Playin with the boys

The past few days have been active. On Tuesday night I had organized an outing for the older teenage boys at "Kartstart" in Aberdeen. I must confess that this was something I had wanted to do for the longest time and having the excuse to make a trip of it with the guys was a win - win situation. John Campbell helped out with the transport and has himself a keen interest in driving, so needless to say everyone was pumped up and ready to race. Everyone had their sights on the person they wanted to finish ahead of and of course my sights were on John. Bruce and Andrew Buchan were kinda exempt, because they both race karts and have their own family race team. They were by far the quickest in the qualifying and I picked up 3rd on the grid, which put a huge smile on my face! The race was great fun and 25 laps later I ended up 4th, but more importantly I finished ahead of John! One incident involving Thomas, who went full speed into the barriers after getting an unwelcome nudge from one of his "friends." The race was temporarily stopped to get everything back together and after the race was over we had great fun hearing all the different interpretations of what took place and who did the dirty on who. The time flew and the memories will go with us all. We had so much fun with the guys. There were 9 of racing and afterward we went for a burger and spent time laughing and reliving the race.


They are a great bunch of young men and I consider it a joy to be involved with their lives. Last night I used the Karting event in my lesson and talked about having the right kind of confidence knowing that God is in control. We spoke about over-confidence, arrogance and shyness. After the karting on the Tuesday night on of the guys came and opened up about his new found direction and purpose for life. A couple of years ago he had really struggled with life and had no desire to get up in the mornings. He was telling me that he now is an example for his younger brother who is showing signs of slipping into a similar pattern as he once had fallen into. He took his brother to the class last week and told me that he had not seen him smile so much in ages. I again delight in the atmosphere the guys create on Thursday night. It is such an encouraging time to be a part of. I am thankful to God for the way the class continues to be a blessing to so many and my hope is that seeds will continue to be planted and nurtured over time.


We had a neat class on Wednesday night. When we went through to our class I had a lesson prepared, but we got side tracked and enjoyed looking at past slide shows, allowing everyone to share their memories and good times of past church events. It was great to see them realise that time had passed and that they had so many good memories and times together. The truth is I couldn't have taught and got a better message home that night. I am thankful for times like those.


I must say that my energy levels have been down and I am aware that my confidence is down a bit. The amazing thing is that even in light of this I can see the evidence that God is active. In all the school things I have done this past week, there has been no stress and the kids have been very enthusiastic and involved with the activities. I have been depending on God's help a lot this past week. The truth is that I have been made aware just how often I fail to rely on His strength and go rushing into things thinking "I" have it covered. It's been good to be reminds over again that we have a reserve of power that far outstrips our own feeble resources.

I'm excited about this weekend! We are off to Glasgow to hear Amy perform "The Armed Man" with the National Youth Choir of Scotland. It looks like it will be a very powerful performance as there are around 200 making up the choir and they are to be accompanied by the Scottish National Orchestra. It is amazing that Amy is able to experience and be a part of something so huge.

Till next time - God bless!