Great Response

Just a quick blast before going to bed. Last night we challenged the teens to come to the meeting next Sunday night and their response was good! Looks like we might have the makings of a bridge here - God willing! John Campbell is going to do the singing and preside and I'll take over and give a short, but very pointed and direct gospel message. I am truly excited, with a kingdom kinda excitement - I do feel this will be a huge occasion for the church here.

Well, today was crazy. We had events at 4 schools today! First thing was an assembly at Burnhaven school. I talked about the "WOW Factor" and having the kind of character that makes people want to say Wow. The response from the kids was great and I'm confident they were blessed. Next it was out to Crimond school for a "Recognition Tea." The school wanted to thank all who contribute in some way to the school by serving us tea and fine home baked cakes (from Simpson's). I was extra pleased when two of the boys came through and presented me with a card and a box of chocolates for taking the time to play some football with them. I love the school! Afterward it was off to Central for ball games. We had a blast playing some volley ball with a huge 3ft ball. Lastly we had just enough energy to finish the day with Anna Ritchie school. A fitting end to a magic day. Had a great game with the boys and got to wish all the boys and girls, as they were leaving, a goo weekend. You have got to be here to know how amazing this school is - words don't cut it!

One other, out of the blue, thing happened today. While we were at Burnhaven school the head, Mrs Phillips told me she had accepted the post as head for Meethill School. This is a school in town that previously I have had no success in getting into, other that with the Harding group, but it looks like after the summer break I will get the opportunity to start there too! Amazing what relationships can accomplish. It looks like the next school year is off to a flyer already - God is good!

That's all for now - off to Dundee tomorrow for a camp Tayside meeting. Will be great to catch up with all the team for this year.

God bless!

Something New!

On Tuesday night I had one of the most encouraging nights in a long time. I met up with John Campbell at the building to play some table tennis. I went not fully knowing how inspiring that night was going to become. After we smashed the little white ball for a couple of hours and after John nipped it 4-3, the last game going to the wire at 20-20 and John winning it in the end with an "off the edge of the table" shot, we talked for a while about the next step as far as bringing the teens up to the next level. It is amazing what can come about when two minds, with the same goal in mind, dream and look ahead. We have a fantastic group of teens who come on Thursday night, last week the group was around 30. And although they love coming and I am convinced this group is, potentially, where we are going to see growth in the church here, both John and I feel there needs to be something in between what they are experiencing on a Thursday night and our traditional Sunday night Gospel meeting. So, we are going to try something next Sunday night. We will invite them all to come to a meeting designed for them. We will meet in the less formal youth/fellowship hall, where they meet on Thursday nights, and we will tailor the night to their needs. If this works out and the response is good we will push to continue with this format and have one every last Sunday of the month. We are very excited about this and tonight at class we will challenge the group to be there. I ask for your prayers in this step of faith. It is one of the most real and positive steps we have taken in a while and we are hopeful that this will prove to be a milestone in the work of the kingdom here.

More on the positive front! On Monday night when we had our Primary school age class, we had some visitors come. I know this might sound to you a small thing, but I am blown away by it. Thomas, Shaun, Andrew and Rachel, four of the teens who come to classes popped round to the building because they knew we had a class with the young ones. They quickly got involved with the kids and has a great time. What made it real to me was last night after bible class Thomas came to me and asked if they could get involved helping out on Monday nights. I am so encouraged that "church" is becoming a part of their thinking and their lifestyle. Again, this gives us reason to hope and is evidence that God is active here.

The next few days until the end of school term will be very active. This is a brilliant time of year and one that offers so much opportunity. I have been invited to many of the schools "end of term" services and invites to tea and coffee mornings in recognition of the work I do in the school's. I don't say this to blow my trumpet, but to let you all know how blessed I am to have this relationship in the schools here. I will be involved is a variety of roles from being a judge at talent shows to attending Crimond schools performance of the Wizard of Oz.

We are taking the younger kids in the youth group to see the Kung Fu Panda at the cinema next Friday as an end of term treat. It really has caused a buzz around the school playgrounds. This will be the 1st outing in a while and is wholly thanks to the Harding Campaign group who very kindly left us some funds and will allow us to plan some stuff in their honor.

This past Sunday was neat. We had a flying visit from Mike Wood and a group of Harding education students. It really was a breath of fresh air and it is always good when lives touch, even for a short time. I also preached the evening gospel meeting and spoke on the fundamental need for Faith, Hope and Love.

Please keep our efforts in your prayers - God bless!

PS. My brother George and his family get here on Tuesday next week! Can't wait for that.

Cup Glory!

I know I'm busy when I forget all about my blog! In the beginning I was religious in keeping this thing on track, but these past weeks it seems like I'm loosing the plot a little. Anyway, let me try and recap all of the past days happenings.

