I don't normally go this long between posts, but it's a sign of the times. We have been super busy and have been leaving the church at around 8:00 PM most nights for the past few weeks. Thankfully, we hit a milestone in building works on Friday as everything was finished in the creche and sanctuary so that the carpet can be installed tomorrow and Tuesday. The piano (baby digital grand) is expected to be delivered on Wednesday. We got a wonderful purchase price on the piano and the carpet is also paid for - praise the Lord.

We're tired, but God has been very good. I wasn to give a shout out to my family for their hard work. The boys have done well keeping motivated on work that isn't always fun, but was necessary. (My wife has done much work as well.) Some in our church also helped this past week which was an added blessing.

God gave us a great time with the mission team from Nolensville Road Baptist Church. They were only with us about 6 days, but God blessed their efforts to push our building work forward. They also helped in evangelism, testimonies, music and preaching. They were special days.

Today we enjoyed our Resurrection Sunday. We had 5 guests last week from our village. This week we had two guest from the United States,  Gary and Tami Neil. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to England and Scotland. It was a joy to have them visit our church. We also enjoyed a fellowship meal after the service. 

I preached from Luke 24, on Resurrection Reactions. It's interesting to consider the roller coaster of emotion/reactions surrounding the news that Jesus tomb was empty. Tonight we are going to look at some pictures from Israel, read the story of Christ's death and resurrection and sing the Resurrection Hymns.

special prayer request: some of us our attending men's camp in Ireland starting this Thursday. I get to preach one of the session. My slot is 8:30 PM Thursday night. Please pray for all of the preachers and for God to do a great work in the hearts of the men. Thanks for your prayers and interest in God's work at SFBC and for our family.

PS. In family news - Logan and Nelson's pipe band was in a competition on Saturday and Logan participated. If you'd like to see the video it is on our church facebook page - freebaptistlothian.

God has blessed us with two pipers in our family. Both are doing very well and progressing in that discipline. Logan recently bought his own set of pipes and his own outfit. Sometimes when I go street preaching, Logan, or Logan and Nelson, go down with me and do busking. People sometimes think our kids are not from Scotland. They are partly right and partly wrong. Nelson was born here and Logan was 4 when we arrived. It's great to see them doing something which is Scottish, which people enjoy seeing, and which is lucrative. Please pray for God's provision for all of the kids as they save for Bible college.

God gave tremendous liberty preaching on the street this morning. Here is a video link from our Sermon Audio Page. There was marked spiritual warfare. A man turned my speaker off. Another man put his hand on my shoulder while yelling at me. Another man yelled at me. But, I spoke with a woman from Hong Kong who is a believer. She is new to the area and we have a family from Hong Kong visiting our church. I received her mobile number and hope to connect them. Another young couple stood and listened for about 20 minutes. I witnessed to them for 20 minutes after I finished. I hope to see them out for church as God is definitely working in their lives. Please pray that we will see some fruit from this labour and for God's continued enablement to boldly share His Word on the street.

Nolansville Baptist church group (13 in total) are arriving tomorrow. Please pray for this to be a very blessed trip for them and for our church. We're excited about what God is going to do. Thanks for praying.

This was a utility week to push forward on the building. I did get out in evangelism with Pastor Dillman on Wednesday over in his area. We didn't have any opportunities to speak with anyone, but we put out several hundred Gospel flyers.

Otherwise, the Lord allowed us to finish the back wall of the sanctuary. One of our prayer requests when seeking a property was that it would be, "Beautiful." God has answered that prayer on the outside and on the inside of the building. We're so thankful for God's leading, provision and grace.

We didn't have record attendance this morning, but God sent us a visitor. The husband of one of our members joined us for his first time. That was a joy to all of us and we hope that we'll see him come more regularly.

I preached this morning on the Gospel as I preached from 2 Cor. 4:1-11 on Jesus Seen In You. Please pray for us to make Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh as Paul did. It was a good reminder.

This week on Tuesday, Pastor Wesley Waddle and a team from Nolansville Baptist Church will be with us. Please pray for God to bless all of our labours whether church building works, evangelism, or church ministry. Next Sunday their team is going to share salvation testimonies in SS, Pastor Waddle is preaching the AM and anothe man in the group is preaching in the evening. We look forward to what God is going to do. Thanks for your prayers.

Our church keeps a facebook page primarily for a public testimony in our local community. We do enjoy the greetings from our friends all around the world as well. The handle on facebook is "freebaptistlothian." Here is a link.

Here is my update from tonight - Platform backdrop is finished once the paint dries. It looks better in person, so if you are in the area, feel free to visit our church. Also, one of the pics has a sample of the carpet which will be installed in the next couple of weeks. These are exciting days and we are grateful for God's grace and guidance.

Some of you may have wondered what we meant by wall decoration. We put panels behind the platform today. These still need to be primed and painted. A cross is also going on the wall near the peak. We postponed the carepet for a couple more weeks as we needed breathing space to finish the work. A friend's church is coming next week to help us out - PRAISE THE LORD! Please continue to pray for God's blessings upon our work.

Today is mother's day in Scotland. Katie found some nice flowering gifts for the ladies of our church. Some flowers went home with the husbands and grandads as well to be given to the women in their lives.

I preached a message this morning from Jude 20-25 entitled, "Be Like Yer Mum." It was an insightful study for me and I have a better understanding of Biblical compassion having shared it. I trust God used it in the lives of our church family as well.

