Christmas Message

"'...my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the LORD, who has compassion on you." Isaiah 54:10

God set aside God-ness and squeeezed into a people-suit; to walk among us and make known the basic promise of the kingdom; and declare forgiveness according to the mercy & righteousness of God.

The victory cry started with a baby's little lamb cry, and ended with a simple prayer on the cross. Infinite God was fastened to flesh, only to later be ripped from it.

On Christmas, the birth of this child has value because the manner of His death brings life to the friends of God. His birth is the begining of re-birth for fallen man.

To the glory of God

The Faithfulness of God

After 35+ years of service, Jim Taylor died in the midst of the local fellowship that he had come to call his home church. The body of Christ ministered to he and his wife Helen in his moment of crisis.

The picture is sketched along-side the tragedy of death. No one here gets out alive!
But life withstood the threat of darkness.

The 16-year old boy with his arm around Helen and the dear friend holding her hand. Those of us praying, those of us asking questions. Someone made tea. Elaine was performing CPR on Jim until the paramedics arrived. They worked faithfully. Helen knows the presence of God in her reflection on those last moments of Jim's life. Great light!

God arranged the last weeks of Jim's life to afford him visits with family, the opportunity to say some things to select people; blessing and reconciliation. His daughter and her entire family had visited spontaneously, the day before he died, with a new camera to capture shots of Jim in seeming good health.

Nobody knew Jim's last days had come. Almost nobody. The One, True God, Creator and Giver of Life, Our Lord knows and does all things well. He is faithful.

A gentleman suffered a heart attack today during the service.

Just before we began Jim Taylor dropped without warning. I can still see the look in his eyes while I was talking to 999 and praying for him. It is deeply disturbing to look into the fading eyes of a person you know, trying to hope for and pray for change; and wondering if what you want to ask God to do, is what God is doing.

We had to move our prayer meeting in the back to occupy his wife Helen while a first-aid person worked doing compressions, then while the paramedics worked. The paramedics worked on him for around a half an hour. They left with a tank of air and a mask in place. We got news later that he had passed away. His daughter Karen has come along to stay with Helen. It has been a very difficult day.

Jim was 80. Please pray for Helen and their daughter Karen and sons David, Roderick and Colin.

Christmas is Coming, What Will You Do Differently?

Remember

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

(War Memorial Service in Cochrane Park)

...do this in remembrance of Me.

(The Holy Spirit) will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

strings around my finger don't really work.
and post-it notes once crowded my computer screen.
as often as I remind myself to remember, I forget.

I forget to be different from moment to moment.
I forget who's I am
I forget how far gone into the depths I once was
I forget to say "thank you"
I forget I'm not the only one
I forget what I was gonna say...

God called us to Scotland.
We thought Edinburgh, but we found out when we got here that it was Alva.
to a dying-ish church, someone reminded me today.

A church-planter with no experience;
with heart and some mild success as part of a GREAT team.

• "What good comes from Nazareth?"
• "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
• But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
  God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong
  (Glad I could be of some assistance) :s

But the point seems to me to be that the Lord God of heaven and earth; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ takes, people in process, to work healing THROUGH them, like percolating coffee.

I am grounds
I am grounded
I am useful in His hands

Remembrance day (Veterans' Day for UK) was a sombre occasion in a town where the men and women grew up without dads due to two world wars. There are men alive here who marched the beaches during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Which is not to say that 8 year-olds don't LOVE a parade.


You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train...

Has your will been conquered?
Have you reckoned yourself dead?
How cool that it doesn't actually cost your life's breath.
Still it's pretty dearly priced.

So much of this Christian life is not depicted in the recruiting brochures!
Would you have signed up if you knew.

My identity, my confidence, by reputation, my options.
Gethsemane.

My wife has left (how much is my fault?), our church secretary has resigned (old school yielding a white-knuckled grip, making way for new vision?), one of the families I have poured most into has relocated (they are blessed and provided for) and I am sitting in this empty house writing to you. Is this worth it?

I asked God if I should quit. I think the answer was/is stand firm.
This is humiliating!

Aren't you inspired by my expertise and effective communication?