I have to begin with last night and our Thursday night older boys class and teen class after. There were a bunch of guys there last night and we also had the privilege of Billy Cheyne and his friend, who happens to be a girl, Lindley. We had our usual time for football, which is always very competitive and very fantastic. I am more convinced now than ever that these are the essential times in the relational part of my ministry. After campaign and the evidence that people nowadays will not come to a "Gospel" meeting, I am confident that foundations have to be laid and connections made before anyone will give our message any credence. Last night I talked from the heart and told them about the importance of being connected to God who is the source of all things good and that life makes so much more sense when God is at the top of our worldview. I am confident that they listened and that some of it penetrated through to their hearts - God willing. The girl's turned up at 8.00 and the time just seemed to fly past, before we knew it, it was 9,20 and time to go home.

On Wednesday I got the chance to take our Anna Ritchie kids to a football competition, which they won. The final game came down to a penalty shootout and fortunately our boys held their nerve to win the game. I must say that I was very proud of the boys and it has been one of my years highlights. Later that evening I took a team of boys to another football competition from Crimond school, they did a great job, but didn't make it through to the play-off stage. Both occasions made for some great talk time with the guys and I have no doubt the day was a great success for all.

It has been good to have Jenny here and she has been able to spend a lot of time with me in the schools and share in the joy that is my ministry. In the past couple of weeks we have done 6 Assembly talks and and the general response has been very good. The next two weeks will be full around the schools as it is the close of term and we have been invited to so many "End of Term" shows and activities. It is always an exciting time as the kids face the changes of moving up to a new class.

I have begun making arrangements to go over to the States in August to try and make up the shortfall in our support. I would like to take this chance to make some kind of appeal to you all, to help us out a little with churches or people who might get involved with our work. It really is a tough call to leave everything here and devote a chunk of time to fund raise. I am concerned that if I am overseas too long then the ministry here suffers and my consistent contact with the community and schools breaks down for a while. I know this is all part of ministry, but my heart is sore at the thought of missed opportunity. So, please get in touch with me if you have any ideas - thanks.

Well, Beth was amazing at her concert! She spent 4 days as part of the Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra doing a residential course. This is a gathering of all musically gifted kids from all over the Aberdeenshire area. She had a great time and her music is becoming an important part of her young life. The concert was really amazing - I am not into all that "classical" stuff, but I can still appreciate when something is good, and the orchestra was outstanding.

Well that's enough rambling for now!

Refreshed

Just want to add a quick note about our time with the Buckie Church. Once every quarter I have the joy of going up with Fenella and the girls to preach for the Buckie church and it is always a time of refreshing . There may only be a handful of members, but the time we spend with them is without doubt a a huge source of encouraging and up-building for us. Bill and Elanor Pirrie are giants! We really admire their faithfulness and devotion in service to the kingdom. I came away from Buckie feeling very content in the knowledge that we had been a blessing to the church there and in return we were blessed, a true "Church" experience.
My contentment may also be down to the fact that we stopped in at Cullen on our way home for some ice cream - a truly heavenly experience!

During the past few days we have had a frenzy of school activities. This has been fantastic! Dan, one of the Harding group, still had a week with us after the rest of the group left and was able to share in some of our ministry to the schools. I was asked to do a mornings activities with Dales Park school as part of their "Active Health Week" so we brought along a rope for tug of war and a bat and ball for some rounders (like baseball). It was an excellent morning, the weather was sunny and the kids were really up for it. The tug of war was the big hit and had everyone involved. Having the morning with the kids really set us up for a brilliant assembly yesterday! I had two assemblies at DP, the P5-7's first and then the P1-4's. What a good couple of assemblies they turned out to be. I talked about The Lion King movie when Muffasa comes to the rescue of Simba and Nalla after they had wandered of to the forbidden "Elephant's Graveyard" and then were confronted the Hyena's. I then taught the parable of the lost sheep which paralleled the Lion King clip. The response was great and the head teacher came to me after and said she can't wait for the nest one it was so good. I am glad I have a passion for connecting God with the kids and yesterday was one of those days when I was reminded how good it is to have God's Spirit working in us.

It has been great having Jenny here these past days and she has slotted back in as if she never left. I am confident there will good times ahead for the kids here and that many seeds will be planted as a result of Jenny serving with us. In fact many seeds have already been sown! Monday at Crimond School we had an assembly in the morning and it gave Jenny a chance to renew acquaintances with the pupils and in the afternoon we were back again to play some soccer. Jenny has really hit the deck running and has done a great job in spite of combating the jet lag etc...

Well, classes are back to normal after the topsy turvy campaign schedule. For the most part things are going fine. We need to build up the Wednesday night class some. We are struggling to keep some kind of consistency with the teachers, but everyone is doing what they can to make things work. Thursday teen night continue to be excellent and is the area I am most encouraged with. Monday with the primary school kids is doing well and we have a great bunch coming. In all things are good and we will spent the next 4 weeks stabilising things after the breaks resulting from the campaign.

Starting to get excited about my brother George and his family coming in July - can't wait to see them all. They get to spend 4 weeks over here - outstanding!

God Bless!

