Praise God for new beginnings and for the first day of the week upon which we gather to worship. We enjoyed our time in the house of God this morning. Our visiting family returned and it was great to have them with us again. I preached this morning on "An Edificational Example" which Paul gave to the Corinthians. The example was Israel - the people of God who failed him by wicked desire.  But, we are to learn from their failure. And, God has provided the way of victory....

God allowed us to have a good youth activity Friday. We also enjoyed a good time fellowshipping with our sister church in Livingston (Almond Valley Baptist) yesterday at a men's prayer breakfast. God also gave me a divine appointment yesterday. Thank you for praying for the ministries of our church. We need your prayers and thank God for you.

The Lord gave me a several divine appointments as I handed out flyers in Edinburgh this morning. The first was with a young college student from India. I spoke with her for about ten - fifteen minutes. The conversation was very good and I believe she will pick up her Bible and read some things. She said that she would. I gave her a John and Romans.

The second coversation took place as I gave a flyer to a Moslem family. We were crossing the road together but they stopped on the other side to talk. We spoke for probably 15 minutes. We're studying Romans in SS and I used Paul's arguments against self righteousness.

1.) No matter how good you think you are - you have broken God's law (many times.)

2.) If you think your goodness changes the fact that you are a sinner....

               a. You are proud and God hates pride.

                b. You are saying to God you must let me into Heaven because you owe me salvation (because of my goodness.)

Please pray for their salvation, we had a fun conversation that I believe was impacting for them.

The last conversation may have been the best. Please pray for a 23 year old man named, Gabriel. He's from Derry, Northern Ireland but is Brazilian. We spoke for about 20 minutes. He may already be saved but God was definitely guiding in our conversation. I took out my phone to look through my emails as a friend of mine started a Baptist Church in Derry. We found the church name and I hope he will look it up when he gets back home.

Thank you for your prayers for our evangelism. Praise God, He opened doors for me today.

God gave us a visiting familiy this morning. They are a Christian family who received a flyer from a housing scheme that is very close to our church location. Praise the Lord! It is not very often that putting a flyer through someone's mailslot results in feet in the door on Sunday. Please pray for God's leading for this young family as they pray about where God wants them to attend church.

God gave us a good morning with faithful attendance on the part of our people. I enjoyed preaching a message on being a good soldier for Jesus, "Like Gideon and Phurah" from Judges 7. It is an inspiring story reminding us of God's ability to defeat his enemy DESPITE US and with us. 

We very much appreciate your prayers for our evanglism and our church growth. God gave us a two very good witnessing opportunities as we knocked on doors. One man we spoke with for nearly half an hour. He is an atheist. Please pray for God's Spirit to open his eyes.

On Monday I finished an area which another man in my church had helped me with last week. That housing scheme contains about 400-450 homes. Today Pastor Dilman and I headed out to Biggar. I've had a burden for Biggar since soon after arriving here. God has given me some very interesting divine appointments. Today God gave us a few divine appointments. I witnessed briefly to a man who was a police officer in Northern England for 30 years. He said that because of that, he knew all about sin. 

We also spoke with a retired church of Scotland minister as well as the current minister. Both are born again. I spoke with them about coming out of the church of Scotland. The church of Scotland is Presbyterian and began strongly evangelical with John Knox and the Protestant Reformation. However, when you baptize babies and make church membership available to unbelievers, you very quickly lose your salt and light. The big problem most recently has to do with the Church of Scotland speaking lies in God's name regarding marriage. The Bible has been corrected by modern religion and faith has been undermined. Please pray for God to awaken the State Church as it would have a great impact on the sleeping population. 

Our church is praying for Biggar and are thankful that we had the opportunity to sow some Gospel seed in that community today.

God blessed us with a good morning. Our attendance was a bit lower as one family was away for a medical emergency. Please pray for a lady in our church who's mother is in intensive care with an infection.

