God provided a two hour weather window this morning and I was able to put out between 2-3 hundred flyers. Just as I got back to the car a soaking rain set in. I saw it coming and knew it was going to be close. I didn't have any long conversation but two short opportunities to briefly speak to someone and personally hand them a flyer.

On my return home, I stopped at the home of a family who's daughter attends our church. Please pray for her father. He got an infection in both his legs that also can attack your organs. He's home from the hospital but can't go down the steps from their flat which is on the first floor (second floor in the US.) He's five weeks into this and needs God's grace to get back on his feet. He wants to attend church and was going to start to come more at the beginning of this year but then got ill. God knows. Your prayers are appreciated.

Tonight our children are looking forward to serving everyone at our John 3:16 banquet. They have been planning this special night for a few weeks. We're going to eat and fellowship together and I'm going to preach a message on God's love from John 3:16. Your prayers are appreciated for this special night.

This is the third Sunday in a row with high winds. We've got wind gusts warnings and we could hear the wind during the service. Thankfully our church signs held up. A water weighted sign for our church blew over last week.

I enjoyed preaching this morning on Micah's resolve in a spiritually difficult day. We can definitely identify Micah's day in our own day and we need to decide as he did What To Do When..... The message is from the last chapter of Micah, chapter 7.

God's blessed our church. As I put our furlough presentation together this past week, God reminded me of His great goodness. We're very thankful for each person and family He has brought to our assembly.

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I'm very thankful for the Lord's help in getting a big project completed. Our 8 minute furlough presentation is now ready. This has been a good utility week for me as the weather has been adverse. It isn't over yet as we have weather warnings through this weekend. When they name a storm here it is a bad storm. (We have other bad storms that come through without a name.) We had a named storm this past Sunday and have another one, Dennis, this coming Sunday. Adverse weather is a normal part of life in Scotland, but it has been exceptionally bad lately. :)

Please pray for our Sunday PM John 3:16 banquet. The kids are excited about serving. Katie has just gone to the shop with Emily (9) from our church and a couple of our kids. They are working on getting some things ready. Thank you for praying for this special event.

Since the storm came through, storms have continued to come through. We've had frequent heavy snow showers and then sunshine. The wind speeds have come and gone. Today they are in the 40-50 MPH.

We enjoyed getting a little snow to stay on the ground last night. So, after tea (supper) last night we took the kids sledging (sledding) on the golf course accross the road from our home. There are some really good hills over there.

I'm laying low today as the snow and wind continue. God helped us yesterday to schedule two more meetings for furlough. I think I have contacted all of our supporting churches now by email or  a phone call. We appreciate the many gracious churches who are having us in at our convenience. That flexibility has helped us immensely in scheduling.

Today the United Kingdom is taking a blow from a strong storm off of the Atlantic, Storm Ciara. We have possible gusts of 70 MPH or higher. We could hear the wind houling during the morning service and opening and closing the front door. (It doesn't not latch.) The high winds are going to be around for the next several days. 

Thankfully, I don't think it impacted our attendance. Those who were missing were ill. One young man had to head back home as he was just unwell this morning. Please pray for the illnesses to go away. 

The message this morning as from Titus 2:11-15 on taking a good look into the past (the cross) the present (ourselves) the future (Jesus) and eternity (God.) I'm thankful for our church and pray God will continue to bless and grow our assembly.

Today is our busy Sunday with the Trust service this afternoon.

God gave several divine appointments this morning as I spent a few hours doing evangelism. The weather has prevented me from doing street evangelism for a good while, but thankfully it was sunny and calmer this morning.

God gave me my first divine appointment soon after I got off of the bus. Gary is from a village about 40 miles away where there is a good Baptist church. I spoke with him for 5-10 minutes and left encouraging him to visit that church.

The next opportunity was probably my best. I spoke with a man who is in his early thirties. It was a great heart to heart conversation about the mercy of God, goodness of God and satisfaction of Christ. This young father knows that his life hasn't been good. I'm thankful that I can share with him (and others) that God loves him and that through Jesus death on Calvary it is possible for Him to get saved. I'd love to see he and his family visit our church. Matthew thanked me for the conversation.

After that, I met Blake, a grad student who attends our church, and we did evangelism together. We handed out a lot of flyers. Blake had a short divine appointment with a young lady. Then I witnessed to one girl (with another girl listening) who is into Wicca. I shared with her that my faith in based upon the truth of God's Word while her faith is based upon experience. She had been Catholic and used to believe in God. I showed her that the Bible can stand in judgment upon catholicism (or any religion) but that without truth there is no authority. Praise God we have truth.

Next, I approached some young men just sitting down outside a pub. The one was a strong atheist but the other was interested. As I witnessed to  them, two other people eventually interrupted our conversation. However, God was working. Both the atheist and the other man shook my hand as I left them.

We were near a church where a revival took place in the early 1900's and so I showed Blake the property. In front of it were two people. One young lady was transgender. They  both asked good questions and were engaged in the conversation which nearly made them late for acting class. The church is now a theatre. In all these conversations God's hand was evident. Only He can stop someone who is not interested in Him and make them think about His truth. Please pray for God's continued mercy for Scotland.

Wow, time is flying! It's amazing that we are having February church services already. God gave us a good morning. I preached a message this morning against apostasy from Hebrews 6, "Do Not Stop." We considered do not stop growing, believing, and serving. 

We have some good growth opportunities for our church in the near future. Every Sunday we have a 4:30 meeting called TNT. We've been working on song leading. Tonight we are going to work on evangelism. Please pray that God will bless our efforts to teach some practical ministry. The Lord's table is after our evening service this evening. We also have a John 3:16 banquet for Sunday PM, 16 February. Our children are excited about serving on that night. They are also helping plan the menu. Thank you for praying for our church.

Don and I put out several hundred flyers this morning in Gracemount. Gracemount is a Southern part of Edinburgh about a mile from Loanhead. We enjoyed the fellowship this morning but didn't have any witnessing opportunities.

Yesterday morning I missed my normal outreach as I got to take my daughter to her driver's theory test. Praise the Lord, she passed. :) That is one step closer to getting her driver's licence. You can't begin learning to drive in Scotland until you are 17. She turned 17 in September and we are hopeful she can get her licence before we take our trip to the States. Your prayers for her driving test are appreciated.

Last night was our AGM (Annual General Meeting) and I want to thank the Lord for His goodness to our church this past year. Last year we took on our second missionary family, Calin family in Romania. Our first missionary family many years ago was the Kelly family in Ireland. Last night we voted to adopt the Olmsteads in Northern Scotland to our missionary family. So, praise God we are seeing our church missions ministry grow. Please pray for our church as we take a small step of faith in our missionary giving.

God gave us a good group for prayer before the service this morning. We enjoy having a preservice prayer time from 9:40-9:55. Three of our men made it this morning which was  blessing. The message this morning was on Soul Fatness. It's interesting how many Bible texts speak about having a fat soul. It was a topical message where we went through several different passages of Scripture.

We're thankful for our church and appreciate your prayers for our family and ministry. Please keep praying. 

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