I want to thank the Lord for giving me Katie (Hansen) to be my wife. We celebrated 24 years of marriage on Monday. Tuesday was a special day as I enjoyed a day of prayer at Blair Atholl with 4 other men. Today, my family got back to work on the church building. We are painting the front of the church...around the windows, soffets, and sandstone foundation. After a LOT of rainy weather (weeks/months), our weather is finally settled for a few days in a row. Please pray for God's guidance and blessing as we work to finish this part of the project.

We enjoyed our fellowship tonight at church. We are studying the life of David. Tonight was lesson 58 and David has just been made King of Israel and Judah. It's been a good study

Satuday is the Loanhad Gala Day. Our church will be participating as usual and providing archery/ badge (button) making and a bean bag toss. We'll be inviting children to our HBC and giving out some invites to our church as well. Please pray with us for a good weather day and God's blessing upon our activities. Thanks for praying.

Life is returning to normal. We have had extra duties as we get back into the swing of things. One of those extras was writing an announcement and Gospel tract for a mass mailing. God blessed us with time to get that sorted this week and we look forward to God's Word going out in our area. Please be praying for God to use the invitation and message on the back. It is entitled, "The Carpenter's Hand" and speaks of Jesus ministry of mending broken lives.

We have had good attendance at church although that did not seem to be the case when we started this morning. Thankfully, many were just running late. We had 28 in total last Sunday and anticipate a similar number today. Please pray for continued church growth and for believer's to really grow together in the Lord. There is a sweet Spirit in our church..

I enjoyed preaching on, "Fruitful Lives" from John 15 and the Lord's encouragement to His disciples about abiding in Him. If ALL believers truly were abiding in Christ our lives, our families and our ministries would be incredibly fruitful and God would be glorified by the "much fruit." Let's pray for one another!

We are looking forward to serving the young people in our community this coming Saturday as we have a booth at the Gala Day. Please pray for good weather and for God's grace for the day. Thank you for your prayers. we are often reminded that God's hand is evident in answer to your intercession.

Life is returning to normal as we get back into duties at our church and home. God blessed us with a great Sunday. We had a first time adult visitor on Sunday morning. They attended with someone who has become a regular attendee at our church. That was a blessing. We also had some young people show up after the service and we were able to show them around. They said they will visit a church service at some point.

I preached on, "Worthy of Praise" from Psalm 147. I have been preaching monthly a series entilted, "Thou Art Worthy." I continued that on Sunday as we looked at the many reasons the Psalmist gives to Praise the LORD.

We had a busy Sunday as we hosted a family from church after the service, showed a photo update from our travels in the PM service and observed the Lord's table. It was a great day!

Evangelism is now back on track. I put out Gospel leaflets on Monday morning. Today I was able to get into Edinburgh to do street preaching on Princess St. God gave liberty and enablement. After preaching over an hour, I was packing up and a man in a suit approched me. He was working outside his place of business near where I preach. He said, "I just want to thank you. It's good to see a Christian preacher getting out and doing something." This was a greater encouragement than a believer giving me the same message. Please pray for that man as I will likely see him again.

The greatest antagonism today took place about 42 minutes into my preaching. A young man walked by and then came back to steal my literature and put it in the bin. Please pray for God to awaken the heart of that lad. God's good. Thank you for keeping up and for praying for our ministry.

Mac is growing up and hit double digits today! Obviously, his birthday is on D-day. It's amazing that Katie and I no longer have children in single digits. This has not been the case for the past 21 years. Wow - yep, I guess we are getting old. We are so thankful for the children God has given to us. 

Benson is currently flying out West to AZ to be a counselor at the Bill Rice Ranch - West Branch. Please pray for grace for him as he settles into that summer ministry. 

John and Kay Lee Owenby are settling into ministry in Virginia Beach. John is the new youth pastor and Kay Lee is going to be working in church publications. God has provided a great place for them to live as they settle into the area.

It was a blessing to do evangelism with Don Dillman yesterday as he came my way. We put out literature about 2 miles from our church. God gave two opportunities to speak with people about the Lord. 

We really enjoyed being back with our church family last night. On Wednesday nights the adults and teens are studying the life of David. We were in 2 Samuel 3 last night where Abner is meeting with David and is then killed by Joab. We had a really good Bible study and the attendance was good for a Wed. PM. Thanks for your prayers as we get back into church ministry in Scotland.

Thank you for praying for our travels. We arrived back in Scotland late yesterday morning, Scottish time. It is great to be back home. We've seen a couple of our church family and love catching up with them.

The trip back was pretty uneventful as a whole. But, as I wrote our prayer letter at the airport in Newark, God did give me a great divine appointment. My table was surrounded by a large group of Jewish girls who were on a trip to NYC from Las Angelos. I was able to speak to them about Jesus CHRIST. (The Messiah.) Please pray for God to guard the seed that He placed in the soil of their hearts. One young lady in particular had a lengthy conversation with me.

Today has been a catch up day. Lord willing, I will be back doing evangelism tomorrow, weather permitting. Thank you for your prayers for our ministry.

It has been good to have been back for some big life events. Our family will soon be returning home. God has been very good in all of our travels. Katie and I traveled to Virginia Beach on Wednesday to attend Tabernacle Baptist and see where our "kids" will be serving the Lord. Please pray for Kay Lee and John as they move their on Monday.

