God, once again, blessed us with a visitor - Wednesday night AND another one this morning. We praise God for these friends, even though both were from other countries. It was a blessing to get to know them and we hope that we encoraged them both in their walk with the Lord. They encouraged us.

The visitor Wednesday night was from street preaching. Niina joined us for a meal and then stayed for the service. Would you please pray for God's strength for her as she is a very difficult country - Finland? Her salvation was because of a friend who went to Wales, heard the Gospel and was saved. These both need a good church.

I preached this morning on the Great Commission to the church, which sadly could be called at times, the Great ommission of the church. The message was from Joshua 1, Tread Out Your Commission. Please pray for God to help our church live in light of our Gospel stewardship.

The Gala Day ministry went very well. We had 6 adults from our church helping with our family as we ran the event. God blessed us ONCE AGAIN with beautiful weather in answer to believing prayer. We give Him glory and praise for His goodness. It rained in the morning, but not during the event. We had numerous opportunities to share Christ and invite kids to our HBC. (Holiday Bible Club.) Two children were registered by last night. Please pray for this event as it begins a few days after our families return from the USA. (4-8 August.) Thank you for your prayers!

The Lord allowed me to get down street preaching in Edinbugh today. It was an interesting day. A young woman (32) stood there for about 30 plus minutes as I preached. I found out afterwards that she is a believer and was able to give her some Biblical counseling. She is from Finland and is only here until Thursday.

Towards the end of my preaching, I had a little bit of confrontation from two women. However, a young man (20) came up right then and shook my hand. He kept standing beside me and they walked away. He also stayed until the end. He is from Edinburgh. Both of these are supposed to join our family for a meal tomorrow evening. Would you pray that God would do a great work in both of their lives. They are both seeking to follow God and needed some encoruagement. 

It was obvious that God had divine appointments for me this morning. Though it was raining God still put on my heart to get down there. Thank you for your prayers for the street preaching ministry.

We praise God that we continue to see regular visitors to our church. God's been very good to us in this regard. We had a mother and young teen daughter join us today for their first time. Please pray for God's leading as they visit us.

We had a good morning though the attendance in our 10AM was low. Our AM attendance was ok, but still several were missing. God has kept our attendance up by those who have visited continuing to come. 3 that were there this morning began coming in the last 1.5 months and have faithfully come ever since.

The message this morning was on, "Loving God's House" from Psalm 84. It's a powerful text on the correlation between our love for God and our love for the public place - where we meet with God and meet with the body of Christ. I enjoyed sharing it with our church.

Next Saturday is a special outreach opportunity for our church and we'd appreciate your prayers as we participate in ou community children's fair (Gala Day.) Please pray for good weather, good helpers and good times with those who visit our booth. We have archery, bean bag toss, disk golf, badge (button) making, etc. It's always a lot of fun and we have a good number of helpers signed up. Thank you for your prayers for our church and ministries. God's hand is evident.

We enjoyed a wonderful morning at church. God blessed us with an adult visitor in SS and another one who joined us for church. They were both a blessing and I believe we'll see both of them come ou again. Thank you for praying for church growth, God is building His church. Please also pray for God's people to not let anything derail them from faithfulness to God's house. Church attedance can be a bit of a roller coaster at times and we dearly long for everyone to be in attendance at one time (even just once.) I'm sure that everyone who attends church an relate to that prayer request. (Satan is against us - may God help us all overcome.)

I doubt that anyone will be surprised that we focused on Biblical Fatherhood on Father's day. I preached a topical message entitled, "God, OUR Father." With God's fatherhood as our example we considered a father's ministry to His children. There is a GREAT need for Godly father's in our day and Biblical parenting. If only, our world would believe God's Word and take the answers to their problems from His book. What a different world this would be! Thanks for praying - your prayers are much appreciated!

God blessed us again with a first time visitor, a young lady. We were thankful to meet her and are hopeful that we'll see her next Sunday. This was a fun week of visitors. On Wednesday evening we had 7 visitors from GA with us. Among them was a young couple, called of God to Scotland. We met up again with them on Thursday and Friday and had some quailty time with them. Please pray for God's clear leading for them as they finish up Bible college and get ready to head to Scotland.

This morning, we had some encouragement as I mentioned. Our SS attendance was better and our AM attendance was ok. I hope soon that several that have been away will be back again with us. I preached this morning on, "Pack Your Bags" from 2 Peter 3 a text about the soon appearance of  Jesus Christ.  We, of all generations, ought to have our bags packed and ready! 

This afternoon was our care home service, from which we have just returned. I preached there on the Woman at the Well. We have about a dozen folks who attend and they are all appreciative of our coming. I hope that the Gospel, which God has designed to be effective, does a great work in each of their hearts. Thank you for your prayers!

