The Lord gave us a great Easter Sunday. Although snow is forecast tomorrow (!) we had a nice sunrise and the rain stopped for the kids to do their Easter Egg Hunt. It's fun to be together again as a church family. 

God blessed us with a visiting father tonight. It was good to see him back in church. He was very ill this past year, but his health is somewhat better. Please pray for God to reach this family.

You won't be surprised that I preached an Easter Message, "He Arose" from Matthew 28. I enjoyed going point by point through the conclusion of the greatest event in human history, our redemption. Praise God, He is risen indeed!

This Thursday is an important business meeting for our church as we vote on whether or not to charter the church. Your prayers are much appreciated as we consider this need. Thank you for praying and for keeping up with our church ministry.

God has given some evangelism encouragement lately. A week ago a lady contacted us who had received a card a year ago. Please pray that we'll see her come to church or that God will meet her spiritual needs. 
Today, I again about jumped out of my chair and said, "Glory!" Katie and I went out on a date on Tuesday night. Restaurants are all closed. We ordered online at Five Guys and then I stood outside to wait on our order. I spoke for about 1 minute with a young man who said about The Journey card, "I will check it out. I am very open." The glory part was when he messaged me from The Youtube channel yesterday. (I didn't see the message until today.) Please pray that we can get connected and that God will meet his needs.
Don Dillman and I had some very good witnessing opportunities yesterday. He witnessed to two men who are atheists with religious backgrounds. He spoke with each of them for about 10 minutes.
Another opportunity God gave us, should not have happened. We were locked out of some flats and thought we'd have to skip them. However, because of a broken window in a door, we went into Demi's block of Flats. She opened her door to hand me back the flyer saying, "This is just going to go into the bin." I began speaking with her about God. She soon took back the flyer. She didn't leave the conversation even though a relative on speaker phone was laughing. (She hung up on the relative.) Her one year old was eating just around the corner. When she cried she went and got her and brought her back to the door. When I handed a journey card to her, I said, "I've made these videos for people who may not have a clue about God." She said, "Well, that's me." I prayed with her before we said goodbye and asked God to save her and help her raise her child to love God. Please pray for God to open her eyes.
The Journey segment today was, "Furnishing God." (Sermon Audio link) "God is desirous to meet your spiritual and physical needs." Thank you for praying for me as I do these. I covet your prayers and pray that God will use these for His glory.

This morning I was on Facebook live recording Episode 11 of The Journey 3, Faithful God. (sermon audio link) We boosted this post on Facebook to go to our local area. Please pray that God will touch the hearts of those who receive it to their Facebook page.

After recording, I met Tommy and we put out Gospel flyers in Liberton. God gave us a witnessing opportunity with an older woman who was "born a Christian" and was a Sunday School teacher. She was very kind as we shared Jesus words to Nicodemus, the religious leader, that he must be born again. Please pray that this lady will understand her personal need to repent of her sin and recieve God's gift of everlasting life.

After 3 months of not meeting together in person, it was a great blessing for our church to be together. The attendance was great with only a few children absent. We still have some from Loanhead who have not come out to Auchendinny. But, they are older and it is more difficult.

Our membership class went really well. Thank you for praying. We continue to have internet issues at this location. I added data to my phone and tried to livestream the service. Unfortunately, not only did it not livestream, but I failed to get a recording of the service. Technology sometimes has a tough learning curve. We may just need to be content to record our services and upload afterwards. Your prayers for wisdom are appreciated.

Please also pray for our need to split our children's classes. It would be ideal to have two classes going for the children. We'd also like to get back to youth activities. Thank you for your prayers.

I have enjoyed our study of Hebrews on Thursday night. The passage this Thursday was a sobering one with 3 warnings from God found in Hebrews 10. If you ever wondered why it is right for God to send someone to Hell, that passage makes it very clear.

The new journey video on Thursday was, "Observing God." We don't have to wonder if God knows what is going on in our lives. He's observing every moment of our lives.