Meanwhile, we are enjoying some good family time and some refreshing down time. Our flight leaves late Sunday afternoon which will allow us to be back home on Monday. Our furlough replacement, Brother James Sechrest, is flying out Monday morning. We needed to be back as our dog, Duchess, will need someone to care for her. :)

Big Praise: The Lord has provided for our baptistry need. We received a quote that is much more affordable. Also, 1 church and 2 individuals gave to help us with our building project. Two of the gifts were designated to the need. The other one was given on a day where we prayed for God's provision for the baptistry and saw the building fund gift as a direct answer to that prayer. The 3 gifts added together are almost exactly the amount of the quote we were given. (2500 pounds) Praise the Lord for His goodness.

Thank you for all of your prayers for our family time and our travels. God has given us a great time away.

Thank you for your prayers for this past week. God blessed tremendously. The wedding was beautiful and God was glorified. God held off the rain until the Bride and Groom were ready to depart the premises. They left in a memorable downpour.  The attendance was great at the wedding. There was seating for around 230 and we were adding chairs and had a few people who watched from the lobby.

Katie's parents rented a large house in Asheville for them and their three children's families. We praise the Lord for the relationship we have in Christ as well as by heritage. We made many wonderful memories. This house was built in the early 1900's and has a ton of character. Most of the wedding photography took place there before the wedding. Also, a bear nearly crashed the photos. It walked through the property while we were enjoying our lunch on the patio. It would have been about 15 feet from where we took most of the photo's.

I enjoyed preaching Sunday PM at Temple Baptist in Asheville where the wedding took place. We also enjoyed getting to know John's church family.

We now have two weeks before our return to Scotland. There are some errands to do and some down time to be had after very busy life experiences. 

In church news; Tim, a believer from England, as of yesterday has now installed the sound and video equipment. We are one step closer to finishing the sanctuary part of the project. Please pray for Tim's surgery for muscular distrophy this coming Thursday. He will be in a body cast for 3 months. We really appreciate him pushing to get our project done before he endures this trial. Thank you for praying for him.

Thank you for praying for my father's, Pastor Mark Shore's, funeral. My dad loved the Lord and that was well presented at the funeral. It was a special time with family and God was glorified. 

My mom is doing well. She was able to travel down for our daugher's wedding. I just put the following on our church facebook page - We welcome your attendance online for Kay Lee Shore and John Owenby's wedding on Saturday, 18 May. The live stream will begin around 1:30 PM EST and the wedding will officially begin at 2:00 PM. Here is a link to the livestream. https://www.youtube.com/@TBSAshville/streams

We appreciate your prayers as . we give our daughter away. John traveled with us to my father's funeral We love him and are very excited to add him to our family. We also have been able to get to know his family and are very thankful that Kay Lee is going to have great inlaws.

These have been very full days and your intercession for our family has been a tremendous blessing. Thank you for helping hold the ropes for our family and also for our church family in Scotland

Our family safely arrive in Lattimore NC around 12:00 (5AM Scotland time) Monday night or Tuesday morning. We thank the Lord for journey mercies and grace.

This has been a fun week of meeting the friends and teachers of our children. We also enjoyed meeting the parents of our future son in law. Last night Kay Lee graduated with her Bachelor's degree. We are very proud of her hard work and what the Lord has helped her to accomplish. The service and ceremony were a tremendous blessing. God's hand has been very evident this week.

One of the ways, God has shown Himself is by not taking my father to glory until this week was over. Dad entered into glory this morning around 9:00 AM local time. My father had alzheimers and the last 6 months he steeply declined. God brought me home last November which was about a month before dad became mostly non sensical. Isn't God good? He also had us with my sister's family as we watched this week for the news of his passing.

We appreciate your prayers for our family. We are praying about funeral plans. Please pray for the power of God and the leading of God. I'm sure my father's greatest desire would be that God would be glorified on that day. 

Kay Lee's wedding plans are coming along. Her wedding is on the 18th. Katie and I are feeling older.... or at least we should be. This is the beginning of seeing our kids enter adulthood and it's great! Kay Lee and John will be moving to Virginia Beach after their wedding and honeymoon. John will be joining the pastoral staff at Tabernacle Baptist Church as the new youth pastor. Please pray for Pastor Baker as he leads that ministry. The Bakers are very close friends and this opportunity will only make them more dear to our hearts. Thank you for praying for "our kids" as they venture into full time ministry for the Lord.

Your thoughts and prayers for these upcoming special events are much appreciated. May God be glorified.

God has again blessed us with the opportunity to help someone come to faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God for the power of the Gospel to set men free from their sin and give them God's gift of everlasting life. They have been faithfully attending church. Please pray for this couple to grow in grace and in the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Our family is in countdown mode for our departure. Today we are packing up as our replacements (Pastor James Seacrest and his wife, Joyce) arrive at our home tomorrow. It will be fun having a few days to introduce them to our people and ministry. Our departure is Monday morning.

Since I gave a numeric update on Sunday AM, let me further express God's goodness on Sunday. Sunday night was also well attended and we were blessed by Pastor Clough's challenge from God's Word. He shared verses that show scientific foresight. It encouraged our faith. (The circle of the earth, paths in the seas, hangeth the earth on nothing, etc.) We had 6 adults out who were not with us in the morning service but who are a part of our church family. Many who were out in the AM were back Sunday night. So, praise the Lord!

We continue to work on the property. We're trying to get the sound room ready for equipment this Saturday. The skirting boards (trim) were cut yesterday. I also dropped our recently acquired antique pulpit off for refurbishments. Lord willing, I am going to put down a carpet tile floor this evening. We hope to hang speakers and be ready for the wiring to be attached this weekend.

I also spoke to a company called baptistry UK. They gave us a quote on finishing the baptistry. We're speaking with them to see what we can do to keep those costs down. Please pray for wisdom and God's provision as needed.