A Little Gem...

This post is simply to share some really good news and to introduce our most recent babes in Christ. A couple of weeks ago both Kathleen and Ian Fyfe accepted the call of Christ and are now safe in His mercy and grace. This has been a very timely and powerful reminder of God's power! Ian and Kathleen have shown a hunger and awareness that is not often seen. It has been such an encouragement for the church to witness the power of the gospel. From conviction to cleansing we saw the evidence of hearts aching for salvation and this finding fruition in their surrender to baptism and allowing God's grace to do the rest. 

Kathleen is Jordan's NaNa (Scots term for Grandmother). Over the past months they had witnessed Jordan's life and his faith and undoubtedly he was part of the fabric that now weaves their own faith. Kathleen Ian and Jordan have a close relationship and they will be instrumental in each other's journey along the Way. 

It was joy for us to study and come alongside these two kindred souls and it will be our continued pleasure to walk the same road till our Saviour calls us home. 

There have been many who were instrumental in the teaching of Ian and Kathleen. My uncle Alex (Shoney) Strachan and my mum and dad who have known Kathleen all her life. On the night of their baptism Alex took their confessions and I was waiting in the water to get them under :)

"God is good and His love endures forever!"

Family update...

This will be in one way an easy post to write and at the same time one of the hardest. Easy in light of what our girls are doing and the joy they continue to be. Hard in light of no longer having Alexa's physical beauty and presence wrapped around us.

Firstly the easy part...

Fenella an I know and continually give thanks to God for blessing us richly! That is in no way a puffed up comment, but an awareness and acknowledgement that He is faithful and we know it. 

Amy is preparing for the next chapter in her life, she has been blessed with a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London to continue developing her voice. There is obviously much more involved than just her voice, but she has been blessed with one that brings joy to many. Amy is working hard to save and fund much of her 2 years in London. Amy is working in McDonald's as well as teaching voice and piano to bunch of her young students. Her kids love her and she is exactly who you would want teaching your child. She has a lovely balance of being inspirational and motherly all at the same time! She leaves for London in September and her heart is already there. 

Beth has turned a corner and we are again mindful that our Heavenly Father continues to do His thing! Beth still has some health issues that make her studies a little more complicated than most, but Fenella and I are thankful that she continues to thrive and function well. We have just taken her back to Glasgow after a two week break and we miss her! There is nothing like the sound of your children's unrestrained laughter. When Beth and Holly are together, they laugh!  Beth is a caring soul and is very generous with her care and attention on others! We recently went down to Glasow to see Beth in performing in Handel's St Johns Passion where the oboes had the main part. She played beautifully and the newspaper reviews that followed the performance made special mention of their playing. 

Holly and Hannah are now in their senior years at high school and their recent prize giving success show that they are both very diligent students. Still chalk and cheese as far as their strengths lie, but equally hard working and conciencious.

Holly excels in the creative realm and especially when it comes to art. Holly stole the show at this year's family secret Santa. She painted a family caricature that was priceless. Fenella was the recipient and was totally overwhelmed when she unwrapped the painting and came to terms with what Holly had gifted her with. There is no doubt that our family would be poorer without Holly's beauty! She continues to spark creativity and I there is laughter, it's a safe bet she is at the centre of it :)   At the end of term school Prize giving, Holly was awarded best in year prizes for both Art and French. 

Hannah continues to display a soft and gentle spirit which delights Fenella and I no end. Hannah continues to play her violin in both an orchestra and a little fiddle group. This past year Hannah has excelled in school too and picked up two awards at the end of term prize giving. She came top in year for Chemistry and and got an overall excellence award too. 

So, all that said, Fenella and I love our family and are thankful that all four are showing good endeavour and continue to make us very proud :)

Now for the hard part...

