For the greater good...

The title of this entry is something I have had to remind myself constantly these past days. It seems that the past few weeks have been very different as far as what has consumed my time and efforts. We got a wee bit of a scare a couple of weeks ago to find out that someone had hacked into my "Facebook" account and circulated a very clever hoax about Fenella being rushed to hospital and needing immediate surgery. Of course, this was going to cost money which needed to be found immediately. I am thankful that some friends, who know us well, had picked up on some of the discrepancies within the hoax and raised the alarm. At the time we were in Aberdeen and couldn't do anything, other than get in touch with my brother George, who was able to let College Church (our Sponsoring Church) know for sure it was a hoax. It was not till we got home and saw the list of comments left by concerned people that we were aware how far reaching this hoax had gone. After contacting a bunch of friends to confirm the hoax I called the "Western Union" to see how we could shut down this scam. They were extremely helpful and withing 10 minutes we had checked to see if funds had been sent to this thief, to our relief there was not! They then shut down the account to ensure no further activity would be possible and passed the case on to their fraud squad for further investigation. So, let me apologise if you were preyed on by this scam and thank you all for the concern shown.

As many of you may be aware we have been making plans for JR and Daisha Sheets to be with us over the summer. They are due to arrive in just over a weeks time. Ministry can be challenging at times :) I have spent much of the past week on the phone to the UK Borders Agency or trying to comply with their MANY requirements for gaining the appropriate visa for Jr and Daisha to be with us. It is no longer easy to invite missionaries from the USA. I have to mention one positive throughout all this trying process. We have gained an insight into the character of JR and Daisha. We have been thrown many "Spanners in the Works" during these past weeks and there have been times I have been at the end of my tether, but seeing how JR and Daisha have dealt with and done what was required has been testament to their hearts and their desire for the kingdom. This journey has given us all reason to be encouraged. Even though there have been obstacles, God is faithful and we have seen His hand provide when things have been desperate. Prayers are still needed, in light of Jr and Daisha coming, as their applications are still going through the British Embassy for approval at this moment. We anticipate a great summer :)

Although much of our energy has been taken up by admin and talking to officials there has still been plenty of opportunity to minister. I have spent a fair bit of time and made a few visits to help council and encourage. I have also been able to spend some time with our young Christan's and in particular Donald. I am getting to know him well and enjoy any excuse to get together. We met up to clean the building yesterday after our Easter fun with the Monday night bunch and then nipped out to Crichie to book the park for our church Picnic. In all so glad he is part of the family now.

Speaking of Monday night, we did have a brilliant time. I love it when the kids faces are smiling from the time they enter the door till the time they are picked up. Fenella boiled a heap of eggs ready for the class. After our usual 20 minutes of chill out and games we got everyone together and set out tables ready for painting the eggs. There were some pretty good ones. Everyone enjoyed being creative for a while, as well as getting a bit messy (hence the reason for Donald and I coming the morning after to clean up). Next on the agenda was an egg hunt. We sent them in groups to find the eggs and timed them to see which group would return with one egg each in the shortest time. The youngest group went first and found the eggs in the quickest time :) I had filled a jar with as many mini eggs as I could and asked everyone to take a guess at how many there were. It was cute when the time came to reveal who had the nearest guess, as the winner was Abi, one of the younger kids who come. I must say I was quietly happy that Abi won. She is going to hide the jar under her pillow when she gets home so that no-one pinches them :) Ethian won the trophy for colouring in this week. Both he and Abi raised the bar this week when they not only coloured in their picture, but laminated it too! Maybe going a wee bit too far... Wendy told me he was taking the trophy up to school to show his class. We had two new kids tonight, Siobhan and Dylan. I must tell you about Ethian. I was in visiting and found out that he has a powerpoint presentation ready to share with his class at school about why they need to come to Monday Night Class. He went off to school with his memory stick ready to ask his teacher if he could share it with the class! Now if that is not evangelism, I don't know what is!!! Ethian has brought a bunch of his friends from school to class. It makes me so happy to know that he loves coming enough to invite his friends and in fact his whole class.

A couple of weeks ago I had the joy of heading down to Arbroath to the young adults retreat. We were to meet for the first time as a group and discuss our plan for the schools program during our campaign in June. The group are lovely and I am Hugely excited about working for the good of our community with them. Our focus for the group will be primary age kids and our theme will be, "Sons and Daughters of the King." We want to get the message out to the kids that they are all children of God. We got some of the ideas for what we wanted the program to include and how we wanted to interact with the kids during the assembly time. We will have opportunity to visit with every school in Peterhead including an additional 2 schools out-with the town. This means influencing every child between the age of 4 and 11 in Peterhead :))) Please pray for our ability to connect and leave an obvious and impacting message relating to God and His love for us all. It will be a big group this year, in excess of 20! With this in mind we will split the group and have a service element to our focus. It gives us a new challenge this year, but one that will give the chance to do much good. EXCITED!

While the school's were out for the Easter break we went down to Edinburgh for the weekend. We had planned to go in order that we could hear Beth perform with the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra at the Usher Hall. Beth had been rehearsing with the orchestra for 10 days before the concert and the results were amazing! In the opening piece Beth had a big solo on the Cor Anglais. She was outstanding! All the family were there to watch and cheer. Amy almost deafened us with her outburst of screaming and praise! We are very proud of our little first oboe :)

God bless!