America Here I come!

This entry is simply a request for help. The situation as far as our financial support goes is serious. I have had to begin plans for making a trip over very soon. I had planned to make a trip over in late July early August, but that has had to be scrapped and an immediate response to our need is now needed. This means I will be leaving directly after our campaign in just over 2 weeks time. I plan to spend around 4 weeks in America with the primary purpose being to fund raise, but also to visit and enjoy time with those already supporting our work.

Seems that all I have been doing lately is making appeals, but the reality is that we are in a time of need and we need help. We need to replace a minimum of $1500 a month before the July, otherwise I will fall short of meeting my commitments and meeting my family's needs.

I am in the process of making travel plans and trying to work out the where and when I need to be in different places. Trying to work all this out in such a short space of time is murder, but necessary - thanks to all whom I have already been in touch with and have begun to get the ball rolling. I am coming over on faith and in the confidence that fellow Christians will see how God is working here and commit to our ministry. I make no apology telling you all that this is one of the toughest parts our ministry. I am greatly humbled and my flesh is fearful, but my spirit is bold knowing that a foundation that has been laid over the past 9 years of our ministry and seeing how God continues to work in once desolate lives that are now seeking and growing in faith.

So, with this in mind I plead with you all to consider this appeal and ask that you pray for my path ahead. God is faithful! If you can help direct my path to churches or individuals who have a love for the mission field I will try to make every effort to meet and share what God is doing here.

God bless!

Financial Emergancy

Friends, I have just received the news no missionary wants to hear and that which leaves you humbled and powerless. Our sponsoring Church has just told us that we have to take a salary drop of $1000 this month. The reality of this is simple - we live from month to month with no savings and no emergency fund to fall back on. This cut means we will fail to pay bills. I will be making a trip over to America in late July to try and make up this shortfall, but until then we are in a bit of a crisis. We need your help. If you are able in any way to do something please get in touch with brother Fred Jewell jewell@harding.edu who is the head of missions at College Church of Christ in Searcy, AR, our supporting Church.

In all this there is purpose and reason in this challenge. God is good and His love endures forever!

The Narrow Way

This past weekend was full on! Looking back, things went great. On the Friday night I took a group of 12 older teens through to Aberdeen. We went to Subway for our supper and then on to the concert at the Aberdeen Church building with "Cornerstone" a group from Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama. It is always good to have time with this group of teens. They are a rich blessing to our ministry and seeing their desire and faith deepen is a source of joy to me and honour to the King.

On the Saturday we had our "Pool Party" where all the youth group were invited. There were over 40 kids turned up and what a time we had! I was in my element showing off on the diving boards and being spurred on to try dives I thought I no longer had the nerve to do, but surprising what you can do when a bunch of fearless teenage boys try to out do you. The Inflatable Obstacle Course was a big hit with everyone and instantly elevated someones standing within the group if they made it across to the other end. The time flew and before we knew it the pool attendants were calling time!

On the Sunday we had our 3rd Sunday night meeting. The lesson was borne out of the above clip which was sent in an e-mail. As soon as I watched it I knew that it would lend to a great illustration on our walk in the faith. I talked from Luke 13 and Matthew 7 about entering through the narrow gate and making every effort to find the narrow way. At the start we had a good discussion about the clip and talked about the parallels between the path leading up the mountain and the path of our faith. The imagery was fantastic and after the lesson the response was very good. This was a lesson I had been looking forward to preaching and praise God that the message struck at the heart strings. The format of the meeting continues to work well and continuing with a cup of tea as everyone arrives helps get everyone talking and getting connected before entering into the meeting time.

Had a couple of amazing assemblies yesterday at Clerkhill School. Talked to around 500 kids split over two assemblies of 250. We shared a lesson about our lives and how we need to be aware of the gifts we give out to the people around us. How that some of the time we give good gifts in the way we treat others and on the down side how we can sometimes give bad gifts in treating others in a poor manner. I illustrated this with a gift bag full of chocolate bars and potatoes. I invited a mix of kids to come up and receive a gift. To some I complemented and gave chocolate, but to others I grunted and gave them a potato! When I asked what they thought I was illustrating the response was good. I shared about God being the giver of nothing but good gifts and how that we need to mirror Him. In all, I know God's blessing had touched the kids with a challenge to think about the gifts we share with each other.