Fenella's mum, Alexa, had been living with cancer for a while and on 21st December passed into her heavenly Fathers care. We have never been in despair, because her faith in our Saviour assures us that she is free and already enjoying her Lord's peace. However, there is an unmistakable void where our family would always find a constant source of beauty, gentleness and love. To have lived with Alexa being always there and now to live without her loveliness is painful and makes us ache for heaven all the more. Alexa was quite simply warmth and gentleness all wrapped up. We never left her presence without being shown a radiant smile and her raised hand displaying the "I love you" sign as she stood at the window. We were never in any doubt about what we meant to her and we were always the richer for it. 

One of her unforgettable testimonies of faith that is now reality: Alexa having been deaf from birth has never heard any sound or voice her whole life. Alexa would affirm to us that she was looking forward to the first words she would hear being those from the lips of her Lord as he says, "Well done good and faithful servant!"

Fenella is doing exceptionally well, yes there are times that the pain and miss hit her, but through it all she continues to be a blessing to all.  Fenella and her mum were as intertwined a mother and daughter could ever be! I continue to know how blessed I am being married to Fenella, but at the same time being embraced and loved by Alexa. Fenella and her dad are propping each other up. We are thankful that our 4 girls are so loving and aware, always ready with warmth and hugs. 

One of Fenella's highlights of last year was a weekend away for the "Feilds of Refuge" women's retreat.

It was a timely balm with the right mix of those she loves being there and a supporting spiritual leadership guiding the event. Fenella is in her element in the company of younger women and a cup of tea in hand. She radiates a motherly cosines that many have felt and benefited form over the years - she is most definitely a 'Chip of the old block' in that arena!

His ways are better...

Long overdue, but here goes...

To start off I want to express what we all know to be true, but still needs to be acknowledged - Our God is worthy of our highest praise and is faithful!  I find myself constantly stopping and recognising that fact. The more frantic life around us is, the more we must seek stillness and peace, ensuring our core is rooted and steadied in His grace and mercy. The more our culture is fashioned by fear and uncertainty the more we need to be defined by our relationship to Christ and the assurance that this world is not our home! 

I want to focus this post on the reality of God's nearness and his constant provision and strength. I say this at the outset because as I ponder over the events of the past few months there is no louder message ringing in my ear affirming the fact.

God continues to move powerfully in allowing access to minister within the local high school and a number of the primary schools. I was in conversation earlier in the week and had mentioned that a couple of years ago I had thought about stepping back from school ministries. That's what happens when we think through our own course and base our decisions on how we feel rather than base them on what God can do!  There was a period that my energy was low and I had convinced myself that I didn't have much left in the tank to offer the younger kids, however God has since revealed that I had simply taken my eye off His power and was looking solely at me. There have been so many opportunities to minister since my gaze has been set again on His hand and allowing my heart to follow where He leads. Within the primary schools I have the blessing of teaching assemblies on a regular basis as well as setting up a mentoring program with Anna Ritchie school. I get to work with young kids who have a need or more one on one attention. This work is a joy and I have no doubt that in a small way it is allowing God an avenue to touch lives. 

I have been loving the open doors of opportunity offered at the high school. I am blessed with four different arenas of influence. The first is a consistent presence every Friday afternoon where the high school have set aside a communal area for us to operate a drop in or "Chill Zone" as it is called. I love this time! There are a group of between 20-30 kids who come and spend their lunchtime in our company. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and there is a definite depth and openness that has been cultivated during that time. The second area is being part of the chaplaincy team. For a week at the end of each term we are invited to take the morning assemblies. We just finished a week of assemblies and focused on a theme of 'The Turning Point." We used a mix of media and teaching to share about the importance of turning points in our lives. Each of us presented a personal example of a turning point and the essential work of Christ in the process. We also used a video clip from "Dispicable Me 2" and the Matthew West song, "Going through the Motions" to help illustrate - great stuff! The third avenue is being invited in to teach the X-cell group. One Thursday a month I get to teach a group of, mainly Christian students, who meet to encourage and be encouraged. It's a great setting and at our last session just before the Easter break I was blown away by what the group shared. We were looking at how God called us and our journey with Him. The group shared their various struggles in breaking free from HARD family prejudice against God. I loved listening to how powerful our God is in light of His redeeming work. The teacher who heads up the group shared with me what happened the next week when the senior students took the end of term session. This session would be their last one before leaving to go on to uni or further college stuff. They chose to build on our last set of discussions and share why it was so important to have faith guide their path. He told me it was the most powerful session he had witnessed! I love hove how God fans the spark into a flame! Fourthly, I get to play with the staff :)   On a Friday afternoon when the school week is done I get to play 5-a-side football with some of the teaching staff. Again, just an avenue to connect and affirm our shared interest in bringing out the best from the younger generations. 

