In the autumn in Scotland, you begin to feel the anxiety of shorter days, worse weather, etc. God put on my heart to preach a message to encourage our church in the source of our strength. We took Paul's Word's to Timothy, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" and considered our connection to Christ. (Empowered Living.) There was a great spirit after the service and we enjoyed some sweet fellowship after church.

It was a blessing to have a young man (Blake) and his sister with us this morning. Blake attended our church as a student at Napier University. He is now a steward with United Airlines and visits us as often as he can. He was with us about 6 weeks ago. :) He's a blessing and we appreciate His love for us, our church and the Lord.

The week went well. As far as evangelism, I did street preaching on Monday and put out leafletts on Wednesday. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was at church as a beautiful carpet was installed at our church. Katie and I also designed a kitchen and placed that order for the church.  A mission team will be with us later in October to help with the installation. We praise God for His provision for our continued building works. Please pray for wisdom as we also had a door/ window installer out this week as well as a heating engineer. We are seeking to make good use of the resources God has given to us as we modernise the property.

On Friday we had a youth activity. All the teens really enjoyed it and it was a blessing to add a teen to our group.

Tomorrow, a supporting church Pastor, Jim Appel, arrives with his wife, Cate, and son, Timothy. Please pray for God's plan for our days as we do evangelism, church work, and introduce them to our area. Thanks for praying.

God gave us another great week of evangelism. Monday was street preaching. I don't have a video from Monday as my camera didn't work properly. Tuesday was evangelism in Roslyn. Wednesday I was with Pastor Dillman over in his area. God gave me a good witnessing opportunity with a young man named Robert.

We were blessed to have visiting missionaries with us this week. Larry and Maria Pierri were missionaries in Italy. They are somewhat retired, but are back in Italy for the next couple of months. They will be doing a two week replacement for a national pastor and his wife which our church here supports. Brother Larry preached Wednesday night despite being legally blind due to a degenerative condition. Please pray for the Pieri's. They are a sweet couple and love the Lord.

God gave us a very encouraging Sunday. I don't often share numbers, but we had 27 out to church this morning with a few still being absent. Our visiting family was back and we're excited that they are coming along. Thank you for praying for church growth, spiritually and numerically.

I preached this morning on learning the lesson which grace is teaching from Titus 2:11-15.

On Tuesday, the carpet in the fellowship hall is being replaced. The church is excited. The old carpet has kept some of the smells of the pub and it is certainly a memorable carpet to those who frequented the pub in the last 2-3 decades. We're putting down a tartan carpet that will have a lovely Scottish feel. Everyone is looking forward to seeing it in place.

Thank you, thank you for your prayers! We are excited about what God is doing and see His hand at work in our church family and ministry in answer to your prayers.

Are you thankful for Sundays? Being able to set aside the cares of life and go focus on God, His Word and His people? We had a great start to the week as God blessed our time in His Word and our fellowship together. We had a family visit for their first time this morning. Please pray for wisdom for them as they seek a church home. 

In Sunday School we are studying the book of Acts in the adult/teen class. I love seeing Peter after Pentecost filled with the Spirit of God. "They marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus."

In our AM service the message was, "Do not join those who depart from THE FAITH." 1 Timothy 5 spells out how and why someoned departs from the faith and gives good protection against it. Please pray that God will establish THE FAITH at our church and in our area.

Last week was a great week in evangelism. Monday was perfect for street preaching. Tuesday I put out Gospel flyers in Bilston and had several good opportunities to speak with people. Wednesday, Pastor Dillman came over and we put flyers out in the village of Roslyn. Please pray for God to do a special work in that village as some there have greatly withstood the Gospel. Door to door is going well on Saturdays. We had some wonderful divine appointments. One lady in particular indicated she may visit the church. Please pray for her.

We have special guests arriving this week as missionary, Larry Pieri and his wife, Maria, arrive on Tuesday. Brother Larry is going to preach our midweek service before heading to Italy for a furlough replacement. The missionary who they are replacing is supported by our church here in Scotland. I look forward to our church family getting to  know the Pieri's.

God's hand is continually evident in His work at SFBC. Thank you for your continued prayers.

After 3.5 days of fog, it has lifted. That is not to say that the sun is shining, this is Scotland after all. :) The weather this week was somewhat prohibitive of outward activities. However, Wednesday was beautiful and Pastor Dillman and I were able to do some evangelism in his area. God gave me a good witnessing opportunity with a young man named, Liam. Please pray for Him to seek after the truth. He seemed open.

Tuesday was a day of prayer in Blair Atholl. It was great to spend the day with some fellow ministers praying together in the morning and into the afternoon.

Yesterday, we enjoyed knocking on doors. It was good to get out and God gave several good opportunities to speak with people.

Wednesday night was a blessing as we studied the second part of the story of moving the ark into Jerusalem. David learned the lesson about God's holiness and adjusted accordingly. It was a profitable time in God's Word.

Our attendance was down today as many people let us know they would be unable to make it. However, God still gave us a good morning and it was a joy to be together in God's house. My message was entitled, "You and I" from Philippians 1. I was preaching on how important we are (the church) to one another. 

There are several good things going on in our church family. Thank you for praying for God's enablement for our church. We covet your prayers.

The story from Wednesday continued that evening. It was great to have a good number of our church family out for our midweek. That's a praise of itself. But, yet another man who heard the street preaching atttended and after the service trusted Jesus as His Saviour. Please pray for Daniel as he heads back to Portugal that He would remain steadfast in following the Lord.

The woman who trusted Christ after the street preaching attended the services this morning. Please pray for God's continued working in her life as well. Our attendance was decent, but the spirit in our church right now is excellent. There seems to be a real hunger in several to hear and obey God's Word. Please pray for that to continue and grow.

