We were able to submit pre-application plans yesterday on the property of interest. Our desire in doing this is that 1) Without paying anything we can see if the counsel will grant us permission to put a church on this site. 2) They will advise us on what we should do when we apply to make it a successful application. Please pray for God's perfect will even if it is "dissappointing" to us.

IF it is an open door with regard to permissions, please then pray for God's provision to purchase the property. We not only need permission, we need God to supply the need.

The third thing we are praying about (and most importantly) is for God to strengthen our church numerically and spiritually. I'm praying that God will have us at an average attendance of 50 when we move into our property. We are currently in the mid 20's in weekly attendance.

 Thank you for praying with us. (Below is an idea of what we'd like to build.)

The above is my favourite quote from this morning. I had one opportunity to engage with a lady from our community. It was a short conversation as she walked past to her home. She said, "All you can do is raise your kids to be good." I said, "Well, I'm seeking to raise my kids to be godly and there is a difference." She said, "Well my kids would help anyone." I said, "I don't men this in a bad way, but a lot of people in prison would help anyone, but they made a mistake." She said, "I've got to go, but you are good at what you do!" :)

Please pray for God to work in people's hearts about coming out to church. Change is always difficult. We are re-establishing our service schedule in a new location. 

God gave me a weather window this morning and the rain set in just as I was finishing. Thank you for praying for our family and ministry.

The frost has fallen this past week and autumn is really evident as the leaves turn and fall from the tree. Praise God for beauty in death. 

Thank you for praying for the day of prayer. God gave us a great season of prayer. It's the type of prayer time where you leave feeling like a burden has been lifted. Thank you for asking God to bless that day.

Brother Don Dillman and I put out flyers in his area on Wednesday. We had some short conversations with people who were out in their front gardens (yards.)

The Lord put on my heart to repreach a message on depression for our Sunday AM service. And so, I preached on Elijah's depression from 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19 is proof positive that Elijah really was subject to like passions as we are and yet he was a great man of faith. The message was, "From Depression to Refreshment" considering some potential causes and potential cures for depression.

Scotland is a dark country in the winter months. Our day light ours decrease AND our weather can be pretty grey. It is also a spiritually dark country with intense spiritual battles. I believe that the majority of people in Scotland battle depression. Praise God that we have help that unbelievers sadly do not have. Please pray for God to keep our church family encouraged in Him.

You are a blessing to our church. Thank you for following along and for your prayers for God to work in our ministry. May God richly bless you on this Lord's day.

I got out this morning with our new church location flyer. Don Dillman and I began putting it out in Loanhead last Wednesday. With today and last week, around 500 flyers have gone out. Please pray for God to touch the hearts of people to visit our church. God's blessed us with a good facility and we hope to see the church grow. We appreciate your prayers about that.

Also, tomorrow is a day of prayer in Blair Atholl. We've moved this up to every other month. Please pray for the power of God in our prayer time and for safety for the men as they travel. 5 of us are planning to attend.

Minibus update - our church voted to spend up to £12k on a minibus with tax, insurance, and VAT (sales tax - 20 percent) included.  It is proving to be a very difficult search. Please continue to pray for God to provide a 17 minibus with an automatic transmission. I'm diligently looking.

Land of interest update - we're going to put in a pre-application advise query to see if we are likely to get permission to build a church on that property. Please pray for wisdom as we fill out the form and for God to guide us as we seek His leading regarding this property.

God's creation is really shining today as our leaves really begin to turn. It's beautiful and a good reminder of the fun of changing seasons. 

God gave us a good Sunday despite low attendance. We looked at Jonah 3 in our morning service as I preached on, "A Good Turn." The message was on Biblical repentance. We need to turn to God in order for God to turn His wrath away from us. God would rather give us mercy, if we'll change our minds to agree with Him. 

God was faithful to encourage our hearts in Him this morning. Thank you for praying for our church family and ministry.

It was a fresh, sunny, autumn morning and a great opportunity to do evangelism on the streets in Edinburgh. God blessed me with a great morning of outreach. It began before I could even get into Edinburgh. The bus stop from our village is about a 10 minute walk. I offered a ride to a new neighbour and he actually rode with me a few miles away to a Park and Ride. We had a good discussion on our way there. It was nice to meet him.

