This morning I took bus into Edinburgh and did evangelism. I prayed about where to get off of the bus and prayed that the Lord would lead me to some people who had questions.

God answered both prayers as I got off unexpectedly a stop early. I immediately had a great conversation that I would not have otherwise have had. A man was waiting to deliver goods and he had some good questions. Please pray for him as he said that he will email me.

The next opportunity was with a young man who had grown up in Mormonism and has rejected it.... and God. He had some good questions and engaged in a conversation despited being on holiday. We spoke for at least 15 minutes and I hope that God will prick his heart to let the BIBLE be his guide back into true religion.

The next young lady may have been the best opportunity. She came from China one year ago to study in Edinburgh. She also had some very specific questions and we spoke for close to half an hour. She put Katie's phone number into her phone and I hope that we will see her visit the church. I also showed her a Bible app which I hope she will download. She will be in Scotland another year.

The final opportunity was with two tourists on holiday from London. This young couple comprises a woman who got saved 10 years ago and a man who two months ago started to attend her Pentecostal church. He said that they will visit our church on their next trip up here. He said that they frequently come up to Edinburgh. 

Thanks for praying for divine appointments. God's hand was evident.

Tonight Logan (15) quoted all 5 books in the book of James. If you would like to watch the video it is 15 minutes long.

Two years ago I challenged our kids to memorize that book for a financial award. :) He took me up on it and quoted it for our family this week. He kindly shared it with our church family tonight as well. We're proud of his diligence to commit this to memory. I gave him another challenge and he's already started working on memorizing the Sermon on the Mount. Please pray that God will bless his Scripture memory and use it for His glory.

I am thankful to the Lord for His grace to complete a verse by verse study of the book of Romans. We began in June 2018, had a pandemic and two lockdowns, a 3 month furlough, etc. Without those interuptions we would have been done a wee bit sooner. The final lesson was lesson 106. It was a rich study and I'm thankful for the spiritual blessing we received from it. 

We've had some illness this past week in our family and another family in our church. Katie has not be able to go to church the past two times (Wednesday and today) as we had illness with our kids. Thankfully the child she stayed home with this morning has bounced back this afternoon. Please pray that we can get beyond the bugs as they affect not just our family but our church. (We can't collect children for church and do our children's ministry if Katie isn't there.)

We also had a woman who's mother passed away. Please pray for God's grace to encourage her heart and strengthen her during this time of loss.

This morning I preached on 1 Kings 18:41-46 on Prophetic Faith. We need men and women of prophetic faith (Elijah was a man) who come as he came to God in prayer. 

We have not yet heard anything from the council (county) with regard to our land inquiry. We did complete the purchase of our minibus and should have it delivered by Wednesday of this week. Please pray that we can fill it with people who want to attend our church.

Praise the Lord, our facebook livestream is flowing again. The problem was the wifi at the church location. It is now working and we were able to livestream last night. Technology is great WHEN it works. :)

Yesterday Pastor Dillman and I had a profitibable time putting out flyers in his area. God gave us a couple divine appointments. One was with a couple from Europe. (I would guess they were Polish.) He's English was not very good. She was conversant and we spoke for a few minutes before they had to leave. He became a bit beligerant and said, "Who pays you? You could NOT work for one week in my job at Tesco (grocery store.)" I didn't mind - it gave something to chuckle about the rest of the time we were out. (Thanks for "paying me" - if you are a supporter... I really do try to work hard.... though I'm concerned that I wouldn't make it one week at Tesco.) lol (Who knows? Maybe he is right!)

The other opportunity was the best as I was able to have a bit of a heart to heart with a dad, mum and 8 year old. It wasn't a long conversation but I sensed that God was touching the heart of the man. Please pray that they will seek genuine faith that works.

I just put out flyers in our area and had a wonderful short conversation with a young mother. She's interested in getting her children to church. Please pray that they will come.

Thank you for praying for our ministry and family. Much appreciated!

We fell back an hour this morning and so the USA is an hour closer in time until the US time change takes place. It was great to see everyone a few minutes early for church. I thought it was coincidental until I remembered the extra hour. :) There was a good spirit and we had a fun morning at church.

I enjoyed preaching this morning on, "Treasure These." There are many things that we can live for, but only a few things that are worth living for. This message focused on 5 things we ought to set our heart about because God will reward these things. Jeremiah 31 was our starting point "for your work shall be rewarded" and Jesus words, "For where your treasure is there will your heart be also" put us onto a textual study of true treasure.

This evening we are going to do something different from our normal routine and enjoy watching, "Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution."

Thank you for praying for our day. God's hand was evident.

Point of interest: COP26 (world conference on "climate change") is taking place 40 miles from her in Glasgow. 50 world leaders are staying in Edinburgh. President Biden and President Obama will be among the many attendees.

Monday was a study day as I needed to travel on Tuesday to see the vehicle. However, I was able to get out in the afternoon for a wee bit. God gave me two divine appointments. One was with an 18 year old young man and the other is a friend in the community. Please pray that God will work in both these hearts. I spoke with the young man for 10 minutes or so and he kindly took a John and Romans.

Monday evening, I took Benson into the heart of Edinburgh for his driver's theory test. Praise the Lord he passed. It was late at night (8pm) but I did evangelism and people were very good to take the literature. I also witnessed to one young lady who was on a work break.

Tommy, Callum (17) and myself went over to view the vehicle. It's very nice and I think it will work well for our church. We plan to purchase this vehicle. It still needs to pass it's MOT (annual check) be serviced and then they will deliver it over here. We're excited about this tool and trust that we will be able to well us it for the Lord.

We had a youth activity last night with 4 teen boys (including our 3) and 1 teen girl out for the activity. We also had two college students. One of them spoke. We had a great time.

I just got back from putting out a couple hundred more flyers. The flyer we are currently putting out shares the new location of the church. Please continue to pray with us for visitors who will either come on their own, or contact us for a ride. 

We appreciate your prayers and thank God for His leading with regard to the vehicle. These are VERY difficult to find.

About the vehicle: made by GM (Renault Master) 2012, 17 seats including the driver, 88k miles, diesel.

For some reason recently I find myself longing for the Lord to send us HELP in audio visual areas. :) One of the difficulties of temporary facilities is setting up and taking down. Parker (13) is doing an excellent job assembling all of our equipment (connecting the speakers, piano, camera and mics to a mixer.) The last two times we've tried livestreaming we've lost our connection between the phone (control) and the mevo (camera.) Please pray that we can sort this. We may have figured it out....for the technical people out there - we think it was a problem with bluetooth connections.

The other difficulty we've had twice recently is the volume control on our recordings. Again, I THINK we have figured it out. Your prayers about our technical issues would be much appreciated. :) Lord willing, this too shall pass.

In other great news, we may have found a vehicle. Another man and I will go see it on Tuesday. This vehicle is closer to us as it is in Dumfries, Scotland about 2 hours away. 

God gave us a good Sunday despite the technical issues. I preached a message on 4 basic tests we need to pass in our Christianity. I called it, "Christianity 101." The text was 2 Corinthians 13. The 4 tests are (Salvation, Submission, Sanctification and Expansion.)

Evangelism went well this past week. I put out flyers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Katie and I did door to door yesterday. We had one pretty good opportunity to share the Gospel.

A special thank you to, Pastor Jonathan McClure, down on the Southern tip of England. He viewed a potential vehicle for us. That vehicle sold on Ebay bid for 500 more than we were willing to pay. I'm thankful for his willingness to help us out as we pursue God's will for a vehicle.

Thank for your prayers. They are much appreciated!

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.