Meeting up with David Emslie and Patrick Sullivan in the morning. We are going to try an tie up all the loose ends relating to our campaign that begins in a couple of weeks here in Peterhead. I am hugely excited and a little bit nervous at the same time. There is such potential with this group and we want to make the most of it, while at the same time being considerate of the fact that this is every ones first attempt at this. Please continue to be prayerful as we take this huge step.

Well, take care and God bless!

Reasons to be JOYFUL!

Just wanted to follow on a little from where we left off in my last update. Things continue to go very well with the classes and especially the older teens. We have a very busy weekend ahead. Friday @ 4.30 we leave for Aberdeen to go to a concert with "Cornerstone" who come from Falkner University. We are leaving early to go to Subway for something to eat before the concert. It's always great to get some time to talk and hang out. On Saturday we have hired the local swimming pool for some fun and on Sunday we have our 3rd Sunday night and I have started getting my thoughts together for teaching there. Very excited about the path ahead! Things are beginning to heat up and with the campaign under 4 weeks away plenty be hopeful in. The group who are coming are fantastic! These names may not mean anything to some of you, but they have committed themselves to 10 days of service to benefit the church and community here in Peterhead. Please hold these names before God as they prepare to be used mightily in service to the King - The Boys: David Emslie, Patrick Sullivan, David Cope, Ben O' Donovan, Aubrey Boynes, Mark Wilson, Ross Stars and Craig Nesbit. The Girls: Sarah Ormsby, Sara McCulloch, Dawn McCulloch, Hayley Jones, Shanae Boynes, Elaine Pressley, Amy Strachan, Brittany Cowie and Ben's girlfriend Kelsey. Please pray that we can get the content of our school assembly program pitched right and ensure the simple message is memorable and impacting to their young hearts. Please pray that the individuals who make up the group can put all else aside and be poured out for the sake of Christ. Pray that lives are brought closer to God and that faith is deepened. I have commented before on the fact that this is a first for us. To have a campaign made up of our own young Christians is a dream come true and lights up the fact that, yes, the church here is struggling, but that God is very much living and active in the hearts of his people who will surrender to His will and serve for the good of His glory. This is huge and therefore we are petitioning you all to pray big prayers for the success of the message and example the group will be living out.

I want to comment a little on Shaun Main's journey of faith. I have met and studied with Shaun twice now. It was obvious from our first getting together that, yes, Shaun was convicted, but it was also obvious that he was not totally sure about what is was he was committing too. So, we are beginning his journey to find Christ and make his calling and election sure. Thomas and Alex are meeting with us. I am humbled and inspired to be involved in this journey with Shaun. Again, I ask your prayers for Shaun's journey. There is no doubt he is searching and has made this giant leap in faith, but pray that through Thomas, Alex and Myself that we can support and guide Shaun to find God.

The last couple of classes since my last entry have followed the same track - amazingly effective! Both Friday and Wednesday night have been so open and involved with the teens. Monday was great too. We had another 2 new faces start coming. Courtney, who is Bethany's older sister and Robert who came a while back and decided he missed coming and here he is back again!

A couple of things I should have mentioned before about how proud I am of my family. Amy got news that she has been accepted into the National Youth Choir of Scotland's full choir! This is an amazing achievement and one Amy has worked hard to achieve. The quality of this choir is second to none and Fenella and I are delighted for Amy! Beth has equally been shining in her musical talent. Beth was accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and participated in a residential training camp a few weeks ago. We were able to go down and share in their concert at the end of the training week. It was stunning! Fenella and I are so delighted with Beth's achievement. We can't believe the music talent there is in our house - a bit bewildering considering I have zero talent in this field!

Well enough for now, but remember God is good and His love endures forever!

So Unpredictable!

This was a video I got from Jamie Hernandez Facebook and thought it was outstanding. I used this for our 3rd Sunday and taught about getting our lives stripped back to the bare minimum and starting to rebuild with what's most important being the focus of our lives.

