God has answered several prayers regarding our desire to find a permanent location. First of all, He has given us a great temporary location to rent on a monthly  basis. Secondly, He allowed us to see the church building that will likely be put on the market. It is beautiful. I'll put some pics below and I have no doubt that you will agree. However, it fails to meet a lot of the criteria about which we are praying. Here is my property/ building prayer list...in no particular order.

Beautiful - it should glorify God on the outside and inside.

Functional - it must meet the needs of our congregation. Children's ministry is important. We need classroom and function space.

Affordable - we must be able to afford to purchase the land/ property.

Visible - it needs to be in a location where it testifies of God's goodness and stands as a Gospel light for the community.

Maintainable - we have to be able to afford to maintain the property.

Expandable - we need to plan for future growth.

Durable - it needs to be built well to withstand weather and use.

The 1885 church building is beautiful, however we would struggle to maintain it. It also does not have classroom space and is not in a visible location. God answered prayer allowing us to view the property, although we do not believe the property is for us.

God answered prayer in another regard today. Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2:00 I am meeting the owner of the land in which we are interested. Please pray for God's guidance and provision if a land purchase in His leading. It's an answer to prayer that we were able to find the owner, get into contact with him and arrange this meeting. Thanks for praying.

We are back to normal....well a new normal anyway! We praise God that we are back to normal service times all in one location where we can MEET IN PERSON. Praise the Lord! It is great to be meeting together again. One man who has not been in church since the pandemic was back with us this morning. He isn't young and it wasn't easy for him to get out in the evening. It is good that we can now offer a morning service. It was great to have him back.

Our attendance was good and everyone enjoyed the new location. It is a great facility for our church and fits us very well. It's going to be a blessing for as long as God has us here.

I preached a message this morning on the Milestone we have achieved and the need to acknowledge what God has done. Our text was Joshua 4 as we looked at, "Setting up signs of victory." (uploading currently) Your prayer is appreciated as our church adapts back to our old schedule in a new location. God gave us a blessed morning. Thank you for praying.

Well, here we go. Please pray for God to help us clearly identify our new location for anyone who would like to visit. Part of that is distributing a new flyer with our updated information. The Lord helped me to put it together today. Here is what we are going to put out. The actual size of half a sheet of paper. I've ordered 5,000 flyers.

For those who have wondered about our location. I made a map for the flyer. Loanhead was our original location. Auchendinny was our second location following covid. The star on the map marks our third location where we start holding services this Sunday. (Loanhead and Auchendinny are 3 miles apart.)

Don and I put out flyers in a village which is about 15 minutes from our new church location. In case you are wondering, the new location is a mile from Loanhead (our original location.) It is close to a sister village of Bilston although it is on a Edinburgh University Campus.

God gave two really good divine appointments today. One was with a man who believes, "There is something." The other was with a young man (18) who is trusting in his goodness. Please pray for God's fruit to be born into these men's hearts.

I'm very excited to say that our final zoom meeting is this evening. Our church has responded well to being on zoom and I've never heard a complaint regarding it. We're thankful that God gave it to us for such a time as this. However, it is with great joy we prepare to meet in person for all of our services.

This Sunday, we are taking a love offering for a church minibus (van.) Lord wiling, I will soon be able to share of God's provision of a vehicle. We will be able to keep it parked at our new church location. Thanks for praying with us and for us.

I needed to take today as a utility day. There are several extra things on my "to do" list as we get ready to change locations this coming Sunday. I ordered a large banner for the front of the church. I also ordered all of our outdoor signage for our posters directing people to the building and into the building. 

Today I worked on getting the new address onto all of our online pages. (webpage, facebook page, sermon audio page, google maps, etc.) We also moved our things into a cupboard on the new property. Praise the Lord we won't have to put things into and out of vehicles. While we were there, we set up the church to get pictures for our advertising. I've just promoted an add on facebook. Please pray for God's help as we seek to direct people to our new location.

Thanks for praying as we prepare to restart our old schedule in this new location.

Well, it is kind of fun to be at a point of change. We enjoy our current location. However, we had to do upside down Sunday (Sunday School and main service in the evening) and zoom on Sunday AM and Wednesday PMs. We are ready to get back to a normal schedule with all LIVE services.