A special blessing this week is reading the biography of someone who is very special to me. I was priviliged to do my internship in 1999 with Dr. Ed Nelson when he was pastoring at Bethel Baptist Church in Tucson, AZ. I want to encourage "you" to read it. It is a great reminder that we serve a great God. Dr. Nelson is candid about his ministry strengths and weakness and shares wonderful stories of God's working in His life. "A Sinner Saved By Grace" is the title.

The Lord gave me a short witnessing opportunity today with a person who purchased something from us. Please pray that God will open her eyes to His existence and His truth.

Don and I were doing flyers this morning for the first time in a long time. Lockdown is starting to get less stringent with churches allowed to meet from this coming Friday.

Don and his wife collected us from the airport 11 years ago this morning. :) My family was much smaller. Only 4 kids aged 7 and younger. Katie was also 8 months pregnant. :) Two of my boys are now passing me or passed me in height. (Not that incredible of an achievement, but definitely different from 11 years ago.)

The area where we put out flyers is all new builds within 2 miles of our church location. Please pray for fruit from our labours.

We departed from Minneapolis, Minnesota for Heathrow England then on to Edinburgh, 11 years ago today. My hairline tells me this is correct as I scratch my head in amazement. :) God has done great things for us whereof we are glad. We praise Him for all His goodness to us over these 11 years.

I was able to get back out today to put out flyers. The weather is ok (not raining) but not exactly feeling like Spring. I didn't have any prolonged conversations with anyone. But, I'm thankful that I was able to get out.

This morning, The Journey segment was, "Listening God." My main point was that our faith is strengthened by seeing God answer our prayers.

Thank you for being with us on the journey of church planting in Scotland. Many of you have faithfully prayed for us for more than 11 years. (We joined BWM in the autumn of 2005 and started deputation in January of 2006.) We're thankful for our many prayer and financial supporters that have made this ministry possible.

PS. We have seen some sunshine lately. This is from Sunday afternoon and is taken a few miles from our home.

This evening was our final (for this lockdown) evening Zoom service. Starting next Sunday we are allowed to meet for our 5:00  PM Sunday School and Church service. We will still have to do Zoom on Sunday AM and Thursday PM as we don't have a location available for those time slots.

God gave us a good day. Our attendance tonight was the lowest ever on Zoom, (sickness, work obligations etc.) but we still had a good service. I enjoyed preaching a message, "Preach Jesus" from Acts 5. The early church ceased not to teach and preach Jesus despite everything the devil threw at them. 

The ladies meeting went very well last night. Thank you for praying. In attendance were our church ladies plus two other ladies who have visitied our church in the past. God's hand was evident.

This week is a busy week and your prayers are appreciated. With our return to in person services, we add back on our Adult/ Teen SS. I'm still doing The Journey segments twice a week and also preaching on the men's home in Ireland via Zoom. Thank you for praying!

PS. Here's are some pictures of the finished project from this past week.

God has blessed our weather with high pressure this week. When high pressure is in charge we get prolonged spells of dry weather and usually some sunny days. We needed a few days of good weather to rebuild our driveway gates and stain them. This weather has been perfect for getting that job completed. We've had some great conversations with our neighbours as well.

I got out with flyers on Monday afternoon, but otherwise haven't gotten back out this week. The Journey has continued to go well. I have been encouraged by God's help in writing and presenting these segments. The two segments this week were, "Friendly God" and "Angry God." (Youtube Links) (They are also on Facebook and Sermon Audio.) Your prayers for this ministry are much appreciated and have been very helpful.

The response to the gifts being handed out for the ladies' has been very good. Katie is prayin and preparing for the ladies Zoom meeting this coming Saturday. Thanks for praying.

Thankfully, our back up church location (which we have used during lockdown) has agreed to give us access to the building. So, we will be back to our location and schedule that we had previous to this last lockdown. Thank you for praying for this open door.

In other building news, there is a building in Loanhead which will either be sold or rented. I've inquired about it to see if we can find a 24/7 location. We are a bit weary of being "homeless" as a church and are to the point in our ministry where we believe a 24/7 location is important. Please pray for God to meet this need in His timing. 

God blessed my time via zoom with the men at the men's home in Ireland today. Thank you for upholding this new weekly ministry in prayer.