I put flyers through a small village (50 houses) this morning about 10 miles away. The countryside surrounding this village is beautiful. The Lord gave me two divine appointments this morning. I spoke with a young man who says that he is open but is definitely an atheist. Please pray that God will awaken his heart. Please also pray for a man I met whose parents are elders in the Church of Scotland. Thank you for praying!

It was very cold temperatures this morning but without wind and with sunshine it made for a decent morning to get out to do flyers. I was able to finish a village about 2 miles from Loanhead. I'm going to target some villages a bit further away now that the close areas are completed.

I had one really good divine appointment which was also an answer to prayer. I had prayed for people to stop and chat even though it was very cold. This man got out of his car wearing shorts :) with his hands full of papers and a cup of coffee. He dropped a piece of paper and with everything else in his hands managed to pick it up. He was the last person which I expected to stop and chat, but he did. Please pray for him. He admitted that he could understand what I was saying about life being empty without a relationship with God. Please pray for wisdom about following up with him if we don't see him at church. He was pretty open.

I also had a devout atheist track me down to let me know that my "teleological" argument  could not possible be true. I just smiled at him and said, "Well, I'm not a philosopher" since philosophers had agreed that this kind of argument is false. Please pray that God would also awaken his heart and the heart of the elderly Jehovah's Witness lady to whom I spoke. She admitted that it was wrong to worship anyone but God. But she explained away the worship of Jesus by saying, "But that was a different kind of worship." 

I received a phone call about this flyer last week which thankfully I didn't answer. The caller asked me not to post any more "hate mail" through his mail slot. I won't have any trouble complying with that request as I have never posted any hate mail through anyone's mail slot. I think perhaps his definition of hate mail is, "Mail that he hates." :)

Thanks for praying for us. God is working in our community and we praise His name!

The Lord gave us a good youth activity on Friday. We had 7 teens out for the activity which was very good attendance. I preached on, "Taste and See that the Lord is good." Katie provided a great meal for us and we had a really good time.

This morning was a good service. We had an older man from the community join us for the first time. It was good to have him there. I preached on, "The Answer to Man's Need for Godliness" from 1 Timothy 3:16. Please pray that God will use the audio of this salvation sermon online. 

This week is a normal week. Next Monday Katie has a ladies' meeting and she'd appreciate your prayer as she begins a new year of women's ministry.

Don and I enjoyed getting out in his area yesterday to put out information regarding their new church plant. Please pray for God to build up his group. The Lord has given them a single woman and a married couple who are attending their meetings.

Today our community newspaper, the Midlothian Advertiser, published an article which I wrote entitled, "Is that Really What the Bible Says?" Please pray that God will use it to help people to see through the error of religions that say, "That is our interpretation." The article focuses on "interpretation" vs. "misrepresentation." It is not available online yet, but here is a link to my article last year, "Do Good People Go To Heaven?" 

Please pray for our youth activity tomorrow night as well. It looks like we could have up to 10 young people come if everyone attends.

I was able to put flyers out in Roslin yesterday for a couple of hours. It was very cold but warm enough to get some work done.

I also uploaded some pictures to the webpage from the Israel trip. If you look under the photo page or click on this link you can see them. I hope to label them as well in the near future.

The Lord gave us a good Sunday. I didn't show pictures this morning but will share some of those with our folks tonight. I preached this morning on, "The Lord's Lesson on Prayer" from Luke 11:1-13.

We'd appreciate your prayers for our youth activity this Friday. God has given us a new teenager who faithfully attends our church. Lord willing, this will be her first youth activity. We hope her brother will attend as well. He's come to one church service.

Thank you for praying for our ministry.

I got back from Israel around 11:00 Scotland time today. I flew through the night and am thankful for the Lord's help getting sleep along the way. It's hard to know where to start in sharing any of our experiences over there. I can't imagine a better schedule, better weather, better group, etc. It was a very precious trip and I appreciate all of your prayers. The devotional at Engedi went very well. Thank you for praying specifically for that.

Soon, I will be sending out a prayer letter and uploading many photo's from my trip. I want to say a public thank you to Craig Hartman (Shalom Ministries) and Dr. Steadman (Baptist World Mission) for organizing this trip. I can't imagine how much though and work went into making this a great experience for all.

I'll put a couple pics below. Many more will be posted in the near future. Thank you for putting up with the "radio silence" in my absence.

We enjoyed having Don and Chris Dillman with us today. Don is preaching all the service today as I get ready to leave for Israel. I fly out later this afternoon. God gave us a great morning. We have gained some attendees since our carol sing service and hope that they continue to come. It's been a blessing having them there. Don gave us a good challenge this morning from Genesis 22, Abraham's sacrifice (in principle) of his son, Isaac.

Please pray for Katie and the kids in my absence. They are also jumping back into school this week. This is my first trip to Israel and I'm excited about the opportunity. God opened this door for me. Please pray for great benefit spiritually from my time over there. Please also pray for me next Monday as I get to share a 15-20 minute message with our tour group in Engedi. I'm going to preach on Jonathan, the Engedi Encourager.

We enjoyed the first day of the week, of the month and of the year. We had a 10:30 service this morning and then came over to our home for a baptismal service. Lilliana, a lady who was recently saved, and Nelson, our 6 year old were baptized. I'll put some pictures below.

I'm also putting a link to my father's testimony which he shared in Lasalle Peru, IL today. My dad was in a very bad car accident in the early 1970's. He was 26 years old, married with 3 little boys. God took his family that day and dad had severe injuries. Dad has always used this testimony (though very difficult) to show God's almighty grace. If you have time to listen, I know it will be a blessing to those who hear it.

God did something special tonight and gave us the highest attendance service that we've ever had. We had 50 people in attendance this evening. The children did a wonderful job with their songs and everyone enjoyed singing the carols. I preached on reasons why people don't receive God's gift. Please pray for eternal fruit in the hearts of those who heard that message this evening. Thank you for praying for this special night of ministry. God's blessing was evident not just in the numbers but also in the spirit of the service.

Below is a picture from our ministry at The Trust yesterday and our carol service this evening. Tomorrow we have a service at 10:30 and then we are going to enjoy a family Christmas. Have a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for your prayers.