If there is one thing I have learned these past weeks it is this... Ministry is so unpredictable! I am guessing this is how it should be when God is in the driving seat, but out of despair there is always hope! We have been a part of some amazing ministry and some very challenging ministry this past while. We are seeing growth in our primary school age classes, which is great and this is something we have been working on the past month. We created a flyer to distribute around the schools and the results are good. We have seen 4 new kids start on Monday nights! Monday's are a true blessing and there is real stability in the class structure and the atmosphere. There is a good balance of fun and faith. We came up with a new slogan that goes onto the bottom of our letters and printed stuff - "Encouraging Fun, Encouraging Friendship and Encouraging Faith." A week on Saturday we have organized a trip for the whole group to the local swimming pool. We have hired the pool for the evening and will enjoy some fun with the inflatable assault course and the diving boards. The good thing that has come from this outing is that our recently started Mother and Toddlers group headed up by Emma-Jane Jones, Ann and Robert Stephen and Grace and Donald Rossie have a bunch coming out with us. Should make for a brilliant night.

We have struggled with our Friday night class these past weeks and have been prayerfully working through some issues. In a nut shell the issues we are dealing with are the result of growth. We are continually having new kids show up and as a result we are struggling to find a format for the class time of the evening. Our problem is simple - we have teens who have been coming for up to 8 years and are ready and desiring spiritual food and on the other hand we have a bunch of newcomers who are struggling to handle the lessons because they can't quite connect with them. This has led to some trying times as far as keeping discipline in the class time and caused a bit of strain. We don't have limitless volunteer help so we can't just set up another class and there are not enough nights in the week to make this a workable solution. To begin working through all this we changed the class last Friday night and simply asked the question, "Why do you come here." The reason we asked this question was to get the whole group to know what the others are expecting when they come. We split the class into 3 groups, The older teens 4th year and above, 3rd years and 1and 2nd years. The older teens we left to discuss themselves, but with the younger ones we had Alex and John lead up the middle group and I took the Youngest ones (the newcomers). The class was amazing! We started sharing what the youngest ones enjoyed first, then the middle and the older ones last. You could see the progression in depth of faith and desire for the spiritual side of the class coming as the older classed shared their reasons for coming. I have no doubt God was active throughout and we had a class to remember, however we still have to work out how to connect with the newcomers more effectively. Funny all this - as I am writing I am reminded of our struggles when we first began our ministry almost 9 years ago and trying to come up with material and ideas that connect with the un-churched. Looks like we have come full circle! Looks like we may have to use the old faithful "Divide and Conquer" principle and have teach newcomers in a different way.

I mentioned in the title of this blog how "Unpredictable" ministry is, let me give you an example. On Wednesday night last week I had my class lesson prepared and began with the question, "Ask the group a question that makes us thing a little deeper." I did this simply to get the class into a thinking mode ready for the lesson, however from that question the whole class took of in a Spirit led diversion! Shaun Main stunned me when his hand shot up instantly. His question was this, "What passage in the bible helps you get through life?" Well, to be honest I was not expecting that depth right from the off! C.J. Cowie responded right away with Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you..." I was sitting in my seat trying to take all this in and had to acknowledge there was something special going on. Things heated up with Ryan Geddes Question which was directed at me, "Who do you think will be the next to become a Christian?" As if I could have been any more surprised at the course of this class. I responded saying I have stopped trying to guage where they all are in their faith and I can't wait to see who will be next. The next thing was, all the teens began to express who they though was closest to the kingdom and why they thought it! I was flabbergasted at all the comments and expressions of faith that they saw in each other. I left the building totally in AWE of God and with my heart filled to the brim of hope and anticipation. Friday night comes and during the lesson Thomas and Shaun disappear for a noticeably long time. I go out to check what they were doing and find the two of them talking in the toilet. I thought nothing of it and asked then to come and join the class. Little did I know what they had bee discussing! After the lesson time Shaun come to me and said we need to talk and Thomas needed to come too. We went into a classroom and Shaun began to express his need to become a Christian! I have no doubt that Shaun has thought all this through and is ready for the commitment he is about to make, but we will study some this week and meet up with his mum and dad to make sure they are supportive of his decision. God willing my next entry in here will be sharing the news that we have a new brother in Christ!

Take care and God bless!