Benson and Kay Lee have safely arrived at their destinations. Thank you for praying for them. Benson had barely enough time after a flight delay to catch his flight, but he made it! :) 

It's good to have Benson back and we're excited for Kay Lee as she gets to begin soon at Ambassador. She has a week with family before starting work training at Ambassador next week. God's good. Thanks for praying.

Our children leave the Bill Rice Ranch late this morning. Please pray for their travels. Kay Lee is heading South with family. She will be starting at Ambassador next week.

Benson is flying from Nashville to Atlanta, then to Amsterdam before heading to Edinburgh. Please pray for wisdom for him as he travels alone. (He doesn't have a device to communicate with us along the way.) 

The biggest prayer request for Benson's travel has to do with covid regulations. The government website in Scotland says that you must have proof of a negative covid test within 3 days of your departure. He has that. The information from his airline says that he must have a negative covid test within 3 days (72 hours) of his last transfer. They gave us that info too late. And, it would be almost impossible to meet that requirement. It can take up to 48 hours to get your results back. You also have to deduct his travel time. That being met, it would have been during the night that he would have needed to take his test.

So, prayer appreciated. We think what may happen is that he'll have to get a covid test along that way at an airport. 

Thanks for praying for the kids... and the parents.... as we all grow up. :) God's good. We're thankful that our kids got to serve the Lord full time this summer.

God blessed us with first time visitors this morning and this evening. This morning, I got a phone call from a young married couple. They said, "We are at the Centre and wondered if you were here." We are on Zoom on Sunday mornings. I said, "I'm looking at you from the house across the road." They were a sweet young couple from Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle. It was there one year anniversary today and they were on holiday in Edinburgh. 

They joined us for Zoom at our house. We enjoyed lunch with them as well. I praise God for a young couple who put God first in their lives. A lot of people would have made excuse and dishonoured God on His day. They honoured him  on their special day and we were blessed because of it.

Tonight the family who had the accident came to church. They have visited the boy who was injured and he is doing well. Please pray for God's leading in their lives.

Our attendance was down a bit this evening. But, God gave us a good night. We enjoyed observing the Lord's table. I preached this evening on Paul's Evangelism Work Ethic (currently uploading to Sermon Audio). We got through 3 of the 4 points. I may finish this message next week.... we shall see. Thanks for your prayers for our ministry. God's working in answer to your prayers.

Katie and I do door to door on Saturday AM's. Today there was a misty rain, so we did some blocks of flats (apartments) near us. Nobody was home at most of the first dozen properties. However, God gave us two good opportunities to share the Gospel in the end. Please pray for the man and woman at those two doors.

Our kids are traveling this weekend and we appreciate your prayers for them. Camp ends today. They have had a great summer.

We hit a milestone last night as we concluded our study of the book of Hebrews. The biggest things that stand out to me from this stuy are...

1) Our incredible privilige as priests to enter into the very presence of God through Jesus Christ and intercede for ourselves and others.

2) The power of faith as seen in the history of what that faith has accomplished. (Hebrews 11)

If you are interested, the full series is on our sermon audio page - Hebrews Series. (The series is complete except for one message where we had technical difficulties.)

Yesterday I went into Ednburhg again. I don't know if it is becauseo f the pandemic, or the weather.... I haven't done street evangelism in Edinburgh as much since the pandemic began. Ideally you want good weather as peopple will be out enjoying the sunshine. When I'm down there, I pass out literature, but I primarily want to seek divine appointments.

God gave me a couple of good opportunities yesterday. I witnessed to Iian by a statue of David Livingstone. Ian is an atheist. However, he asked some great question and I believe the Lord was working in his heart. Through a broken marriage because of sin, he see's the destructive nature of sin. He said, "You can't ever go back and fix it." He's in his mid 50's. I told him that he has potentially 40 years left to live for God.

I also enjoyed speaking to some older construction workers. They were kind and as I briefly shared the Gospel, they seemed receptive. Please pray for God to awaken these hearts. Many other people took flyers.

The most interesting thing that happened was a man who "went off" cursing a dog. He was working out and had his shirt off. With the dog were two elderly women. Thankfully, my only involvement was saying to the ladies, "I think it would be wise to move to another bench." The man had thankfully stormed off. I do pray for safety whenever I'm in the city. (The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord.)