Sincerely, I see now that it has always been the Lord and I think we have lost sight of this over recent years. He is committed to our health and safety as we serve Him. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

I hope to still be standing next month,
Dave

PS Remember to pray for us.

Autumn

Last night was 4 degrees Celsius! I love the change of seasons.
This summer was great weather, though you wouldn't get that if you were asking a Scot.

Apparently there was this summer in 1963 or there abouts that set the standard for all expectation. I don't think those people check with the farmers to calibrate their prayers for sunshine! ;)





Please pray for our family as our marriage is still rocky and it is hard to keep to a hope that as God works this all out to His glory, it will also work out for our family. Liz has discontinued counseling, has moved into a flat with the boys. She is not communicating, except through texts and emails that do not address our marriage, but just insist on basic coordination of schedules. She has opened her own bank account and is attending another church on the Sundays when she has the boys. When I have the boys, she comes to Alva and watches them while I conduct the service until the kids go off for children's church.

If you know Liz, please reach out to her. She needs your support.

I considered leaving ministry all together but I am convinced that this will not affect Elizabeth's decisions. I have asked her what she wants and she isnt able to articulate an answer. If she came to me today and asked me to, I suppose I would. But for now, I am honouring the standing orders to answer the call to preach and pastor. I don't love the job more than my wife though.

My soul aches.

We are on track for the new year. I calculate mine from September to August. We have started a new Finance Course based on a model developed by Christians Against Poverty. It's basically budgeting and cash accounting. There is an option for distressed individuals to seek debt counseling, but we are just focused on a three-week diagnostic tool presented alongside the gospel.

Jesus met the woman at the well and we are meeting people at their checking accounts.

The Chaplaincy and Christian Club are running strong. We just ran a 10 week Discipleship Course for Teenagers that was very successful. Lots of the kids were from other churches, so it was a bit 'catch and release' for this fisher of men. We are building relationships with the churches around here. As long as the gospel is preached and these kids are discipled, Jesus is glorified and we are fulfilling the great commission. (Mat 28:18-20)

Seriously, at one point, I explained that having sex with a person to whom you are not married is called "fornication" and three jaws drop, one kid yawns and this one chick says "Oy I thought fornication was when you do it with a foreign guy!?" Hilarious! Tragic!

Not just kids. Suddenly, I find that my neighbours are open to conversations about Jesus and salvation. Pray for Richard, a man who recently had a stroke and then fell out of bed and broke his back. He is not an old man. His ailments slowed him down and I spoke with him walking with a walker by our home. I shared the gospel, walked away and God prompted me to come back and ask him if he wanted to be forgiven just like we had talked about. He agreed and we prayed and I was able to assure him that forgiveness resulted. Now if only we could get him into church. People are sooooo damaged by religion here.

Pastoring is hard work.

This is a post-Christian nation with a religious disposition that functions like 'spiritual contraception' to the life of Christ. Keep praying for this brazen American evangelist to speak light and life into the hearts of people in Alva. And that I would not see my family sacrificed on the altar of ministry. (Luke 9:23-24)

Sin = Epic Fail!

Today we shared the Romans Road with 18 Highschool students at the Christian Club in Alva Academy.
Every kid understood and responded to the invitation to avail themselves of the right to become children of God!

It is particularly important because so many in Scotland rely on their christening as the ticket to heaven. As if membership in a Christian family is the low bar to clear. Many more 'believe in Jesus' (ie that He was a good man, that he was a real person, even that he is God) but dont know about our need for a savior and His provision for our salvation. So few have ever considered that faith leads to a changed life.

Here's the simple premise:

Q: Why did Jesus die?
A: To re-establish our relationship with God."

Three Years in Alva

Today was a scorcher! the temperature was 66 degrees F
Not as hot as yesterday 75 Scots were melting like Frosty the Snowman in the greenhouse!
I am wearing my Tevas for the first time in three years since arriving.

June 14 was three years in Alva.

Please pray for the week of mission planned between Alva Baptist Church (Alva), Hillfoots Evangelical Church (Tillicoultry) and Ochil Hills Community Church (Dollar). OHCC has agreed to host a team of 13 americans on a short term missionary trip. They are coming from Alabama and Georgia through a missions organization in Seattle.

