Our Sunday Schedule has been "turned upside down" by the pandemic. Due to meeting in a new location we were only able to reserve an evening time slot. So, for our Sunday AM service on Zoom we studied Proverbs as we normally have recently done for our Sunday PM. Our Sunday School is at 5:00 PM  and our main Sunday service is at 6:00 PM. This final service will be like what has normally been our Sunday AM service. (Are you confused yet?) We are very excited to be meeting together again and look forward to what God will do this evening. 

We enjoyed our study from Proverbs 15 this morning. We are about half way through a verse by verse study of the book of Proverbs. It has been a valuable study.

We have a big prayer request for some children who attend our church. At 4:00 AM there was a fire in loanhead in a block of 6 flats. (Like an apartment building.) We have had children attend our church from three of those flats. Katie visited one of these families yesterday and spoke with children from all three flats. The children in these flats attended our church for several years and 3 of them from two flats were supposed to be in church this evening. These are families that we love and greatly desire to see God meet their needs. God spared several lives last night as will be evident from the picture.

Please pray for God's grace and provision for these families.

We are thrilled to be one week away from meeting with our church after 6 months apart. We were unable to meet as a church prior to our departure and the although the church began meeting again about a month ago, we are in a 2 week quarantine. 

Our zoom services have been very good and a blessing. However, it will be great to see one another. If you have been praying about the number of people allowed to meet, God has answered that prayer. As long as the government does not put further limitations upon churches, the current rules allow for up to 50 with safety guidelines in place. 

I enjoyed preaching a message this morning from Psalm 86 on, Getting God's Ear. David expresses in this Psalm the Bible reasons why he believed God would hear His requests.

We are prayerfully going to begin facebook live next Sunday evening. Please pray for wisdom for us as we use the technology for the first time. Please also pray for God's great blessing as we seek to further promote His Word.

I think we are finally settling into the routine after being back for a week. The kids are getting back into their schooling and the piano practice has begun again. 

We are half way through our quarantine and the treadmill is seeing a lot of activity. The only one not getting exercise is Duchess (our dog) who often goes and looks at her leash. :) The kids are doing well playing with her a bit more as she endures quarantine as well.

We rejoiced to see a new member (physically) born into our ministry this week. Mother and child are both doing well. Please pray for God's grace as this young family adjusts to their new blessing from God. Our church is really excited to have a baby in our congregation.

We enjoyed getting back to our study of Hebrews last evening. Lesson 7 was Entering into God's Rest.

We are enjoying a good week. Thank you for your prayers.

It was a blessing to update our church on our furlough and to spend an hour with them this morning. Of course, it will be better when we can meet in person as our meeting this morning was on zoom.

Two college students from a small Bible college in Edinburgh joined us this morning. It was a joy to get to meet them. They have both visited our services at our new location.

We are only able to meet online for the next two weeks as our family completes our quarantine. Thank you for praying for our ministry.

God blessed our travels and we are safely back home! Praise the Lord. Thank you for praying for God's grace to do international travel. Now, we have a two week quarantine before we can depart from our home. Hopefully, it will pass quickly and be profitable.

Our flight to Amsterdam could seat 310 people and was only at 10 percent of capacity. Wow - we aren't going to want to go back to normal travel. It is nice to sit wherever you want to sit and to lay down accross three seats with the cabin crew encouraging you to do so.

The Andersons also safely made it back to the USA and are adjusting to the time zone there. We so appreciate their great encouragement to our church family. They will be missed.

Well, it seems I've not updated in quite a while. Lord willing, we'll get back into the rythm of regular updates next week. We are very thankful for God's grace and goodness to us these three months. We have had a wonderful furlough.

God allowed the final service for the Andersons and us to be special services. The Andersons had the visitor from last Sunday return with two more visitors. I also met a man yesterday afternoon who came out to hear me speak last night. (He is a believer who attends another church in Des Moines.)

Our final service was at my Grandma's church here on the South Side of Des Moines. I enjoyed preaching all the services yesterday as we updated the church on what God is doing in our ministry in Scotland.

We have begun our return to Scotland as DHL just collected two 66 pounds boxes of stuff to ship back to Scotland. On Wednesday we will drive nearer Chicago to my Aunt's home. We will fly out on Thursday and get back early Friday morning. The Anderson will depart tomorrow from Scotland. 