We started to put flyers out in the village of Biggar today. This village is about 30 miles from us. Logan helped me. I guess I should be used to it as a dad, but my oldest boys are passing me in height. (I thought I'd say that before you thought about it after seeing the pic below.)

Please pray for God to do a good work in Biggar. We've prayed for this village in particular for the past 10 years. If God gives us an open door in the future, we'd like to plant a Baptist church in this village. I've put flyers out there many times.

God gave us a great Lord's day. We had a visiting family last night from down in the Borders. They drove about an hour to come to church. They are believers and it was fun to get to know them. In Sunday School we enjoyed watching a video about Eric Liddel (Torchlighters video). Another family that was on their way to church (visitors) sadly was in an accident. Praise God - God protected them. Lord willing we'll see them on another night.

Our attendance was good, thank you for praying. A couple of people still could not make it do to health issues. However, most of our people were present. Our HBC gained back a mum and child from different families. Praise the Lord! I preached on Jesus Fixes Lives from the story of the paralytic man in John 5:1-15.

Update on some prayer requests: Our visiting lady who was to be baptised has decided not to go forward. She's concerned that when winter comes she won't be able to make it to church. She was driving half an hour to come. Please pray that she'll continue to grow as a believer and find a church closer to her home.

Also, Tommy (who I spoke with a few weeks ago in front of the mall in Livingstone) did visit the Dillman's church and brought a woman with him. Please pray for wisdom for Pastor Dillman as they seek to disciple him. He's asking about baptism.

Today I went into Edinburgh and did street evangelism. Highlights - spoke with a man who said he believes in God but he is a homosexual. I had a great conversation with him although he doesn't believe in the God who gave us the Word of God. Please pray that God will awaken his heart. Similarly, I witnessed to an older woman who doesn't believe a loving God would send men to Hell. I emphasized to her what that loving God did to keep men from going to Hell. Please pray that she will agree with God. Another man, Mark, declined the flyer. I asked him a question and we entered into a conversation which lasted at least 10 minutes. In the end he took the flyer. Please pray that God will direct him. He's open....agnostic.

God's good. It's a joy and privilige to serve Him. Please pray for the power of God to break through in our church (revival) and evangelism (spiritual awakening).

It was a great week of HBC for our church. I think we had 14 kids total without counting our 2 younger children (unable to attend due to chicken pox.) We had 5 visitors in total with some perhaps able to at least visit this Sunday. Please pray that they will come.

The Lord blessed us with very good weather for every day and the spirit of the kids was great. A boy who attends our church said this morning, "I'm excited for today, but sad that it is the last day." (That was encouraging.)

Thank you for praying. We had an adult visitor today as well which was an extra blessing. Praise the Lord!

The Lord gave us a good start to our HBC and we are half way done. We had 11 children on Monday with 4 visitors. One child was a first time visitor who received a flyer. Two other children are from another church. One other visiting child is related to people in our church. Today we had 10 children. We are thankful for each one that God has given to us.

God has blessed our weather both days. It is much more fun to be able to go outside for snacktime and game time! We have enjoyed our time with the children. Thank you for praying for this week.

It's Holiday Bible Club time! We are able to get going on our HBC this morning. We are having a four day club this year. It's already interesting as our two youngest came down with chicken pox. So, sadly for them they aren't able to attend. Thankfully, they are doing well despite their itchiness. We're excited about what the Lord is going to do this week and appreciate your prayers.

God gave us a good Sunday. We had great attendance for our AM zoom service. We had good attendance that evening as well. Our treasurer, Tommy, was unable to attend as he and his wife are in mandatory isolation. Their son-in-law has covid and they were in close contact with him. Lord willing, Tommy will be able to help with the last day of our HBC.

I preached a message on prayer entitled, "Ringing Heaven's Bell." The text was a prayer of David in Psalm 86. There was a really good spirit Sunday night. Margaret, our new attendee, is going to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. She's excited and is going to have the friend that led her to the Lord with her on that night. Please pray for good weather on 8 August.

Thank you for your prayers. We'll let you know how things get on this week.