We enjoyed getting back to knocking on doors yesterday. We had some good conversations as we continue to meet some people in the neighbourhood of our church property.

This morning was well attended. It was good to have a visiting family from Canada with us. Our theme for the year is, "Thou art worthy, O Lord." I'm preaching a series of messages on that theme. This week, I preached from Daniel 6 on, "Worthy of Worship." Daniel's faithfulness to meet with the Lord is a great example of the kind of worship of which God is worthy. One of the famous Bible stories is a result of his obedience, (Daniel and the Lion's Den.) 

Lord willing, work is going to continue moving forward on the property this week. The plan is to have the platform built towards the end of this week. Please pray with us for wisdom as we continue to make decisions about building works and completion. Please pray specifically that God will give us wisdom about sanctuary chairs, a pulpit, and a piano. We went to a piano shop yesterday and have gotten some ideas of what we believe God would have us do.

It's fun showing our guests the property when they visit. We have heard many different people say, "God hasn't given the church this great building without a plan to fill it (with people.)" We wholeheartedly agree! We appreciate your prayers for God's work in building that aspect of our church. We love our church family and are thankful for each person God adds to our assembly. 

The Lord has given us a good week of ministry. Yesterday, I and another minister (Don Dillman) headed to Blair Atholl to meet 3 other ministers for a day of prayer. I would guess that we have been meeting now for about 5 years with greater frequency (bi-monthly now) and these are very special days. Everyone of us would testify that they are not only good but necessary. We are seeking God work in answer to our prayers.

Today I met up with Don again to do ministry by his church. A man contacted him yesterday who has many needs in his life. We had a great chat with him and this man would like to come visit Don's church. Please pray that God will help meet his physical and spiritual needs.

Tonight a lady visited our church who recieved a flyer last week. I believe she will come again. Please pray for her as well that God would help us be a blessing to her. Our study on the Life of David this evening was on David consulting with his heart and departing into enemy territory. (1 Samuel 27)

My dad is not doing well. He is really out of it. Thankfully he started sleeping on and off yesterday morning at 5:00 AM. He had been awake for almost 3 days. It is still very difficult and much wisdom is needed. He remains in hospital. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Some of you may remember that my father has alzheimers. It has been getting progressively worse. Last Wednesday dad came down with pneumonia. He had severe confusion, fell and my mom could not get him up. He was taken to hospital by ambulance. They put him on a couple of antibiotics and tried sedation drugs. The first night in the hospital he slept. The last two nights he has not slept at all and has had to be kept in bed every few minutes. My brother and mom are both at the hospital, but they need rest as well. Would you please pray for wisdom, strength and grace for them all? Thanks for praying.

God blessed us with a great first week of ministry in 2024. We're thankful to be off the starting block in what God wants to do. Yesterday our church had a work day and we got some cleaning done in the sanctuary. The contractor did some work in the creche (nursery) this past week. So, the building progress continues.

We had a good morning. I enjoyed preaching on, "Worthy of Obedience" from James 1:20-24. Our church theme this year is going to be, "Thou Art Worthy, O Lord." This message was the first in a series I plan on bringing on Sunday mornings.

Yesterday was a good, but very busy day. My family did some clean up at the church. I went into Edinburgh and preached on Princess St. The Lord gave tremendous liberty. I had some people encourage me and didn't really face any definite oppositon. Two unusual things happened: A sidewalk street sweeper stopped right in front of me about 12 inches away as he waited for pedestrian traffic to clear. A young girl came up and gave me a 5 pence coin. :) I'm praying for her, will you pray for her just now as well?

Last night we had a good Bible study. I have picked up our, "Life of David" study from SS and brought it back on Wednesday nights. We took about a year break from that study. Interestingly there are more stories of David, I would guess, than almost anyone else in the Word of God. I'm enjoying being back at it in this study. Here is the link from last nights story of David and Abishai in Saul's camp. This is part two, the previous lesson is part 1 of that story.

I put out flyers this morning for a few hours in a village within 2 miles of our church. It felt good to get back at it and God gave me a good weather window for outreach. I had one really good divine appointment with a man who does not believe in God. We spoke for at least 45 minutes.

He was in a t-shirt, but he didn't let that keep him from our conversation. The neighbours also got home and were going in and out of the garage right next to us, but that also did not hinder our discussion. I know that God was leading in our conversation. My prayer is that he will recognise that as well. Would you pray with me for Him that God would make Himself known to Him? (God did that with the Apostle Paul and he can certainly do that in our day as well.)

Without God's involvement, there is no way we can reach our community for Christ. Your prayers are much appreciated as we enter into the evangelism work of 2024.

Our family has enjoyed some great "down time" over the holidays. Yesterday was a beautiful day. We went for a 4 mile walk along the North Sea. I'll put some pics below.

We enjoyed having a visitor from the communiy with us this morning. That's a fun way to end 2023. God gave us a good morning. I preached a topical message setting the vision for 2024 for prayer and participation. I hope that 2024 is a year of traction for the body of Christ around the world. We appreciate your prayers for that here, and pray God's same blessing upon your church as well.

Tonight we are having a special service with fellowship and games afterwards. We've invited the community, but we'll see if any attend. We have not yet had visitors respond to the many invitations to our special holiday events. That's ok, as our job ends with getting the word and invitations out. God gives the increase. 

We look forward to a good night together regardless of who is in attendance. May God bless you and yours with a very Happy New Year, whenever that takes place at your address.

Our hearts were saddened yesterday to find out that one of our regular attendees had passed away. Her husband was with us in church this morning. Please pray for God's grace for him and his family.

We had goot attendance this morning and enjoyed showing everyone the progress on the sanctuary. We are all excited to soon have this part of the project finished.

We enjoyed studying the docrtine of the Holy Spirit in SS. In the morning service, I preached on Jesus being presented to God at the Temple from Luke 2. My message was, "Behold Him" and questioned whether or not we see Him for Who He is. There was a good Spirit and we're thankful for God's blessing on our morning of ministry.

Tonight at 6pm is our church carol sing service. Some have indicated they will be there whom we've not seen in church for quite some time. Please pray with us that they will come and that the Gospel will be clearly presented.

Our church is blessed to have a great group of prayer and financial supporters behind us in our ministry and church work. May God bless each of you with a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Below are some pictures from our street evangelism in Edinburgh yesterday morning. Our church handed out candy canes with our Christmas Flyer.

I'm very grateful to God for his goodness in helping us to finish the walls of the sanctuary. This was a two week endeavour of filling, sanding and painting. The walls have turned out beautifully. In case you have forgotten what the room looked like before, I'll put some before and after pics below.

We have a lot of plates spinning just now as we seek to finish the sanctuary with Christmas events taking place. Katie's Christmas tea was last Friday. On Sunday evening we will have our Carol Sing Service. We're putting out Christmas literature inviting our community to attend. Yesterday and today my famiy put literature out in our village of Auchendinny which is just under 3 miles from our church.

The church work is progressing. We are not just painting the walls, but repairing the walls as well. The walls are going to take 3-4 coats of paint. They have also been filled (spackled) and sanded twice. It's fun to see the end product beginning to be realised. The stage and baptistry are supposed to be built this week, but the men have not started working on it yet. We obtained a good quote on the carpet and believe we will move forward with what we had them price out.

We had a good Sunday and enjoyed having visitors from Singapore with us. I preached  a message on the final act of the Christmas Story from Matthew 2.

Thank you for praying for everything that is taking place. God's hand has been evident.