We have had a LOT of rainy weather over the last several weeks. Anyone that's here would give their agreement to that. So, when it wasn't raining this morning and it was calm, I decided to go into Edinburgh. My weather app called for rain, but I thought I'd get some preaching in before it came. I think it started raining just a minute or two into my opportunity and so I preached half an hour in the rain. I had a jacket with me and put that on my speaker. Please pray for the power of God's Word to open the hearts of those who passed by. 

Meanwhile, in the rain we can still work on the property. William, a man in our church, helped me yesterday to mud and tape the sound room. We need to get it sorted so that our sound equipment will have a home. The sound room is the old back bar of the dance hall. God had it all ready for our purposes and we thank Him for His good provision.

We had good attendance at our church on Sunday even though I and the boys were absent. God even sent a visitor who is planning to come again. We also had return visitors. So, praise the Lord! Thank you for praying for our attendance. 

My boys and I are just back from men's camp. We were supposed to arrive on Saturday evening, but our flight was cancelled due to a storm. We were at a friend's home when it canceled (Declan and Bethany Flanagan) and they kindly had us stay with them for two nights. That stay was a lot of fun for all of us. The Les Hill family spent the afternoon with us yesterday and we had great fellowship. I was also able to preach at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sword's (Declan's ministry) and be blessed to meet his church family.

Camp was awesome.... it always is. Those of us who are ministers wish all of our church family could benefit from the focused preaching, good singing, great fellowship, etc.... God's blessed us with very close ministry friends in Scotland, Ireland and Europe. We are striving together for the faith of the Gospel. Pastor Craig Ledbetter runs the camp with his church family. They do a great job! 

For those who were praying for the preaching - thank you! God gave great liberty to all of us as we shared His Word.

Well, it's a bit like Christmas this week with things progressing very quickly. We got a very good price on a digital mini grand piano and we were able to take delivery today. The company stored it for 2 months while we worked to finish the sanctuary. God's good and we are thankful for His provision and guidance.

The carpeting is finished and it is beautiful - Praise  the Lord. Here is a link to a 4 minute before an after video on google drive.

...So, below are 7,000 words and a big praise the Lord! The carpeting should be completed tomorrow.

I don't normally go this long between posts, but it's a sign of the times. We have been super busy and have been leaving the church at around 8:00 PM most nights for the past few weeks. Thankfully, we hit a milestone in building works on Friday as everything was finished in the creche and sanctuary so that the carpet can be installed tomorrow and Tuesday. The piano (baby digital grand) is expected to be delivered on Wednesday. We got a wonderful purchase price on the piano and the carpet is also paid for - praise the Lord.

We're tired, but God has been very good. I wasn to give a shout out to my family for their hard work. The boys have done well keeping motivated on work that isn't always fun, but was necessary. (My wife has done much work as well.) Some in our church also helped this past week which was an added blessing.

God gave us a great time with the mission team from Nolensville Road Baptist Church. They were only with us about 6 days, but God blessed their efforts to push our building work forward. They also helped in evangelism, testimonies, music and preaching. They were special days.

Today we enjoyed our Resurrection Sunday. We had 5 guests last week from our village. This week we had two guest from the United States,  Gary and Tami Neil. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to England and Scotland. It was a joy to have them visit our church. We also enjoyed a fellowship meal after the service. 

I preached from Luke 24, on Resurrection Reactions. It's interesting to consider the roller coaster of emotion/reactions surrounding the news that Jesus tomb was empty. Tonight we are going to look at some pictures from Israel, read the story of Christ's death and resurrection and sing the Resurrection Hymns.

special prayer request: some of us our attending men's camp in Ireland starting this Thursday. I get to preach one of the session. My slot is 8:30 PM Thursday night. Please pray for all of the preachers and for God to do a great work in the hearts of the men. Thanks for your prayers and interest in God's work at SFBC and for our family.

PS. In family news - Logan and Nelson's pipe band was in a competition on Saturday and Logan participated. If you'd like to see the video it is on our church facebook page - freebaptistlothian.

God has blessed us with two pipers in our family. Both are doing very well and progressing in that discipline. Logan recently bought his own set of pipes and his own outfit. Sometimes when I go street preaching, Logan, or Logan and Nelson, go down with me and do busking. People sometimes think our kids are not from Scotland. They are partly right and partly wrong. Nelson was born here and Logan was 4 when we arrived. It's great to see them doing something which is Scottish, which people enjoy seeing, and which is lucrative. Please pray for God's provision for all of the kids as they save for Bible college.

God gave tremendous liberty preaching on the street this morning. Here is a video link from our Sermon Audio Page. There was marked spiritual warfare. A man turned my speaker off. Another man put his hand on my shoulder while yelling at me. Another man yelled at me. But, I spoke with a woman from Hong Kong who is a believer. She is new to the area and we have a family from Hong Kong visiting our church. I received her mobile number and hope to connect them. Another young couple stood and listened for about 20 minutes. I witnessed to them for 20 minutes after I finished. I hope to see them out for church as God is definitely working in their lives. Please pray that we will see some fruit from this labour and for God's continued enablement to boldly share His Word on the street.

Nolansville Baptist church group (13 in total) are arriving tomorrow. Please pray for this to be a very blessed trip for them and for our church. We're excited about what God is going to do. Thanks for praying.

This was a utility week to push forward on the building. I did get out in evangelism with Pastor Dillman on Wednesday over in his area. We didn't have any opportunities to speak with anyone, but we put out several hundred Gospel flyers.

Otherwise, the Lord allowed us to finish the back wall of the sanctuary. One of our prayer requests when seeking a property was that it would be, "Beautiful." God has answered that prayer on the outside and on the inside of the building. We're so thankful for God's leading, provision and grace.

We didn't have record attendance this morning, but God sent us a visitor. The husband of one of our members joined us for his first time. That was a joy to all of us and we hope that we'll see him come more regularly.

I preached this morning on the Gospel as I preached from 2 Cor. 4:1-11 on Jesus Seen In You. Please pray for us to make Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh as Paul did. It was a good reminder.

This week on Tuesday, Pastor Wesley Waddle and a team from Nolansville Baptist Church will be with us. Please pray for God to bless all of our labours whether church building works, evangelism, or church ministry. Next Sunday their team is going to share salvation testimonies in SS, Pastor Waddle is preaching the AM and anothe man in the group is preaching in the evening. We look forward to what God is going to do. Thanks for your prayers.

Our church keeps a facebook page primarily for a public testimony in our local community. We do enjoy the greetings from our friends all around the world as well. The handle on facebook is "freebaptistlothian." Here is a link.

Here is my update from tonight - Platform backdrop is finished once the paint dries. It looks better in person, so if you are in the area, feel free to visit our church. Also, one of the pics has a sample of the carpet which will be installed in the next couple of weeks. These are exciting days and we are grateful for God's grace and guidance.

Some of you may have wondered what we meant by wall decoration. We put panels behind the platform today. These still need to be primed and painted. A cross is also going on the wall near the peak. We postponed the carepet for a couple more weeks as we needed breathing space to finish the work. A friend's church is coming next week to help us out - PRAISE THE LORD! Please continue to pray for God's blessings upon our work.