Near Waverley Train Station I engaged a 30 year old man in conversation and he was very happy to talk. He believes God's Word is good for society, but said that he does not believe in God. About 15 minutes into our conversation, I said, "I don't want to make you miss your transportation." He said, "I'm waiting on my train but have another 20 minutes." We used all of that time and had a great talk. Please pray for Joshua to visit our church. If that was the only reason I was in Edinburgh this morning, that would have been enough.

I met a 35 year old man from Hong Kong. I invited him to visit our church. He is new to Scotland and I wouldn't be surprised to see him come. He was very grateful for the invite. (I told him he could join our family for a meal if he came on a Sunday morning.)

Another favourite opportunity this morning was with a young muslim girl (16). She is attending college. We had a great conversation about judicial forgiveness. (Islam teaches that if you say sorry, you are forgiven. However, there is no justice as the sin was never paid for by anyone. Jesus death made judicial forgiveness possible.) This young lady asked if it would be ok for her to wear her hijab at our church. I told her that it would be completely fine. She also put my wife's contact details in her phone. Please pray that she will come.

The last opportunity was random. A college age young man refused the tract saying he was Catholic. (He is from California.) I said, "This is just Bible truth" and we started talking. He began with, "There is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church." I responded that there is no salvation outside of Jesus. He was very antagonistic but the Spirit of God gave some great moments in our conversation. Such as the two times he walked away but came back. I said, "Peter was married." He got upset and started to walk away until I said, "Jesus healed his mother in law." I also pointed out that if Peter was in Rome Paul would have greet him in the book of Romans in Chapter 16. If ommitted it would be a surprising ommission indeed. The second time he walked a long ways away was when I said, "Baptism does not save." I had to yell after him, "The thief on the cross." He came back and I said, "He repented and put his faith in Jesus. He was a thief (bad man) and he wasn't baptised." (Please pray that God will awaken the heart of this young man.) The Apostle Paul would have been more fiery than him, but God had a plan for Paul's life.

Thanks for praying for our outreach. God was definitely guiding in the conversations and opportunities - praise His name.

God gave us a great morning. We had two college age young ladies join us for Sunday School this morning. They are our first visitors at our new location. Praise the Lord and thank you for your prayers about that. We also had a woman who visited our previous location out to the morning service at our new location. She really enjoyed being back with us and stayed for our fellowship meal after the morning service. 

She commented on how easy it is to hear at our new location. One problem in our former location was that it had a very strong echo. The new location has great sound qualities. We've also invested in new speakers with a mixer. The mixer allows us to run multiple mics, have bluetooth connectivity for any media, play the piano sounds through the speaker, etc. The other thing we added was a new wireless mic. If you haven't heard our service in a while, the quality of our recording is much better. Please pray for us as we seek to give God our best in areas of technology.

I enjoyed preaching this morning on Psalm 116, Giving Back to God.  David looks at what God has done in his life and asks the question in v.12 "What can I render unto the LORD for all His benefits towards me?" It's a great question to often ponder as we consider, what we have given, what we are giving and what were are going to give to God.

Thank you for praying for our church family. God is working in answer to your prayers.

God gave us some wonderful opportunities as we knocked on doors this morning. We met 3 young families and some other young people. Please pray as we are seeking to see God grow His church. We are praying specifically for visitors at our new location. We're also praying for visitors who will become a faithful part of our church.

This Sunday we are going to enjoy a fellowship meal after the morning service. We're excited as we haven't been able to do this very often since covid. Thanks for praying for our church.

Tommy helped me today as we put out a Gospel flyer and the information flyer in Bilston. Thankfully the weather held and we had a dry morning. It started raining ten minutes after we got back.

God gave us one divine appointment with a man in his mid 30's. Please pray that God will help Him to realize that what we said is true. I'm sure he is thinking about things now that would not have been on his mind earlier.

God is good. His Word does not return void. As Tommy said as we returned, "It feels good to get out again." It does feel good to get out with the Gospel. Thanks for praying.

The weather is refreshing today and we had a refreshing morning. The attendance was a bit better, but we still have some out who are ill. I enjoyed preaching a message this morning on Matthew 14, Walking on Water. (currently uploading) The impossible IS possible when Jesus bids you come. Please pray for God to increase the duration of our faith.

We haven't yet seen a visitor at our new location. We're hoping and praying to see that change in the near future. Thanks for praying. God gave us a good morning.