We have enjoyed a good start to our week as we met for church this morning. Callum (13) often gets to church before anyone and starts setting up. He ended up at our home this morning because the building was locked. So, he prayed with our family here before heading to church. :)

We had a good morning. I enjoyed preaching on Intercessory Prayer this morning from Nehemiah 1. What stands out to me is that with Nehemiah's purpose of prayer he grabbed hold of God by fear, by covenant and in dependence. I've been using these three truths in my prayer life since studying this. Please pray for God to raise up great prayer warriors in our ministry. 

God's good. Thanks for praying for our day today.

I have the opportunity to be a guest contributor on Evangelist John Van Gelderen's Revival Focus Blog. My newest post went live this week and I wanted to give you a link to it. The post is entitled, "God's Porter." It's from a message I preached recently. There are several truths that stay with me from that message. If you have a chance to read it, I hope the post will be a blessing to you.

I started putting HBC flyers through our area today. Please pray for a young man that I met who indicated that he would visit our church. He asked a question that I think a lot of people have, "Can an unbeliever come and visit your church?" I wish I could make the answer to that more well known. We know as a church that we want them to come but it seems apparent that we need to communicate that to them.

Yesterday I filled out 188 pages of citizenship applications for our family. Mac and Nelson already have duel citizenship (USA and UK) but we are pursuing that for the rest of our family at this time. We've just become eligible having been here a year on our permanent residence visa. With permanent residence you can always reside in the UK as long as you are never absent for more than two years at one time. But, if our children (or ourselves) were ever away for more than two years they would lose their permanent residence. I can't imagine growing up in a country and not being able to live there. So, we want this for our kids. But, it also means that we will have put down roots in the country to which God has called us. We'd appreciate your prayers that these applications would go through without difficulty. 

The Lord gave us good attendance in our morning service this morning. I didn't have a SS class this morning because some who normally are in SS were unable to make that service this morning. So, my wife got a break as she got to teach without Mac in her class. If any of you have a child that is just over 2 years old, you can imagine what a blessing that was. Mac does ok in class but we would appreciate your prayers that he will quickly learn contentment during class time.

I preached this morning a message on faith from Jeremiah 32, "Steps of Faith." I recently sent a prayer letter which referred to this passage, but God put it on my heart to preach that passage today. It was a good reminder to my heart and I trust to our people to follow God by faith. Please pray for our church folks to step out by faith to obey God.

Benson was my door to door partner this morning. Generally people are pretty kind here when you knock on their door. We had one exception to that this morning but we weren't offended. I feel bad for the lady as she is missing a lot of joy in her life. God also gave us a great talk with a woman who is really hurting. Please pray that God will meet her in her time of need. She has lost a lot of family to death recently and feels that "if there is a God" she blames Him. You wouldn't have expected the conversation to open up but God did open it and I was able to speak to her about the love of God. 

Benson and I got some fly fishing equipment recently and have enjoyed going fishing a couple of times. Those of you who followed us on deputation know that I love fishing. Fishing has been one of the most difficult "culture shocks" for me as the system here is so different than in the States. Most fishing here is by fly rod. You also do not get a permit (license) to fish in the country. You get a license to fish a few miles of one river. And it is usually a day ticket that is pretty expensive. (One place we know of is 250 pounds a day to fish for salmon.) So, finding out how to fish for free and catch something on a fly rod - is a breakthrough. :) I'll put a picture below of Benson's first brown trout on a fly rod.

Don and I went into Edinburgh this morning to hand out flyers. We met at a statue of David Livingston in Princess Street Gardens. God gave a very encouraging divine appointment with a young man named Joel. He is a Christadelphian. (I had never heard of Christadelphian until I came to Scotland. They are very similar to Jehovah Witnesses.) I spoke to him for about half an hour. He thanked me for our conversation at it's conclusion. Please pray that God will awaken Joel's eyes to His truth. It was a cult morning. Don spoke to another man of the same religion and I spoke with a Jehovah's Witness. Thank you for praying for open doors to share the Gospel.

It seems hard to believe that 6 years ago (tomorrow) we began Free Baptist Church in Loanhead. God has given us a great 6 years. Tonight we are going to show pictures from the last 6 years as we celebrate our 6th anniversary. 

This morning I preached a message on Biblical Repentance from Joel 2:12-21, "Turn to God." We had lower attendance but there was a good spirit in our services. Thank you for praying for our services today.

Well, someone turned 40 today and my family gave me some great presents. We didn't have anything special planned today.... we thought. But, it ended up being a very special day as we got to see Her Majesty the Queen. She was in Edinburgh to open the 5th session of the Scottish Parliament and to have a garden party at Hollyrood Palace. We ended up standing in the perfect spot where she exited parliament and drove to the Palace across the street. These are screen shots from a video I took with my phone. The Queen is the elegant 90 year old with the lovely hat.

Don came over today and helped me get some flyers out this morning. The rain held off and we were able to knock out a pretty large area. We had a couple brief conversations with folks in that community. Neither one was "good" but the Lord is able to work in anyone's heart. The first was with a man who is an atheist and says he has been all his life. He is elderly now and believes that death is the end. Please pray that God will awaken John's heart. The second was with a woman who believes in a "power" but not in God. She definitely rejects Jesus. 

This afternoon I researched options for a portable baptismal pool. I settled on a portable hot tub and believe that this will work well for us. Please pray for those who are going to follow the Lord in baptism. We have a few children and one adult needing to be baptized.

We enjoyed having a lady join us for our morning service today. She is a believer and that was a speical joy. Please pray for her as she is seeking the Lord's leading as she finds a church in our area.

I preached this morning a message on "The Certainty in Uncertainty." If you are struggling with what is going on politically, you may enjoy listeing in as we looked at God's sovereignty in human government. Praise God - HE IS IN CONTROL!

God gave us a good morning and we thank God for His grace and thank you for praying.