We had low attendance tonight due to a variety of things. However, we had a good service. I preached a message on, "Biblical Separation" from 2 Corinthians 6:15-7:1 (uploading currently). We have a lot of "itchy ear" believers in our day, but it is our prayer to have a church that preaches "sound doctrine" even if people leave. Please pray for the power of God and transformed lives in and through our ministry. We'd dearly love to see people set free from their old life and living a new life in Christ.

We had a good Sunday. Thank you for praying for our church. We have one remaining zoom service on Wednesday night. After that, we are in our new location.

God has provided a new rental location where we can have all services. This is exciting as we wait on God for a permanent church home.

This location is definitely part of the, "Great and Mighty things which thou knowest not." I'm very familiar with our area, but was completely unaware of this property. I walk past it frequently and often see the sign, "Retail space available, inquire within." What the sign does not say is, "There is a perfect place for your church to meet."

I enquired and they have allowed us to meet there on a month by month basis. Please pray for God's blessing as we get back to our normal church schedule. We are very excited to be able to offer our kids club on Wednesday nights and to FINALLY GET OFF OF ZOOM. (Although we are thankful that we've had zoom, it is NOT the same as meeting together.)

Also, we are scheduled to view the church property (which may be sold) on 11 September. Please pray for wisdom to know if that property would be suitable.

We are still waiting to hear back on a price on the land. 

Here are some pics of our new location starting on the 12 September.

Tommy went with me for our last outreach in Biggar. Everyone in Biggar has now received a flyer. We had a couple short opportunities to speak with people but no real opportunities to verbally share the Gospel. Please pray that God will work in the hearts of those who received the flyers.

We are still working on discerning the Lord's mind regarding a different rental property. The price came back high and I am seeing if that is negotiable. I believe it is. Please pray that we will know the Lord's mind.

Also, we are going to be able to see the church building in the near future. They have not officially decided to sell this property. However, we want to know if it is a viable option for a future home for the church. Thank you for your prayers.

PS. Screen shot of biggar.

God blessed us with a good Sunday. Our attendance was down, however, we had a sweet spirit in our time together and were encouraged in the Lord. I enjoyed preaching a message on finding the will of God and doing it - Buy The Land, Jeremiah 32.

Our church may be on that brink of having all services in one location and NOT on zoom. (Can I hear and, "Amen?") :) God has been good to give us grace to be on zoom. Our church family has endured, but as you would imagine, zoom is not ideal. We are very excited about this potential and should know very soon if this is certain.

Our church is also praying for a 17 seat minibus (van). Our family has collected peopel for 11 years with our vehicles. However, our bigger vehicle has been full lately and we'd like to increase our capacity to bring people to church. Please pray with us about this. Manual vehicles are by far the most common. We'd like to get an automatic as it would allow for us to have more drivers available. It really is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So, please pray for God's provision and wisdom. 

No more information is currently available about the property. I'm still waiting to hear back from the owner to see what price they are seeking on the property. Thank you for your prayers for all of the above. We often see the answers to your intercession and praise God for your impact at Free Baptist Church in Scotland.

We were successful this morning in making contact with the group which owns the land of interest. Our prayer has been that we would at least get in touch with them and find out if they have any interest in selling us this property. Your prayers are appreciated as we wait to see what God will do in this instance. 

Yesterday Don and I were back out in Biggar putting out flyers. I should finish distributing flyers there the next time I go. We appreciate your prayers for fruit from our labours.

updated : I sent the following update to our church.

Dear Church Family,

I was able to get in touch with the owner of the property at the top of the Glencorse Golf Course.

He was very kind and they are open to selling it. He asked me what price and I said that I was thinking £150K. (They bought it in 2016 for £119K.) He said that we'd probably have to increase that significantly. I asked him if they could please come up with a price and I would see what we could do.

Please pray that if God wants us to get the property, He would help us....

1) To have favour in the eyes of the sellers (committee.)

2) To get exactly the price of His chosing.

3) To see Him provide the finances we need to purchase the land and build.

God is able. He is working. He has heard our prayers (last night included) and He is leading,

Pastor Ben