It was a blessing to have a men's trio sung in church this morning singing, "A Sinner Like Me." I preached this morning on Acts 10, His Choice Witnesses. Peter was our example in evangelism as he took the Gospel to Cornelious.

God gave us a good morning. Thank you for praying.

It was a blessing to have three of the adults in our church involved in church outreach this past week. We enjoyed knocking on doors on Saturday and had a good follow up visit with a man who we recently led to the Lord. Two adults joined us for door to door. Another man joined me on Monday as we put out flyers in our area. He's been memorizing a verse about being involved in God's work. It encouraged him to volunteer to go out with me.

Pastor Dillman and I were out in Livingston today. We didn't have any witnessing opportunities. However, about 250 flyers were put out and we are praying that they will find a warm reception in each home. 

In other news, we are doing a kitchen remodel. My brother in law and uncle have just booked tickets to come over and help with the instalation of the new kitchen next month. We've been getting things ready for the installation. I'll include some pics below. Thanks for your prayers for our family and ministry.

The Lord gave us a very good morning. The attendance was strong and there was a sweet spirit in our services this morning. I enjoyed preaching and teaching on Faith this morning. In SS we were looking at Abraham's faith in Romans 4. I preached on, "Unlocking Faith's Potential" from Hebrews 11:1-6 this morning. God challenged my faith and I believe He challenged the faith of our people as well. Thank you for your prayers for our ministry today. God gave us a very good morning.

I had a complaint last night from our flyer distribution with an upset father. I don't know his name, but his two children have Bible names which I do remember. We ended up speaking on the phone for 45 minutes. He's upset that the flyer speaks Biblically about Hell and that unbelievers are going there. Please pray that God will awaken his heart and that he will get saved. I was able to share the Gospel with him and he very kindly listened. He was going to put the flyer on social media to see what others think.... ie. agree with him against God and this kind of teaching.

As I got off the phone, I thought about Jesus and His public speaking on Hell. "The rich man died and in hell.... being in torments.... I am tormented in this flame." "Cast into outer darkness where the worm dieth not and the flame is not quenched."  I don't want to be unkind. However,  I don't want to be less clear than the Master when sharing HIs message. Please pray for the power of God upon this flyer. (I noticed that this is not a final copy of the flyer as there are typo's. However, it is easy to include and so I'll include it here.)

It's cold... but we can't complain because the USA is in a deeeeep freeeeze. Our temps are just below freezing but with high humidity. Yesterday I put out flyers in Bilston which is a village very near our church location. The area I was in is less than a mile from our meeting place. Today Pastor Dillman and I drove West to three little Villages. Two of them are in the Scottish Borders (county) and the other is closer back towards our home area. Would you believe that as we finished one of these wee villages about 8 JW's arrived to knock on doors? It was convicting to see the enemy of righteousness dressed as an angel of light doing more than God's church. 

God gave us 2 divine appointments. Please pray for Owen and Drew. Both are older men who spoke openly and with interest of spiritual things. As always it was a great time of fellowship. Please continue to pray for the Dillmans as they serve God in Livingston.

Special prayer request: Merle Ventrello whom we just honoured for 50 years of ministry in Scotland is very ill and in hospital. His kidneys are failing and they have other concerns. Please pray for his wife Barbara as well as Merle. I'll seek to update when possible.

It is one of those windy Scottish days. We have a sign with water inside that blew over a couple times this morning. The rushing mighty wind was physically present this morning. Pray that the Wind of the Spirit would be with us spiritually. We did have a blessed morning.

I enjoyed preaching on "filthy lucre" this moring as I preached a message on our stewardship of money from Luke 16:1-14, Making Money Count for Eternity.

God gave us some good witnessing opportunities during our door to door yesterday. It was our first time have 3 groups. Jack and Benson were a team. Callum and I were a team. And Katie and Logan were a team. Please pray for those to whom we spake. Each team had one good or very good witnessing opportunity.