is hosting a ladies' Christmas tea at our home. There are going to be a lot of fun activies, Christmas goodies and focus on the nativity. We have two more Christmas ministry dates. On Christmas Eve we are having our annual Christmas Carol Sing service. On Christmas day we are having a morning service. Thank you for praying for these special events.

Because of the jet stream and the gulf stream, Scotland has a moderate climate. Our temperatures fluctuate between 33 and 65 degrees. Anything outside of those parameters is unusual. When I ran this morning it was 19 degrees. We've also have some beautiful snow on the ground and the boys have enjoyed "sledging" (British english) on our golf course hills. 

God blessed us with a good services yesterday despite heavy snow early on and temperatures plummeting. The new temporary location works really well. I enjoyed starting the Christmas story yesterday. We looked at the three main characters, Mary, Joseph and Jesus from Matthew 1, "The Story Above All Stories." We had good attendance with just a few of our regulars unable to make it out. Thank you for praying for our services.

I snapped a picture last night as Benson was leading the singing. We're going to miss him when he departs. We'll also be losing a song leader. I'm happy to lead singing, but it's been nice having him take that responsability off me. Thanks for praying for our family as the kids grow up and leave home.

Yes, we are rejoicing in the Lord tonight. God has done great things for us whereof we are glad. There is still much to pray about, but the question regarding a permanent location has been answered.

We increased our offer and within a couple hours had confirmation back from the seller that the offer had been accepted. We want to thank all of you for your faithful prayers about this prayer request. Some of you have been praying with us about this for 6 or 7 years. THANK YOU!

I spoke for quite some time with the representative for the seller yesterday. It was a profitable discussion and one which I hope will allow us to negotiate a fair price on that property. We will likely increase our offer tomorrow. Lord willing, we will hear a formal response after their business meeting next Wednesday. 

We are very interested in obtaining this property and trust that God will bless our efforts in that regard. 

It's been a good week. We enjoyed meeting in our new temporary location last night. It's going to work well for us until we either obtain this property or find a more suitable let. God's been very good to us and we can see His hand guiding us. Thank you for praying.

We heard back from the "seller/company" today. Our contact in the company has a meeting with the managing director tomorrow. He said that he will bring up the sale with him and see if he can get us a response. I will let you know once I hear what they have decided.

I put out flyers this morning and had a good divine appointment. An older man spoke with me. He lamented that the churches are empty. The church where he was married is closed. I told him that we are open and encouraged him to visit. Please pray that God will do a great work in John's life.

We were blessed with good attendance this morning and a great time of fellowship after the morning service. We have enjoyed having a cafe area for Sunday PM fellowships which we enjoy every Sunday. This morning we had a meal together after the morning service.  It was good tasting and it was good for our church family to be together.

Everyone is excited and thankful for God's provision of a new location. We begin there this coming Wednesday.

I preached this morning from Joel 2 a message which I titled, "A Solemn Assembly." Interestingly, Joel gives a guide to making God jealous to do great things for His people. My points were, Alert the people, Stop the people, Sober the people, Congregate the people, Sanctify the people, Prioritise the people, and plead for the people. 

Sadly, solemn assemblies of serious people seeking God is not a popular church model in our day. Please pray for God to awaken hearts and that we would sincerely turn to Him as He intends. It was a very good morning.

The Lord gave us 3 really good conversations as we knocked on doors yesterday. I'm thankful for my wife and her participation in our ministry. We enjoy doing soul winning together.  

God has provided a wonderful new place for us to meet starting this next week.  Thank you for your part in seeing God supply our need while they renovate our current location. The new location is only half a mile from our current location and closer to Loanhead where our church started.

Please continue to pray about our property of desire. We have not yet heard back regarding our offer.

What a beautiful (but cold) day to preach on Princess St. in Edinburgh! It was about 1 degree C  (33 F) when we got going this morning around 10:30. But, the sun was out and it was not windy at all. Both of those stats are more rare than we could wish. It was ideal for street preaching. 

The place we preached is one of our favourites. It sits at a very buys pedestrian cross roads (North Bridge and Princess St.) in a very busy shopping district in Edinburgh. A mall, the St. James Quarter, is just around the corner. The Apple Store is right beside us. Waverley Train Station is nearly across from us and so the footfall is very high. This is an ideal place in these colder months when people are not sitting as much outside.

God continually gives us encouragment when we are out. A young man stopped to visit with us. He is 20 and he just got saved this past year. He was baptised in October. It's great to see His love for the Lord and hear a bit of his testimony. Someone stopped into their work and asked if anyone wanted to do some Bible study lessons. He thought, "Why not try something different?" He did and God brough him to faith in Jesus.

There were some times this morning when it seemed very quiet except for the preaching of God's Word. I very much appreciate and need your prayers as I preach on the Street. Only God can awaken men's hearts and I need His enablement. Thank you for praying for both Tommy and myself. Tommy hands out literature while I am preaching. He also speaks with anyone who has a question or comment. Thanks for praying.

We enjoyed a good morning physically and spiritually this morning. Some that had been ill were back with us and we had a good time around the Word of God. It's also been a sunny calmer day and that is a blessing as well.

I preached this morning on Ezekiel 22:23-31. The text includes that which was preached the night God called me to preach some 25 years ago. "And I sought for a man among them, which should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, BUT I FOUND NONE." It is a convicting text, but God used an illlustration of the preacher to answer a specific prayer I had prayed and God clearly directed me into the ministry. The preacher was Evangelist Tom Ferrel.

I preached this morning on the judgment of God against an unclean land which was conspiring against Him and which was without anyone intervening. Scotland is not Israel, but she has had more Christian priviliges than most countries. My prayer is that we (born again believers) would be effective in standing in the gap interceding for this nation and all of these people.

We had one lighter moment this morning as a 3 year old escaped from his class towards the end of my message and assaulted (tried to climb) the platform. His dad finally caught him. Last week it was a window washer trying to wash our windows during the invitation time. :)

Thanks for praying for our ministry. God gave us a great day.