I actually got hot today as I put out flyers. This has been a cool summer, but not unusual for us. We've not had any days over 70 yet. However, my thermometer says, "69.9" just now. :) 

After last summer in the States, I'm thankful (as many of you would be) to have cooler temps. At least when you are cold you can put on a jacket!

I had a divine appointment this morning with two young men. Evangelist Jonathan Washer, myself and Benson, spoke with them both in Loanhead about 4 years ago. God has helped me keep one of these young men's names in my mind and I have had multiple follow up opportunities.

He really engaged with me today and I'm praying that God will open His eyes. It reminds me of what Isaiah said, "Having eyes they see not, having ears they hear not (paraphrase.)" Please pray that the God of this world will lose and that these two young men will trust in Jesus. 

I spoke with a couple other men who remember speaking with me at other times. Please pray for God to awaken Loanhead. We love the place and the people but NEED GOD TO BREAK THROUGH. 

Katie and I enjoyed visiting the woman who attended our church for the first time on Sunday. She is a dear soul who is only recently saved. She has tried to share her new found saving faith with friends of hers at her church, "Church of Scotland." She can't understand why they can't see the Gospel and why her former minister does not preach the Gospel. Please pray for her as she plans to leave that church to attend our own.

Thank you for praying for God's power in our evangelism and ministry. We need it. (Psalm 62:11  God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.)

God gave us encouragement tonight as we had a first time visitor. She had received a flyer at her house 7 months ago and has been wanting to come, but kept putting it off. She has to drive for quite a while to get to church as she lives on the other side of Edinburgh. 

She got a flyer, because we gave Mac a violin for Christmas. (confused?) I had to pick up a violin for Mac for Christmas and decided to put out several hundred flyers in the area where I got his violin. She got a flyer. She is an older woman, but a young believer. She got saved 4 years ago. Please pray that our church can be a good church family for her as I believe she is going to keep coming.

We had a good Sunday, but sickness and other things are still hurting our attendance. Please pray that we can get everyone back to faithfulness in God's perfect timing.

I preached a message that challenged me and helped me this past week as I studied it. I preached on "Not Ashamed" from Romans 1:16. (Upload should be done in the next few hours.) It's amazing how no matter how often you do evangelism, you still have to ask God for boldness to share the Gospel. Please pray for Gospel boldness for our church family. 

Thanks for praying for our day. God continues to give us all the encouragement we need.

The weather has shifted and we've had a lot more rain recently. I was able to get out Tuesday afternoon to put out some flyers in Loanhead. I normally go in the morning, but had to adjust because of the weather. 

Yesterday Don and I did evangelism in front of a Mall near their church location. I met a middle aged man, Tommy, and spoke with him for 20-20 minutes. We sat on a park bench while I went through the Gospel with John and Romans booklets. I believe he may be saved, but has never been discipled. He had an experience about 2 years ago and it may have been a conversion experience. It definitely has impacted his life and changes have been taking place.

I hope that he went home and made sure of his salvation. Please pray that he will make some tough decision to separate from sin and follow the Lord. I really encouraged him to join with Don's church and follow the Lord in believer's baptism. 

Don had a good opportunity with a woman who refused a tract. She did so, and then sat on a bench not far from us to eat. We joked a wee bit with her about an opportunistic seagull who was eyeing here food. She went back into the mall, but later when she came out she spoke with Don.

One more fun story - yesterday afternoon, my wife had 3 girls over for baking. I took my boys and a teen boy in our church cycling nearly 20 miles around a path in Falkirk. It was more like a cycling scavenger hunt because of the joining trails being so poorly marked (not marked at all) and the map was not the best. You really would be shocked (if you saw what we went through) that we completed our journey in the same place from which we started. I thought one man may have been an angel sent from God. He actually helped us back to the path and got us going again. I told him about, "The Journey" online. He found it and messaged me (I guess he wasn't an angel) from the Youtube Channel. Please pray that God will work in Moray's heart. (We had prayed for God to get us around the path and for opportunities to speak to someone.)

God gave us a wonderful time on our anniversary Sunday. We started the church on 4 July, 2010. It was a blessing to have Sunday fall right on the anniversary date this year.

We had a special day as we got together for a church picnic. God kept the thunderstorm away for a little while and then we were chased inside to finish our games. (It was a blessing to hear some thunder as that can be pretty rare here.)

I preached a message from Isaiah 35 on, "A Great Day Coming." If you want an encouraging passage to meditate on, it is excellent! Although the ultimate fulfilment is future - it has happened, is happening and will happen. It is a great revival passage. We need revival! Please pray for God to do that in our church and in our community.

We have some things that we are praying about regarding a church buiding, but nothing substantive yet. Last night the church voted to allow me to make an offer on any property of interest to the church. Formerly we had only voted that I could make an offer on the bank property. This way we don't have to wait two weeks to move forward.

Two things we are really praying about. 1) If God doesn't have anything for us in Loanhead THEN He must have something for us elsewhere. (It's a very difficult consideration, yet God has already moved us at least temporarily out of Loanhead.) 2) If there is nothing available, we may need to consider building a church property. With that in mind, I'm going to investigage something which has been of interest to us since before the bank property. Please pray.

Thank you for holding the ropes in prayer and for your love for our family and church ministry. We much appreciate it.

This morning I put flyers out in Loanhead for about 2 hours. I enjoyed catching up with several friends in Loanhead. One elderly Christian couple, Robert and Ruth, have been precious friends since we arrived here. Robert has terminal cancer and ended up in hospital a month ago. Please pray that God will allow him to come home. The Covid rules here still do not allow for hospital visits. I prayed with Ruth and she is demonstrating sweet confidence in the Lord.