God has blessed us with regular visitors as of late. A mother and an infant daughter visited with us today. Also, our visitor from last week was back again. It's always a blessing to have visitors who come and say, "See you next Sunday." Praise the Lord! Both of these gave those encouraging words as they headed away today.

Since this is the first Sunday of the month, we again visited our 2025 them, "Crucified with Him." This morning was Paul's words, "I die daily" as we focused on Paul's consecration, conviction and continuation. The message was, "Crucified with Him unto Longevity." God help us not to be "on again off again" or "off to never be on again." We desire to see believers who will steadfastly go on for God. Paul's statement if followed as a creed would make it certain that we finish our course while still running in our race.

Although great things are happening, it is spiritual warfare and we need God to do a great work in the hearts of His people. Please continue to pray for the power of God at SFBC. Your prayers are much appreciated.

We thoroughly enjoyed the ministry of Pete and Gail Tidd with BWM. They shared their testimonies in the Sunday School hour. They were involved in church planting in Canada, Venezuela, and the US. They are now furlough replacement missionaries and were on their way back to the US from Spain.

Brother Tid preached on Matthew's call and the banquet at his home in our AM service. In the PM service he spoke on the 4 men who brought their friend to Christ. It was a good day with fun fellowship meals following both services. We had a first time visitor who also signed up to attend the men's prayer breakfast this Saturday. We look forward to getting to know Daniel even better. A lady in our church also had her brother from out of town with her in the morning serivce.

Thank you for praying for our services and for God's good work at SFBC.

We are enjoying having guests around this week who are a part of the Baptist World Mission family. Peter and Gail Tidd are furlough replacement missionaries on their way back from a furlough replacement in Spain. It's a joy to meet them. Brother Tidd is going to preach at our youth activity on Friday and take our services on Sunday. And so, we are going to have a missions emphasis Sunday with a luncheon.

Today the Tidds joined me as I went down street preaching. God gave us a great morning. A special blessing was the email to Katie during the preaching that said, "I don't know if you remember me.... I used to come to your church... I'm just sitting on princes street listenin to Ben. Wonderful. Truly wonderful." Praise God for reconnecting with someone and for hearing that they were blessed by the preaching this morning.

We don't get a lot of positive feedback from the street evangelism, other than what is happening while preaching. (fist bumps, hand shakes, thumb's up.... or encouraging words.) It's great to hear that God encouraged this heart this morning.

Thank you for praying for that ministry. God enables every time the opportunity is taken and I'm very thankful for your prayers.

Living in Scotland there are two things which we don't complain about that other's might. The first is global warming. Our temperatures in July averages around 66 degrees fahrenheit. We'd probably say about global warming, "Bring it on." The other thing we don't complain about is the lack of rain. Normally, that is because we have more than heart could desire. However, Britain is currently in a very unusual dry pattern for Spring that they says is the driest in nearly a century. We are enjoying the abundant sunshine from this unusual weather pattern.

With regard to our Sunday, today started as many pastor's "dread" with notices of who would be unable to attend. I think we knew of 6 entities that would not make it this morning. Thankfully, our morning service was still pretty well attended though we missed those who were not there. A young man from a sister church in Elgin visited with us this morning. It was good to see him going to church despite being away from his home area. We enjoyed getting to know him.

I preached this morning on, "The Happy Man vs. The Miserable Man" from Psalm 1. Interestingly, most people, and many believers, are looking for happiness in all of the wrong places. What's sad is that as believers, God has told us where to look. (Avoid them, enjoy Him, and Prosper.)

It was a busy ministry week. The ladies' meeting Monday night went well. The Tuesday day of prayer in Blair Atholl was a blessing. The Ladie's Afternoon Tea yesterday was well attended by our church ladies and a few other sister churches. Thank you for praying for God's blessings which were evident.

It's great to have Logan home from college. He arrived yesterday afternoon. His luggage thankfully arrived today.

He came in on our busy Sunday as we had our care home service in the afternoon.

God gave us a great day. Yesterday morning our visitors from last week returned. They intend to be here next week as well. Also, we had a couple from Australia visit our evening service. We enjoyed a good Bible study and fun fellowship with them afterwards.

I preached in the AM service on, "God or Idols?" from Isaiah 44. The main thought was, "What to remember when tempted to turn away from God." Sadly, God's people have historically struggled with keeping God first in their lives. 

We have some further special events going on this week. Tonight is our monthly ladies' Bible study. Tomorrow is one of our days of prayer for ministers. 5 of us meet for prayer up in Blair Atholl, Scotland. On Saturday our church ladies' are hosting a Ladies' Afternoon Tea. Other churches are invited and we hope to see some visitors from our area as well.

I street preached this morning, but found out my equipment was not recording. God gave a good outing. There was one man I spoke with before preaching and afterwards who may visit the church. He is a believer who was working nearby. Thank you for praying for all of the above. It is God's work. He is the person of power. We're just thankful to work with Him.