Also, coincidentally (or not) my dear friend Thom Wedge (who demonstrates with his life that "LoveWorks") is coming over from Denmark to visit at the same time.

On Monday and Tuesday evenings (21 & 22 June) from 5-7pm, we will partner with the visitors and the other churches, in Alva at Johnston Park, with the Jesus Booth, to reach out to the community.

It's a bit of a contrivance for them to fit Alva into their plans. And ultimately they are trying to build up their fellowships in neighbouring towns, but if Alva Baptist isn't reaching people and they can, we figure they're not against us, they're with us!

• Frasers visit the Calvary Chapel Pastors conference in York, England 28th-1st July
• Our Holiday Club (VBS) is 4-11 July in Alva (Monday-Friday)
  
• There is a Youth Discipleship Course begining on July 8th
  and continuing Thursdays through 9th September.
• Dave and Debe Harris are visiting from Israel on their way home to the USA. We will vacation around Scotland and minister with them from 19 July to 2 or so of August
  

Lots going on and our lives remain pressurized. We are confident that you will agree there are multiple dynamics at work in any of our lives. As missionaries, as parents, we all face the challenge of balancing our relationships at work, at church, with neighbours, with spouses and with children.

It seems like as a ministry family, there is a residual stress that fills the kettle with rocks so that it takes less heat and less time for a full kettle to boil over, if you know what I mean. But that aint cool and God didn't call us to walk this path without recourse.

You guys be praying, OK?

Light Through Clouds, Something Has Changed!

I spoke with two folks on Tuesday.
In their 80s, weak(er) and frail in their old age.
Unable to attend the church due to several medical problems.

I visit them not frequently. (to my shame)
But the Lord delivered me to their home on Tuesday.

The ministry of a small town pastor, to a pastorate reeling from a religious opression and lack of Biblical descipleship, is a benign formality that destroys the soul.
except for one thing... the Lord sees us, He is about His business.
(the author weeps at his laptop in the coffee shop)

"Tea vicar?"
The conversation could almost begin like that, if it didnt ruin the religious pride that 'we are NOT Presbyterian, we are Baptist!'

But this is NOT how it goes with these two folks.
We have become friends.
He gives me books from his burgeoning library.
I visited her in the hospital when she had a fall.
They write us, even though they live less than a half a mile away.
Liz writes back, touched by their genuine affection.

So we meet in the kitchen.
Its the only room not out of sorts because the 80 year-old husband is the sole caretaker for the deteriorating health of his wife.
They are embarrassed of this.
She apologizes to me for not getting up as I enter the room. I am inwardly offended that a woman in her 80s thinks she should be standing as the 'Minister' enters the room. But she means to show respect for God in this gesture.
'Religion'.
(the author spits out the bad taste of the word)

I am enamoured by their gentle demeanour and their honest appreciation of the fact that I have made some more time for them lately. They tell stories about early days of youth and marriage. Riding around the towns from meeting to meeting on a motorcycle. (The pleasant idea of her on the back of a motorcycle at her present age wafts throught my mind). How honoured he was to be asked in his youth the head up a Scripture Union group at a local school because he had become known as a strong evangelical Christian.

80-something..., twice my lifetime.
Live another life, with two stories a day, and then try and sit down with a minister at the final seasons of life trying to tell the best ones in an hour. This is the treasure trove I stumbled accross.

Something of the conversation tripped my recollection of a recent sermon point that their experiences illustrated, triggering a 3.5 minute sermon blurb. Soon we are talking about the congregation and the Sunday service that they so miss and wish they could attend, and how they are sorry they are not more faithful (the religious performance beast muscles its way back into the room)
("they stabbed it with their steely knives, but...")

I cant recount a verbatim because my mind is constantly distilling experience to pictures and intuitions. I wish I could walk you through it. How glorious, the path that God led us along this Tuesday.

One thing led to another and we were talking about health, and mental anguish, and ostracization by the church that they had poured their life out upon like a drink offering. They, in their senior years, wondering if they had properly estimnated the alter of their sacrifice; or was it more like david pouring out the water from the well in Bethlehem onto the ground than Paul's life of obedience poured over a most holy faith.