Thank you for praying for our building need. The primary burden may be different from what you think. Many would naturally think that we are burdened primarily to own a building. However, though we desire that, it is not our primary burden. Our primary burden is that we are not currently able to meet in our original church location. (We are 3 miles away from Loanhead.) Secondly, we are not able to meet together for all of our services because the rental facility does not have our hours available. I would say that thirdly would be our desire to own a buildling and have 24/7 access. We appreciate your continued prayers.

God gave us a good weekend. Katie and I did door to door on Saturday. We had one interesting conversation with a young father. He grew up evangelical and through higher criticism became a staunch unbeliever. Please pray for God's grace to awaken His heart. It reminds me of what Hebrews says about casting off the crucifixion of Jesus - there is no second option. If you reject the remedy you perish. Please pray for his salvation.

While we were knocking on doors, we walked up near a small primary school building that closed this past year. Workmen were there emptying the building and we enquired if it was going to go for sale. As it turned out, it is going to be a school for special needs children. We're glad that they are going to use it for those kids. We asked because it is one of the building we thought may come available in our area.

This past week I also enquired about a Catholic school property in Loanhead. The response was basically, there is no chance that we are going to sell this as we just refurbished it. :)

We are aware of church properties in our area that are going to be for sale in the near future. Our concern is their location. Please pray for great wisdom. When you plow fields in an area for a decade, you don't want to give up establishing your farm there. We are looking to God for His provision.

Thanks for praying for our services. I preached on, "What You Hold in Your Hand" (The very word of God) from 1 Peter 1.We had a LOT of illness/jobs/isolation requirements/covid/chicken pox impacting those who could come yesterday. Please pray for God's grace to get us all back together. Next Sunday is our 11th anniversary as a church and we are planning a church picnic. 

God has given some good opportunities to speak with people this week. Tommy and I put out flyers in Loanhead yesterday. We met a 27 year old young man who said that his brother has just started going to church. He seemed open to visiting our church. We witnessed briefly to one other man whom I know in the community. He's hard against God, but I'm praying that God will work in his heart.

Today, Don and I put out flyers near their church location in front of a Mall entrance. God gave me an opportunity to sit on a bench with a 62 year old woman who attended her brother's funeral yesterday. Please pray that God will awaken Janice's heart. Satan doesn't want her to get saved. A friend called her while we were chatting and invited her over for a drink. I was showing her Bible verses and the Gospel presentation was ended by that call.

I also had a good opportunity with a 21 year old man and a girl in her late teens. The young man said that he would look at the Journey. At the beginning of our conversation I asked him what he was trusting in to go to Heaven. I really think he had never thought about it before. Again, please pray for God to awaken these hearts.

Thank you for praying for divine appointments.

Our attendance on Zoom today was very good. Tonight, due to covid in children's (SCHOOL) classrooms, we have two kids in isolation with their families. Please pray for God to get us past these days of illness or isolation hurting our ability to get together. 

I enjoyed preaching to our Fathers and to everyone else on the bond slave. My message was, "Say It Plainly" - I love you, I serve you, I belong to you, I Identify with you.

We had a great time around the Word of God. Thank you for praying for God's blessings on our day. 

I don't know that I've mentioned very often my Zoom ministry with New Hope Residential in Ireland. It's a men's home and our church supports the man who runs it. (Layton Kelly) I've been doing this every Monday for the past few month as I share with them our Bible study going through the book of Proverbs. Please pray for God's grace and strength for these men to overcome and be used of the Lord.

God's given us a refreshing week. I was able to do flyers in Loanhead on Tuesday (with Tommy) and Wednesday (with Don Dillman). We probably put out around 600 flyers this week. I had a good divine appointment with an asian lady who I hope will bring her daughter out to church. It will be interesting if she comes as I believe our meeting was of the Lord.

Katie also had a great visit with a young woman who accepted Christ this past year. We hope to do discipleship with her if she is willing. Please pray for God's direction for her.

Door to door this morning was tough. It was interesting how hard everyone was. We spoke briefly to over half a dozen people who said in effect, "Here's your hat, what's your hurry." But, God refreshed us as we bumped into a sweet Christian girl who was refreshed by meeting us as well. We were done doing door to door and were looking at a church building in our area. She was near it and we struck up a conversation. Please pray for Hannah as she seeks God's will for her life. She just finished high school.

We don't know of any leading yet on our building pursuit. We were looking at the church building (outside) this morning because we heard that the Church of Scotland is going to be selling some properties in our county. We have no idea if this one will be put up for sale or not, but it is one that seems likely.

God's good. We know that He has a plan. He gave us some Scripture last night to remind us again of His authority. Please continue to pray for God's very clear leading.

God blessed us with a great day of ministry today. It was a refreshing time together in the Word of God and a great spirit. Our attendance was much better, but one family was unable to attend. 

I preached on John 21 and 3 things you need from Jesus. (Jesus blessing, Jesus fellowship and Jesus commission.) 

After church we Facetimed with Kay Lee and Benson. This was our first time to speak with Benson in two weeks. They have been super busy at camp and have been loving it. Benson has a birthday this week (20th) and he told us that some churches had sent him Birthday cards at camp! Thanks for thinking of that! It's a blessing to know you are keeping up with our family.

We've been blessed as well with many emails of people who are praying for the building need. That is also much appreciated. Thank you for your much needed part in our ministry. 

(We have two opportunities this week to disciple/ Bible study, your prayers are appreciated for those ministries as well.)