We are two weeks away from the Grand Opening of our sanctuary. We'll have a trial run in there the Wednesday before that date. And, our dedication is Saturday the 13th of July. These are exciting days and it is fun to see the Lord's hand in some details as we pray that we can be ready with everthing on that date.

We have joiners coming tomorrow to bid hanging some doors for us. Another landscaping company is scheduled to cut through concrete and install drain tiles to fix a moisture issue. The baptistry guys are coming later next week. The pulpit restoration is nearly completed. So, praise the Lord!

We had a good Wednesday PM, Youth Activity on Friday (a sister church joined us) and Sunday morning services. It was good to have some church family back this morning that we had not seen in a few weeks. We also presented Bible to two little girls. That is always fun! I preached from 2 Thessalonians 1 on, "Go On for God." It's amazing that the church in Thessalonica existed despite the missionaries being there for a short time and despite the persecution.

Please continue to pray for the many details coming together for the activies of the 13/14 July! Thank you!

The Lord blessed our outreach and work at the church this week. Katie and Mac have continued our painting of the exterior of the property. Logan, Nelson, and Parker helped me put out flyers yesterday and today. Today, Pastor Dillman was also out doing outreach with us. 

We've gotten to around 2,000 homes in two days which is really good for the 2-3 hours each day. We are putting out our new Gospel flyer which announces our events and we're putting out the sports card size invited to Holiday Bible Club (VBS.)  In other evagnelistic news, I was able to do street preaching on Monday morning.

Our Bible study was a delight this evening. It's fun to see new believers growing in the Lord. Several are advancing in their walk with Him. Our study tonight was David motivating his soldiers to take the stronghold of Jerusalem. There is great motivation found in that text for us as well as we seek promotion from our King and seek to please Him.

On Friday we have a joint youth activity with Pastor Dillman's church. We'll also be putting out leaflets on Saturday morning. Please pray for good weather and God's grace for these extra activities. Thanks for praying with us.

God blessed us with great weather for the Gala. This is a matter of prayer annually and God has continually provided the weather that was needed. 

Our activities at the Gala were well attended as is normal. We were non-stop busy from about 1:30-4:30. We have archery, photo board with cut outs, train rides (pulled), corn hole, disk golf and badge (button) making. We hand out invites to our HBC and to our church service. Please pray for God to use our testimony for Him in the community to increase His work in our area.

This morning was pretty well attended. We enjoyed having two visitors from Virginia with us. I preached this morning on, "The Mountain Top of God's Call" from Moses' call in Exodus 3. 

Our painting work on the front of the church was completed and it is beautiful! The Lord blessed us with 3 days mostly without precipitation and allowed us to get that done. Please pray for wisdom what building work to accomplish before our dedication service on 13 July. We can't do everything, but we want to do what we can to get ready. Thank you for praying for our family and ministry.

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.