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.

This morning I started putting out the new flyer in Bilston. Bilston is the nearest village to our new location and so I was less than a quarter mile from where we meet for church. God allowed me to get a good section of Bilston done. I put out two flyers today and will continue to do that in Bilston. I put out the information flyer as well as a Gospel flyer. Please pray for fruit from our evangelistic labours.

I forgot to say on Sunday that we had a fun first. Benson led the singing as he often does on Sunday PM. The new thing was that Logan played the piano with the congregational singing for two of our hymns. We also have Parker now setting up all of the sound equipment. It's fun to have the kids getting more involved in ministry.

It was a beautiful calm sunny morning and a great opportunity to do evangelism down in Edinburgh below Edinburgh Castle (Princess St. Gardens). God gave me several good opportunities to share the Gospel.

The first was with a young man (late 20's) waiting for his train back to his home just north of London. He's going through a tough time. I shared with him that God often reaches out to us during tough times. If that was the only conversation I had this morning, it would have been worth going down there.

The next conversation was with a Frenchman who has lived in Edinburgh for 20 years and is now in his mid 60's. He was a bad man (by his own description) in France as he owned a disco for 20 years. He said he worked with pimps, drug dealers, prostitutes.... He's changed his ways after being hit by a car while cycling on the pavement (sidewalk) a few years back. It was a turning point in his life towards believing in God. I sat on a bench with him with an open Bible and asked him how he has gotten rid of his sins. I went through the Gospel with him and more than once he said, "Ok, so how does someone get rid of their sin?" Please pray that God will open His eyes to the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. His name is the same as the main character in, "Pilgrims Progress." I encouraged him to read the book and see how C___________ was set free."

After that I had an engaging conversation with a train driver (I was down by Waverley Train Station) who was on break. He is from Perth and I told him about a good church there. He's an atheist, but his wife attends the Church of Scotland. We had a good discussion focused on the need for churches to agree with God's Word. His wife is likely unsaved. He views himself as a good person because he lives his life after the Bible though he doesn't believe in God. I tried to stress the very obvious need for true religion to agree with God's Word. He's not a believer but he knows what God's word says about marriage and sexuality. He also knows the that Church of Scotland as a denomination has rejected that. 

I sat on a bench with a man who had been homeless for 10 years. He's from Birmingham. I spoke to him of the Gospel. His mental state is not good and I hope something penetrated his brain. He's 55 but looks 75. 

I also spoke with two brothers who served in Afghanistan. They are both drunkards and alcoholics. I had witnessed to Andy before. I could not believe it when they told me they were 35 years old. You would not think they were any younger than mid 50's. Sin has destroyed their bodies. Please pray for their salvation. I prayed with them and asked God to open their eyes and set them free.

I spoke to another alcholid who was smoking. He was 49 but looked at least mid 50's. He said he likes his life, his alcohol and his drink. He said, "Why does God have a right to tell us what to do? (He claims to be atheist.)" I said, "Because he wants to keep you from being enslaved to the things that are destroying you."

I know the names of several of these people I witnessed to. They are not numbers. They are individuals who if they never accept God's gift of salvation will perish in the fires of Hell. Please pray with me for the power of God to break through in their lives. Drunkards is in the list of "such were some of you, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." - 1 Corinthians 6:11  (Please pray that God would unleash the power of His Gospel in Scotland.)

We are enjoying meeting together for all of our services. What a blessing! The Lord gave us a good Sunday. Our attendance was down as some were away and some were ill. We're praying for God to grow our church in our new location.

I preached this morning on "Golden Prayers" from the "Golden Psalm", Psalm 16. It's a messianic Psalm which gives insight into the Son's dependence upon the Father.

It was a good fellowship day as we had some of our church over for a meal. Praise the Lord for freedoms which we once took for granted.

Thanks for praying for our day. God is good.