I've let them know of our appreciation for their ministry. Our church is very fond of this couple and we are very thankful for how God used them in our absence. 

Thank you for your prayers for this furlough. There were so many things that we had to pray about and God gave us very clear answers. We praise God for His great goodness and your support on this journey.

One other answer to prayer: Kay Lee is very confident that God wants her at Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, NC. We are excited to see God's leading in her life. Lord willing she will begin there in the fall of next year. 

We've had a very interesting week as we were in Pensacola from Sunday evening to Thursday morning. Hurricane Sally was just off shore for most of that time, before coming on shore on Wednesday morning. God answered prayer for us in a very specific way and allowed us to move in with a church family on Tuesday night. The right eye wall of Sally went through our location with around 100 MPH winds (category 2). There were trees down everywhere, including many on the church property, but the trees around our trailer didn't come down.

We praise God for safety even as we chased hurricane Sally all the way to Greenville, SC on Thursday. We saw downed trees and power lines for about 100 miles. We also saw several hundred power company vehicles on their way South to restore power.

The family we stayed with had a generator and water purification system. So, we had all the comforts of home while many were facing difficulties from the storm. Their power was restored on Thursday evening.

Our travel trailer suffered some damage from the storm and it is currently at the shop. Please pray for wisdom as they assess any damage. That process has gone well and God has been guiding. That was our last trip with the trailer as we plan on staying with family for the rest of our furlough travels.

God gave us a great time last Sunday with two of our supporting churches in FL and AL. This weekend we are with two more supporting churches in GA. Thank you for your prayers. God has kept us safe thus far from Covid, a hurricane, a lot of travel miles (we saw a car crash into a wall in Atlanta on our return this past week).... We've also enjoyed each ministry opportunity and thank you for your part in the effectiveness of our ministry.

I believe we will be able to begin meeting as a church again next Sunday. The Glencourse Centre in Auchendinny (across from our home) has a time slot on Sunday PM available. We're going to change our meeting schedule and have a 5:00PM Sunday School and a 6:00 PM (Sunday AM in the PM) service. Our 11:00 AM service on Zoom will continue as well. 

Please pray for our church as we make this necessary adjustment. Our church family has expressed excitement that we are about to begin meeting again. Thank you for praying for our church location need.

God gave us a wonderful day yesterday. We are now down South after traveling this past week. We had a 9:00 AM drive in service at a church that is like a home church to us. It is the church Katie and I attended and ministered at while we were in Bible college. It was our first drive in service. I preached from the church steps over a FM radio transmitter. God also gave us a last minute meeting at another dear church in Lavonia, GA. This pastor has taken our family on for support at two different churches. We thank God for his interest in the work God has called us to do.

Our meetings next Sunday are in Dothan, AL and Pensacola, FL, and Prattville, AL. While on that trip we are going to visit Pensacola Christian College. Thank you for praying for our travels and ministry.

This past week we have been in Iowa. Our time with Mt. Olive Baptist Church in IL last Sunday was a blessing. The church is out in the corn fields of IL. You understand why when you see the date the church began - 1860's. 

Last night we were at Fellowship Baptist in Marshalltown, IA. The Derecho (inland hurricane as they call it) a few weeks ago really devastated much of their area. Corn fields were flattened, trees snapped off and structures were damaged. It looks like a tornado hit. That church was also a great blessing to our family and thank the Lord for His help in our ministry. 

On thursday of this week we do the trip South again. We'll be in Demorest, GA on Sunday. This is a special church to us as we participated in this ministry when we were students at Bible college. This will be our first drive in church service as Covid-19 is impacting their area. Thank you for your prayers.

The Lord gave us a great day at Fellowship Baptist in Taylors SC. The church provided some wonderful meals for all of us including extended family and friends. The fellowship at Fellowship was great. We were blessed to be with them.

Tomorrow we have a meeting at Martinez, GA and then Sunday we are in Chandlerville, IL for an AM meeting. The following Sunday we have a meeting in Marshaltown, IA. We appreciate your prayers for our furlough ministry and travels. 

If you are interested in the latest Covid-19 stats from Scotland, here is a link to a BBC article.