Thanks Paddy!

The past days have been a great timely source of refreshment. I can honestly say my tank is full and I have been inspired to get deeper into the word. We had an outstanding weekend with Patrick Sullivan from Dundee. He taught our Friday night teens class and took a series of three lessons over Saturday night and Sunday morning. Paddy was a true servant of our Father's! I am blessed, my family are blessed and our church family have been blessed. The only downside was that we did not get to spend some time with Gemma, but that time will come. I love it when there is a deep connection between people who love the Lord and His Kingdom. We can't wait till our paths cross again!

I am challenged to get back into the swing of keeping this blog current, but it is still a struggle to find the time and discipline to keep it up. I am surrounded by evidence that God is active and that lives are being touched and gently stirred from spiritual sleep. I am hopeful that God has some amazing plans for 2009 and I am almost expecting great things to come soon. Thomas is now a brother in Christ and is doing fabulously. I took him along this morning to our coffee gathering to spend some time with John Campbell, Alex Swango, my Dad and David Chapman. Our "Gatherings" are a great source of encouragement and challenge to get active in kingdom work. In my last entry I mentioned the significance of Thomas and how big a milestone his commitment is. He is a bit unique in that he is our first teenage guy to commit to Christ.

We are getting geared up for our campaign with the Harding group who will arrive in mid May. It is always an exciting, yet challenging time. I have been getting together regularly with Alex to work on how we get the school assembly program to connect with the kids and we are getting it down! The teens have been fantastic too - we have pretty much got the structure for our traditional "Scavenger Hunt" and this year the theme will be based on "Food Fight." Healthy V's Junk food and relate this to how we allow various influences good and bad into our lives. I have a feeling that this years will do the business - God willing!

Here are a bunch of pics from our Monday night's class. I must say a couple of things about the state and growth of this group. This past week the lesson was on David and Bathsheba and Nathan's visit. I gave the kids a test and was totally blown away with the results. Out of the 23 papers only one did not get full marks. What was impressive was the detail in the answers they gave. They pretty much told the whole lesson in their answers. This is amazing! Another pointer is the fact that this term we had 35 kids come to the class and we had 10 who had perfect attendance! I am hugely encouraged that the kids love being with us and the class is somewhere that they want their friends to know about - praise God! I must mention Nathan Best. Nathan last term was a handful, but over this past term he made a pretty dramatic turnabout and managed to get his first MVP Silver award - I am proud of Nathan's efforts! Another I need to mention is Alana Buchan. Alana has been a truly exemplary girl this term - perfect attendance and perfect scores on all the 4 bible tests over the term. Alana is always cheery and is a great example to her cousin Steph.

Alex is doing well with us. He is a lot more settled and I am sensing that he is now happy here. He has a willing attitude and will be a channel for blessing because he wants to serve. The ladies at church are pretty protective of him and feel the need to feed him at every opportunity. I think a training program will soon be high on his priority list.

Well, enough for now - God bless!

Deep Breath!

This has been one of the most challenging months of our ministry. The reason for there being no posts these past weeks is that I have not had enough fuel in the tank to sit down and begin to put into words the events of the past few weeks. Even now as I am typing this there is a heaviness knowing what I must try to express.

We lost another close friend, in fact Ali was more than a close friend, he was our #1 encourager and he had the biggest heart for kids ever. Ali was a giant among men, gentle and attentive. You never left his presence without feeling better about your God and yourself. I was richly blessed and experienced "Holy Ground" because my life was connected to Ali Park and together we were in Christ. Ali is now for sure enjoying his reward and heaven will be resounding with his laughter and maybe a spot of DIY in true Ali fashion. My heart is heavy at the loss of a dear brother and there will, until I'm called home, be an Ali Park gap in my life. However, my spirit is strengthened and my faith is by far the richer because of the "Christ like" transformation Ali lived out in his life.

It struck me that we have lost 3 huge influences in our life in these recent times. The first was Barby Smith, then there was Dean Curtis and now Ali Park. I cannot begin to tell you the impact these godly people have had of our family. The amount of wisdom, insight and instruction we have gleaned from these giants is immense. These three would certainly make up my personal Hebrews 11.

There has been so much beauty these past weeks in our ministry and of course I have no way of communicating all of it, but I will mention the journey I have shared with Thomas Dickie these past years and most importantly the last 6 weeks. Thomas has been coming to classes for over 7 years. He is now 16 and tonight he will be our new brother in Christ! I had been teaching a series of lessons on who Jesus is and Thomas responded telling me it had all started to make sense. From that point we began meeting every week 1 on 1 to study and talk through the need for Jesus in God's plan for our salvation and God's desire for our committed life to Him. After 6 weeks Thomas said he was ready to commit his life and tonight we will witness his new birth! I have spent some time with his parents, Shari and Billy, who are totally supportive and delighted at his decision.

I promise it will not be so long to post from this point forward - God willing!