We got news on Katie's knee this week. It wasn't what we wanted but the news is in line with what we were expecting. She has torn her ACL and several other ligaments. Please pray for wisdom as she meets with physio therapists on Tuesday. She's getting around, but has to learn how to do it safely as her knee is unstable. Thankfully the swelling is going away. Thank you for praying for her.

God provided platform chairs for us yesterday. We purchased two chairs which we found on a used website. We'll also start working on putting the design trim onto the front wall of the sanctuary this week. We didn't do much on the church project this past week, as our family has been very busy working the last three days on our hedge. Cutting back a hedge seems like it would not be much work. However, those who know our house and know our hedge, know otherwise. This included a chainsaw and a lot of cut branches. Thankfully, the branches have all been consumed in the fire pit and a large pile of ashes is all that remains. We thank the Lord for weather, strength and grace to get it done.

The Lord allowed us to delay the carpet installation and piano delivery for a few weeks. This is a blessing as we have more time to get finishing work completed. There is no reason to paint after we install, IF we can do so before. We also have a group coming from Nolansville, TN (Pastor Waddle's church) on the week of the 18th. This really helps us as we can get much more accomplished without being concerned about new carpets.

Thanks for praying for our works. It's amazing how many decisions need to be made. Tim, the sound guys from England, came up Sunday afternoon. He made it in time for our evening service and stayed until Monday. He's incredibly helpful and we are putting a plan together for audio and video. Please pray for wisdom when to move forward and for God's provision according to His will. 

I was able to get out street preaching yesterday morning. Today I put out Gospel flyers in our local area.

Katie's injury update: She saw a sports doctor yesterday about her knee injury. He suspects a torn ACL. She is having an MRI just now and we'll update you. Please pray for the swelling to go down. Our hope is that it can heal without surgery.

Well, the Lord was a carpenter and so he understands physical work to make something beautiful. We have put in a lot of hours this week on the property. It's fun to see our church family take their weekly walk into the back of the church to see the sanctuary progress. That isn't the only thing that is fun. We have a new family attending and a newlly saved young man. That's tremendous and we say,"Thank you Lord!"

I preached this morning on our series, "Thou art worthy, O Lord." This morning was, "Worthy of Faithful Followers" from John 21. Jesus met his men at the Sea of Galilee and gave them their individual orders of "Follow Me."

Tonight, the sound engineer from England will be up for our evening service... hopefully, he'll make it on time. He has a long drive ahead of him after departing just now after their morning service. Please pray for wisdom as we make decisions on sound equipment and set up.

Katie is getting around much better and the swelling is going down after her fall just over a week ago. Thank you for praying. She feels like she has been demoted as she stays off ladders and sits on the floor to paint the trim. :) All of our family has been working hard on the project. I'm thankful that God has given us a good work crew in that way.

Lord willing, we will be putting up the front wall decoration and doing trim in the hallway and creche (nursery) this week. Your continued prayers for the building project are much appreciated.

PS. The pics just show the trim painted, walls filled/sanded and painted, door painted, etc. Before and afters would probably help you identify our progress.

This has been a good week, but we blinked and now it is Wednesday. I was able to street preach on Monday. The weather was beautiful and I couldn't keep from getting out even though we had much building works to do. We worked there on Monday and Tuesday. The screeding of the floor on Tuesday went really well. It's already looking great as you'll see below. 

Today I enjoyed helping Pastor Don Dillman in his neck of the woods. Please pray for Ahmed to visit Don's church. He and I had a good Gospel chat today. Our service tonight was refreshing. We are doing a "Life of David study." Tonight we saw the love of David as he lamented the death of King Saul and Jonathan. We had several children and adults out for our midweek service. These are exciting days for our church and we are enjoying making decisions together. Tonight we informally "voted" on the chair stain colour. The decision was mid oak. Thank you for praying for the many decisions which we are making. 

Your continued prayers for the building works is much appreciated. The carpet (mid brown colour) is scheduled to be installed on 12/13 March. Please pray that we can finish the spaces before the carpet is laid. We are on track, but Katie's fall doesn't help us as she is a good painter. Her leg is a bit better today, but your continued prayers are appreciated.

God's good. We are seeing His hand in answer to your prayers.

The topic of my message this morning was appropriate after my wife missed the bottom rung on the ladder yesterday while painting at church. We had a trip to minor injuries and thankfully, nothing is broken. Please pray for her knee to heal up and that we'll have wisdom if she did any lasting damage. She had surgery on this knee over 20 years ago to repari a torn ACL. We're just thankful she wasn't more severely injured as concrete isn't very forgiving.

Our text for the messsage was Psalm 33 and it's a great text for trouble as David frankly says, "I am in trouble." David didn't let his trouble push him away from God, but in His trouble He ran to God. We had good attendance this morning despite not having a family present. We had a return visiting teen and the newly saved man was out. Praise the Lord, we're thankful for the work He is doing in our church family. Tonight we are going to have a cake fellowship as we celebrate God's goodness in allowing us to buy this property on 23 February last year. We're also giving a thank offering to our church building fund. It's been neat to see God provide and it's good for our church to participate in the investment into this property.

Building works are going very well. Please pray as we try to finish up some things before the carpet is laid on March 11/12th. We're working hard on it. I think I put in about 30 hours this past week and my family and others were there much of that time as well. Please pray for motivation, strength and wisdom. On Tuesday/Wednesday of this week, the sanctuary floor is being screeded. We will be helping with that to try and keep costs down.

Thank you for praying. As you can see from the above, God's hand has been evident and we praise Him for His grace.