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.

God blessed us with a good Sunday as we honoured our mother's today. (Happy Mother's Day!) This evening we looked at Ruth 4 as I preached a message, "About Mothers." Praise the Lord for those whom God has used to preserve life and give birth to each one of us. We wouldn't be here without God's blessing upon mothers. (Obviously there are loads of other reasons to be grateful to God for His goodness in giving motherhood.)

The Scottish government has given a date for when churches can begin in person services, 26 March. I've already checked with our normal location and they are not able to allow us to meet there. I've emailed the location we used during lockdown and they have yet to respond. Please pray that God will meet our need for a church location.

The gifts our ladies' are handing out with invitations to women to attend a Zoom meeting are being well received. Please pray that some would take the time to join our ladies this coming Saturday night at 8:30. It is purposefully late to allow women with children to attend uninterrupted. We know that the gifts have already been a special blessing to those who have received them. Thank you for praying for this special meeting.

Wind and rain has been the weather story of this week. We had a low pressure system move through on Tuesday and have a second one passing through just now. I was able to get out yesterday morning and do flyers. I only spoke with one man and it was a brief conversation. I said, "Your generation does not believe in God." I found out he was a year younger than me which makes it, "Our generation." (I can't see myself when I'm talking and forget that I'm looking older these days.)

I'm very thankful for God's help with The Journey and appreciate your prayers. The live streams are going well - praise the LORD. The segment for today was, "Righteous God." Interestingly, God's holiness is a source of great security for us.

One recent blessing from the livestream is connecting with some young people who used to attend our church. One girl (16) in particular is asking when we are going to be meeting again. Please pray for her. She attended our church for a couple years and stopped coming about 3 years ago. Several other former attendees have "liked" the posts. Praise the Lord. Thank you for praying.

I was able to get out yesterday to an area in Edinburgh about a mile from our church location. God gave me a really good divine appointment with 5 teens and I got to do a little "street preaching." (Some people walking by rolled their eyes when they heard what we were talking about.) 

One teen who didn't take a Journey card asked for one at the end of our conversation. He had asked me, "How do you know there is a God when you can't see Him?" I told him he needed to watch my video, "Invisible God. But, You did't take a card.  His mates laughed at him as he said, "What card?" He then remembered refusing my offer. 

Last night we put together a two minute advert which is currently running on Facebook in Scotland. I also uploaded it as a trailer for The Journey Channel on Youtube. We chose a large area for this advert to run because Scotland needs the Gospel. Please pray that God will direct this endeavour to areas of greatest need.

My Journey video today was, "Incomparable God." (Sermon Audio Link.) I am enjoying this focus on Who God Is. Your prayers are much appreciated. I have been much encouraged with God's help in this ministry project. 

God gave us a good Lord's day. We observed the Lord's table in our morning service. Sunday School was well attended and God encouraged our hearts through our different ministries.

I started a new weekly ministry this morning with  New Hope Residential Centre in Ireland.  (facebook link) I get to preach to the men on Zoom. I'm excited to get to work with these men and participate in this ministry. Thanks for praying.

Please pray as the ladies begin to hand out invitations for a ladies' Zoom meeting on 20th March. Katie has put together about a 100 gift bags for the ladies to give out with invitations to attend the meeting. 

We're thankful that God is opening ministry opportunities during lockdown. Our church supports three missionaries. One of which is the Layton Kelly family in Ireland. Layton runs his church RU (Reformers Unanimous) program. God has also allowed him to establish New Hope Residential Centre. New Hope is a men's home. They can house about 20 men. Over the years I've enjoyed getting to know several residents of the home at a men's retreat in Ireland.

Lately God put on my heart to offer to speak to the men if Layton had an opportunity. I expected a one off opportunity or maybe occasional. However, Layton offered a weekly opportunity and I'm confident that God would have me to do that. I'm going to be speaking to the men at 11 AM on Mondays. (I also have an extra opportunity in a few minutes to preach to them today.) Your prayers for God's blessing are apprecaited.

God gave us a good midweek service last night. I have really enjoyed our study of Hebrews. I think last night was lesson 25. The focus was on "Why Jesus Came."

Yesterday morning live session of The Journey was on Foundational God. We need a strong ROCK upon which to build our lives. Jesus is our ROCK. Thanks for praying.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our online evangelism. Some of my evangelism time is taken up in these extra ministry opportunities which I trust are effective in getting out the Gospel. Yesterday morning my Live Stream was,"Luminescent God," (sermon audio link) speaking about God's intrinsic light. "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."

I'm doing two of these a week. The second one this week is tomorrow morning at 09:30 GMT. Please pray for wisdom as we consider advertising The Journey more broadly in the UK on Facebook. We want to prepare the right material for that advert and chose the right target location, plan, etc. Your prayers are appreciated.

Katie is also persuing a project with the help of our church ladies. She is assembling small gift bags to hand to women to be encouragement to them. They will also include an invitation to a woman's meeting on Zoom. Please pray for God's guidance and for His blessing upon this outreach.