Words are not enough

I will try to put into words the last three weeks campaign with our Harding group. I have almost dreaded having to make this blog because I know I won't do it justice. In a nutshell it was "OUTSTANDING" and the whole thing was simply good! We spent the first couple of days pulling together our school program. This year we had a program specific to the P1-4's and one specific to the P5-7's. I am so glad we did this rather than have whole school assemblies because the impact this year was amazing. The younger kids we used a lot of puppet interaction and used the "Happy and you know it" song to pick out some of the puppets characteristics like : "If you're happy and you know it Flap your Lugs," which picked up on Trunky the elephant's big ears (Lugs being the Scottish word for ears). The puppets did a sketch on taking the time to be a friend. We encouraged the kids to be "Outstanding" with their lives and got really good responses from them on ways that they have been and can be outstanding - like Jesus. The responsiveness and involvement of the kids during the performances was evidence enough that the group had connected well, but the staff feedback since has been fantastic and has really set the stage and thrown open the door for next years group.

With the older kids we used drama sketches rather than puppets. This was brilliant and the content of the sketches really hit home with the kids. The group did an amazing job of being the character they were acting out and had the kids hooked all the way through and got the message across big time! Again we used the Happy and you know it song and picked up some of the character traits from the sketches like: "If you're happy and you know it ...do the Sandi (who's character tried to move a huge rock by treating the rock like she was training a dog) the kids would say, "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" I feel we got the balance of fun and the message just right. We used a movie clip from "The Lion King" where Simba is met by Raffiki, who tells him to follow him if he wants to see his father. The powerful part was when Muffasa tells Simba to, "Remember who you are!" We used this line to challenge the kids to always remember that they were God's creation and that we are all made in His image to do good. Again the response during the message was good. Another theme we used through the program was the idea of "Popcorn" something small explodes into something big. Again challenging the kids to allow the good inside them to impact this world. At the end of the program we we added another verse to the Happy and you know it song, it went, "If you're happy and you know it ... be the Popcorn! then everyone would jump and throw their hands and legs in the air like popcorn bursting out of the seed. This was a huge success with the kids!

I can say with no doubt that all 9 of the schools we had assemblies with were blessed richly and seeds were definitely planted. As well as the assembly programs we also got to have some relational building time with most of the schools where we would play some soccer or go and visit the kids in their classrooms. We got to join up with the Central school Choir one lunchtime and had a great time singing with the kids and staff. We had our mini bus break down on the way to Crimond school and were blown away by their willingness to come out and pick all of us up and get us the the school on time to do the assemblies.

We had so many other things going on like our Picnic, Bowling night, Golf outing with the teenage boys, Fellowship meals, trips to castles, beaches, spectacular scenery etc... All of these are crammed with memories and things worthy of mention, but I'm not writing a book here.

The schools were one of our main focuses, but e also ran a parenting seminar which Brother Jerry Bowling hosted for us. It was a little frustrating that only a few attended. It's an indicator that even though we know that healthy parenting is a massive need in the community, simply holding a seminar (as brilliant as it was) doesn't cut it. We can build on this reality. On a similar note we also benefited from a series of "Gospel meetings" with Brother Jerry and the fact of the matter is that people won't come simply because we are holding meetings ( as great as they were). The message from this part of the campaign is loud and clear, we need to learn some lessons form our approach to reaching the kids in the schools and have more contact with the community as a church.

Well, well, don't quite know where all that came from, but I do know things don't work the same way they used too. So, we need to take a good look at ourselves to see why our nets are not catching any fish!

I hate finishing on a negative tone, so lets go back to the impact we had in the schools! I don't know the exact number of children we were able to influence and expose them to our Father God, but it was in the region of 2,000. THANK GOD for doors of opportunity!!!

I want to close with a huge THANKS to Alex, Chuck, Hannah, Becci, Lauren and Dan - You were an "OUTSTANDING" group of servants. A special thanks to Jerry and Joan Bowling for their godly example and leadership in preparing God's people for works of service - God bless!

Well, I know there are huge chunks missed out, but hope you can get the big picture.

Take care!

The "Peterhead" WWF World Title Match!

Just wanted to be the first to get this out there - I have not laughed out loud so much in ages! You have got to watch this - it is hilarious!!!

Back in the driving seat!

Have you ever gone through a period of time when there didn't seem to be time - it passed so quickly? The last 3 weeks have gone kinda like a blur, but when I have moments to reflect over the past weeks I know rich blessing has been my portion and the heavenly has been my surroundings.

It has been 3 weeks since I last blogged and there is good reason for that - CAMPAIGN! This morning we took the group to the airport ready to make their trip home. As I said goodbye there was a definite drop in my heart and a lump in my throat. The group of five, Alex, Chuck, Becky, Lauren and Hannah have been "Outstanding" in service to the kingdom and I know things were better here in Peterhead as a result of their influence. We still have Dan staying with us and Jerry & Joan have embarked on a trip around the country, having hired a car and set off into the unknown.

I will give more detail soon about the amazing time we shared, but at the present time I am simply too tired to begin. In a nutshell, though, I know God was made clear to many children and teens through the service and teaching of the group and as a church we were encouraged and lifted as a result of working shoulder to shoulder with such an amazing group of willing, passionate and genuine followers of the Christ.

Oh, as we dropped off the group we also picked up Jenny Johnston - magic! I know the following weeks will also be rich in blessing as a result of Jenny's heart and passion for the kingdom.

Anyway, more to follow soon - I promise!

God bless.