So, to try and sum things up? From my foolishness in thinking that it might be a good idea to step back from this ministry to witnessing God's power and His constant promise to rely on His strength - that about sums it up!  His ways are so far above ours... 

Our organised classes at the church building are showing growth with the younger ones, primary school age. This was another indicator that God was in control. The class had dropped in numbers to around 8 after the year end break. However, by the summer the class was healthy with between 15-25 regularly coming. We have a lovely bunch and spread over the whole we range of 5-12 years old. I have the added bonus of having C.J, Jordan and Eden helping out with the class. There continues to be a nice balance of focus and fun :)

Our Wednesday nights are consistent and there is a decent group attending. We are only holding two classes above the adult class, due to struggling to get teachers. For the meantime it is working out, but is not ideal. Amy takes the younger kids up to age 12 and I take everyone over that age. Our class these past few weeks have been focused on organising a youth weekend. We have invited youth groups rom all over the UK to join us from 10th to 12th o June. This will be our first time to host one in over 20 years, so we are excited about that!

On Friday nights we meet up with the teens and young adults. This class has changed a fair bit. It has become a rather focused group and our purpose for meeting is becoming more service orientated. A few weeks back we spontaneously decided to o and visit one of our elderly ladies who has suffered a stroke and has not yet regained her speech. We took a bunch of chorus books and headed out to the hospital. It turned out to be quite beautiful for both us and Pat. Pat was delighted and beamed the whole time we sang around her bed and we were blessed knowing that joy had replaced loneliness. We spent a time in prayer before heading out. Just before the Easter break we did something similar and headed out to a nursing home where another of our elderly sisters is being cared for. We had tried a couple of different visits before finally heading out to Sunnybank care home. When you do things spontaneously you have to be ready with a plan B or even a plan D! When we got there we found Betty in the communal room and there were maybe 12-15 in the room. It was again very lovely! Betty was inspired and would just start singing a song for us to join in and every now and again would inject a statement of faith. We spent some time visiting with the others and set out for home after a time of closing prayer. 

Preaching and teaching continues to be a large part of my efforts. Whether it is with the church family of in the youth group or in the community, there are numerous opportunities for sharing our hope and joy! 

I had the honour of marrying a lovely couple who are very dear to our family. Stewart and Sarah (Ormsby) Haddow were married last October. It was such a lovely and easy wedding to perform because they were obviously smitten with each other. We have known Sarah for years and our girls have grown up knowing and being encouraged in their faith as a result of Sarah's devotion and heart for the kingdom. We have only known Stewart since he started dating Sarah, but it was easy to see why he won her affection! Stewart is a very grounded, humble and genuine young man. We love that they are now married and will have each other's love to spur them on to beauty and generosity.  

Another huge part of my recent ministry was being able to come alongside Madge-Louise Robertson.

There are no words that can describe the blessing and beauty that I witnessed while being near Madge and her family! Madge packed a lot of love and shared the best of herself while she lived. The memories and fondness I have as a result of being Madge's friend will always be precious to me. We shared some of the most powerful and painful moments I have experienced in my short ministry. Madge had a desire and resolve to know God's presence and to be protected by His grace, truly an example of the highest order! It was my joy to take Madge's funeral and be able to honour her life and beauty of spirit.