The Lord gave us a good day. The kids are especially excited about our children's choir. We just started last week and we are practicing for our Christmas Carol Sing service on Christmas Eve. We've got a good group of kids and we are having a lot of fun in our practice times.

Tonight we looked at the story of Peter's escape from prison in answer to the prayers of God's people. I began with a story of a man who is in his early 70's who still faithfully serves the Lord. I'll not mention his name online but will put a small section from his biography below. He is still involved in ministry in China but is having a major surgery this month. We need to be reminded that the church was born in persecution and that she continues to face persecution.

"Dr. _________________________ has been called “the Last disciple of Wang Ming Dao.” Wang Ming Dao was called “the Father of the House Church Movement in Mainland China” by many western missionaries. Dr. _____________________ was brought up in a Christian home in which his mother taught him spiritual lessons throughout his early age. When he was 4 years old, his mother brought him to an orphanage to celebrate his birthday with the fatherless. When he was 16, he confirmed his faith and was baptized by Wang Ming Dao.

Later in the 1950’s, he joined “Beijing Christian Students Fellowship” and prepared himself with other young Christians to face persecution. They memorized scriptures and spiritual hymns, understanding that if they went to jail, they would not have the Bible and hymnals to read. They also took cold showers during the winter time to prepare themselves to suffer for the Lord in case they go to jail or the labor camps.

All in all, ___________________________ was persecuted by the Communist government for 24 years, spending 9 years in labor camps and almost losing his life 3 times. In addition, 6 days after his wedding, he was arrested and his newly wedded wife was asked to divorce him. She refused by saying nothing. At that time, he did not even know if he would see his wife again."

I had a fun divine appointment yesterday as I looked for car floor mats. I went to put some mats back on the shelf and the shelf fell down with about 20 sets of mats. A young man from Kenya was standing there and he helped me set it on the floor. He asked me if I was from the States. After I replied in the affirmative, I said, "Are you a Christian?" He said, "I was born again in 2009 and have not ever looked back." Please pray for this young man. He said he will definitely visit the church at some point. 

Kay Lee and I just returned from doing door to door. We didn't have a great opportunity until our last door. Please pray for G____________ that God will use our conversation to get him thinking about truth.

The Lord encouraged us just now with an electronic answer to prayer. It was just a small thing but important to us. A cd had gotten swallowed in our van cd player. Because of that the player was stuck in the open position. As we got in the van just now it started playing and I was able to push the close button. Interestingly is was playing, "Great things He hath taught us. Great things he hath done."  I am preaching on Sunday about the passage in Peter when God loosed his shackles and opened the gate. Aren't you glad that God has power over all things? 

I put out flyers this afternoon. I didn't have any new opportunities. But I had a couple good chats with some friends in our area. Please pray for one who has lost his wife to a terminal illness. Another Christian friend has developed what appears to be a symptom of Parkinson's. These are two friends that I regularly pray for in our community.

The frost was heavy this morning and didn't depart until after 11. The Lord gave me good study time early this morning. After that I got out for about an hour doing flyers. I didn't have a divine appointment. But, it felt good to cast some Gospel seed. I was praying this morning about what I should do - study or evangelize. Thankfully, I was able to do both.

I've been busy the past week doing some extra things. One of those was finding a car for our family. God provided a great vehicle. I'll share more about that in our next prayer letter. Please pray for our previous vehicle to sell in God's perfect timing for the right amount of His choosing. It is clean and ready to go.

I've also had extra hospital visits this past week. Aside from the prayer request which I mentioned in previous updates, we also had another friend, Bernard, in the hospital. He and his wife come occasionally to our ministry. Lord willing, I will be collecting him from the hospital tomorrow. Please pray for Bernard's recovery.

The Ladies' meeting went very well. There were 7 ladies and 2 girls present.They looked at "God is My Shepherd." We also had a good service last night. We had a first time visitor attend. That was a special blessing from the Lord.

Our friend is out of the hospital. The endoscopy today did not show the source of the blood loss. Please pray for God either to remedy the problem or for wisdom if and when he needs to return to the hospital. He is a bit concerned because there has not been closure as to the source of the problem before discharging him. They would appreciate your continued prayers. (I'll update if he has to be readmitted.)

Winter is definitely knocking on the door. Some of Scotland received wintering showers yesterday. The Lord gave us a good morning. Our attendance was down. But we had a good spirit. One young girl walked a few blocks by herself this morning to come to church. That was encouraging. We looked at David's preparations for the temple this morning as I preached on Great Giving. It was a good service. 

Tonight we are starting a children's choir practice. We are going to be getting ready for our Christmas carol sing service.

I visited our friend yesterday. He had internal bleeding and has lost a lot of blood. They gave him several pints of blood since Thursday. They did an endoscopy on Friday. They were not able to repair the problem it seems and will be doing another endoscopy tomorrow. He's in good spirits. Please pray that the blood loss will stop and that they will know what has caused this. Thanks for praying for he and his family.

A good Christian friend of ours is in the hospital here with some serious needs. Please pray for he and his family. Thank you for taking this need to the Lord.

I am just back from doing flyers for the last couple of hours. It isn't that cold - upper 40's, but the wind is blowing pretty well. So, I am not typing that well at the moment as my hands thaw.  God's good. I had a couple opportunities to share the Gospel. One was a good opportunity and one didn't appear to be good. :) The good one was with a young lady, J_____________. Please pray that God will guard the Gospel seed that was planted in her heart. She has a New Testament which a friend gave her. I hope she will start reading it. The other older man was a skeptic and against God (if there is a God.) God in His mercy gave Him an opportunity today to be confronted with his unbelief. Please pray that it will go home to his heart.

Thanks for praying for Jessie's baptism. It was a special service and we thank the Lord for Jessie's obedience to the Lord. We had good attendance today. It was the end of British Summer Time. So, we got an extra hour this morning. I preached on Judges 1-2 this morning and on the Hebrews 10:23 this afternoon. We really appreciate the Baptist Church in North Berwick accommodating us for the baptismal service. They have a lovely building which God has provided. It is good encouragement to us to pray for God's provision of a permanent location in His timing. Thanks for praying for us.We need it and we are thankful for it.

I don't understand it, but Logan finds everybody home when he does door to door with me. He also gets the most smiles. It must be the blonde hair. We had several good chats this morning. My heart goes out to those we met. I trust the Lord will encourage them to pursue truth. One young man has gone to the Church of Scotland all of his life. He is now in his late 20's and lost. He was kind but had no answer about how someone would know they were going to Heaven when they die. I gave him a copy of the Gospel of John and Romans. Please pray that the message of the Cross will go home to his heart.

We're excited about our baptismal service tomorrow. Please pray for God's blessing. The weather is supposed to be bad overnight Sunday but should ok tomorrow. Parts of the UK are braced for the worst storm in 26 years. It looks now as if it will pass South of Scotland. Thanks for your prayers.