I preached this morning on Samuel's formula for a victorious Christian life. (Fear God, Serve God, Obey God.) If someone does those three things they will not stop following the LORD. It was good to inspect those things in our life this morning to see if we are in danger of departing. 

Thank you for praying for our church and evangelism. God is working and we acknowledge His hand in answer to your prayers.

Our weather has been very "rainbowy" for the past week. A lot of smaller showers, heavy at times, with sun in between. God has helped in dodging those showers to allow evangelism on all three weekdays so far this week. On Monday and Tuesday literature was put out in Bilston a little village connected to Loanhead. The flyer were currently putting out announced all of our activities of this past month, so it is a bit dated. However, it also invited people to our regular meetings and shares the Gospel. We're going to keep putting them out until we run out.

Today God allowed me to get into Edinburgh to preach. I ended up preaching further down Princes St. than ever before. Although there weren't as many people, it was quieter and several people were sitting outside who heard the preaching. (Thank you Starbucks for providing congregational seating.) God gave some very specific encouragement today. A believer messaged us on Facebook while he was listening to the preaching and says he hopes to bring his family to visit the church though he attends elsewhere. Another believer sat near me for almost the entire hour and fifteen minutes of preaching. We prayed together at the end. He was also there to speak with an individual who needed salvation. That person trusted Christ and is planning to attend our church this evening. Praise God!

Please continue to pray for the power of God in our evangelism. We are seeing God's hand in many different ways and we appreciate your prayers which avail much! 

The pic was sent to me by the man who messaged on facebook.

My apologies for not keeping our page up to date. I will try to do better now going forward. God gave us great meetings with Evangelist John Van Gelderen. Brother John is now in Dublin, Ireland. His ministry of God's Word was refreshing as was our time together in fellowship. Three of his messages are on our sermon audio page and facebook page. Our church was encouraged. A young lady trusted Christ as her Saviour. A woman was encouraged to come after wanting to come for several months. Praise God!

We had some extra ministry opportunities this week as we did street evangelism on Monday and put out flyers in the village of Skirling on Wednesday. 

Our attendance was good this morning as we had a first time visitor and a couple return visitors as well as many of our church family. It's fun to see God's work growing and going forward. Please pray that we will continue to see God adding to our church and that we will see people trusting Christ as their Saviour.

I preached this morning from Isaiah 50, a prophetic messianic text. Interestingly, the Lord shares His confidence as He faced the cross. "He is near that justifieth..." 

Our schedule is now open for the next several weeks and we are thankful that God not only brought us through the busy-ness, but that He blessed each ministry opportunity. Thank you for praying for each of these events.

We have just come through some very busy times, but they have been good times as well. The Sunday following our building dedication we went to Germany. We returned to a week of Holiday Bible Club. That brought us to this past week and men's camp up in Northern Scotland. We have one more event in a row and that is evangelistic meetings with Evangelist John Van Gelderen beginning this coming Sunday.

You may wonder why we scheduled things this way. Well - we don't plan the date for family camp in Germany or men's camp. We also try to take NBT and Evangelists when they can come. We desire to particpate in all of these events and don't want to easily turn any of them down if we can make them work. God has allowed us to do that. 

Men's camp was a great blessing. There was around 25 men and boys present for camp this year from 5 or 6 churches. Camp started on Thursday and ran into Saturday morning. We had 4 preaching sessions during that time and I had the privilige of preaching on Saturday. We had three activities; hiking around Cullen, Scotland where we stayed, go-karting, and a bonfire down by the North Sea. (Cullen is a harbor village in the North of Scotland.)

The Lord gave us a great time at camp and blessed us with a good Sunday as well. I continue to be burdened for God to build all our services, but know that He will do so in His timing. Please pray with us about it. I preached a message on Luke 17, Feasting With and Following Jesus. "All things are now ready - come!" (Our audio is going to improve dramatically in the near future. We are not yet using our sound system and technology. We have some bugs to work out beforehand. So, until then, there is a bit of an echo.)

Please pray for God's grace and blessing upon our meeting with Brother John. Thank you for upholding our ministry in prayer.

The Lord gave us a good start to our Lord's Day with a first time adult visitor and two children returning who have been away from a couple of years. All of these contacts were a result of our HBC. Praise the Lord and thank you for praying! 

I preached this morning on, "Personal Evangelism" from Paul's example in Athens found in Acts 17. Our next ministry opportunity begins on Thursday of this week as we head to men's camp in Northern Scotland. I have the privilige of leading the singing and of preaching on Saturday. We appreciate your prayers for God to do a good work in all of our hearts.

Also, two weeks from today begins our evangelistic meetings with Evangelist John Van Gelderen. Please pray for God's grace to prepare us for the work which He intends to do in those 4 days of meetings. 

Thank you as always for your prayers which are much appreciated and which avail much!

God blessed our week of Holiday Bible Club. Joe and James (NBT evangelists) did an excellent job working with our church kids. We saw God's hand in many different ways. The weather was outstanding and we are very thankful for God's grace in giving us such a good weather week. 

We saw 5 teenagers come into our church and we were able to share the Gospel with them. We had several new children in our HBC as well. That was a blessing.

God allowed us to reach someone while recruiting children whom I believe will visit our church this Sunday. We also had a mother and daughter indicate they will attend after hearing the street preaching on Tuesday.

The awards ceremony (parent and pizza night) went well this evening. Most of our kids and parents were out although some we hoped would attend were absent. Please pray for grace as we follow up on those who visited.

God's good. We truly thank Him for all He did in hearts and lives this week. We also thank you for all your prayers during this very busy week.