Our house is busy as we get ready to go to the Trust (assisted living facility) for a service this afternoon. We're looking forward to that ministry. We missed it last month as I was away in Israel. We have 4 teens at our home for lunch. Counting our two oldest, we'll have 6 total and that is a good turnout to go to this ministry. We usually have about a dozen residents join us.

We had a good normal morning. I preached on a lengthy passage, Matthew 23, on "Don't Sin Like a Pharisee." The microphone stopped working about half way through and so I don't have sermon audio this morning. 

This Thursday we have a special one day Holiday Bible Club and would appreciate your prayers for that opportunity. Thank you for praying.

I had two great witnessing opportunities on Monday as I took bus into Edinburgh to hand out flyers. It was cold and I didn't know what kind of lengthy opportunities I would get. The first conversation was with a lady who doesn't think you have to go to church to pray. She believes in God and prays. The Lord gave us a good short discussion as I asked her, "But how do you get rid of your sin." I was able to share the Gospel with her.

The second opportunity was really good. A young college student from Lithuania, Thomas,was visitng a friend in Edinburgh. Thomas attends a University in England. He believes in God and evolution. I spoke with Thomas for thirty minutes and he thanked me for the conversation. I really believe the Lord was working in this young man's heart. Please pray for God to open his eyes.

Today, Don and I did flyers in some nearby villages. We finished the village of Pathhead and did another small village nearby. It was good fellowship. Please pray for the Dillmans as they are beginning a new work in Newbridge. God has already brought some folks there way but it is never easy to get going. Please pray for God to keep their wee group together and to add to it.

I enjoyed preaching this morning on Psalm 85. The Psalmist looks in the past at what God has done to get on his knees in the present and pray for what God would do in the future. We had very good attendance in SS and church. It was also a joy to hear our children sing this morning.

Yesterday Benson was my partner as we knocked on doors. We had a few good opportunities to invite people to our church and share the Gospel. 

Tomorrow is our monthly ladies' meeting. Please pray for Katie as she ministers to our ladies. Thank you for praying.

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.