What broke my heart was the realization that I was the first person whom they felt they could speak to about this. I empathized with them, I listened, I offered no solution. I declared that they were in fact faithful. I expressed my sorrow at their efforts to participate, only to be rebuffed as unhelpful. I agreed about how frustrating it must have been to have had a minister previously who acknowledged the problem and refused to confront it, when a small group grabbed the helm of the ecclesiasical ship and shut out the balance of the congregation. She pointed out how he would not abandon the fellowship in his heart and how they had continued as members despite the offense and abandonment.

God spoke to them and it sounded just like my voice!
God spoke to this couple, now 80 something,
(as Liz and I will one day be if the Lord tarries)
God used David fraser to decalre that their estimation of the wrongness in how they were treated as members of the fellowship was valid. That there was a sickness woven throughout a fellowship where sin persisted, acknowledged but unadressed.
And He spoke to them: "Well done My faithful servant! I saw those dark days. I have not forgotten you and I have brought help."
I recalled the words "Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers"

And this fella spoke words that broke a curse, words that freed me, as litteral light shone through the clouds outside and into the kitchen, the last bastillion of order and tidiness in their home.
He said: "David it was like...it was like, there were these 'IMPOSTERS' who had occupied the church, and on Sunday they stand there smiling like 'hello, good morning!' but under the surface, they were the most devious sort of persons!"

That he had said it out loud, affirmed his unnamed hurt and brought healing. She was vindicated that it had been named in the home and confirmed by the present overseer of the church. When I bounded home to Liz to declare that God had done a wonderful thing
(one which I couldnt express to the depth of it), Liz discerned something true about the change in my countenance.
(Also amazement that I would be at a loss for words ;)

And he had given words to the gloom in which Liz and I have ministered these three years. And it was like legion gave her name to Christ at that moment and some dreadful chain fell to the ground and the gates openned up and we were walking out together
She and he; and Liz and I; walking together out of a prison.
It was like a batton had been passed and they were relieved
and we were empowered for a very real battle.

I was reminded that I sat with another couple of ladies on another day weeks ago. One dear lady declared proudly to me: "Do you know that there was a time that every office in the Masonic Lodge was held by a member of Alva Baptist Church!
But now my sons have walked away from us"
As if the faithful service of the Baptists at the lodge was a testimony to the influence of the Church in the community at large. "You know all their rites come right out of the Bible!" said she, as her pal nodded in agreement. Dear friends, and simple women who love the Lord and walk blissfully in ignorance with regard to the pagan witchcraft in their midst.

This is the state of the church in Alva.

We plant a church in the war-torn shell of the desolation that is 'compromised Christianity'. They watch from the sidelines, tired from years of labour, ridden with carnal habbits and seething contempt for sincere righteousness. Smiling when the light shines, agreeing with truth on the surface, waiting perhaps for opportunity to assert their will. But God has called us.

This work is not a bit desireable and hard and fruitful.
People are blessed for the change and life has returned.
But dandilions are dilligent and pervasive. Wheat and tears...

Named..., the evil has broken
and we are feeling something of a fresh breeze.

the battle cry goes forth from this page to the ends of the earth.
Will you pray for a holy army to come to our aid along the Hillfoots?
That the Lord would confound the enemy of our souls?
That worship will rise along these hills!
That the word of God would go out and find good soil?
That fallow fields and ferril hearts would be cleared and cleansed and granted life agin in Christ. That we, His servants, would continue to know protection and provision?

Please please please?

Rev 2:12-17 (ESV) 12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: 'The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
13 "'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.'

Something has changed...

Uzzah Steadies the Ark

OK here is my take (shooting from the hip)

Uzzah is a work-related injury not directly attributed to him.

King david, in ignorance about how the arc was to be handled,

put it on a cart. The Arc is to be carried on the shoulders of men

with poles of acacia wood slipped through the metal rings on the side of the arc.

So yes, God has prescribed how He will be approached

and how we may address Him.

But Uzza’s death was no more “punishment” than an electrician getting zapped for ignorantly handling live wires.
Uzzah did not know, David did not know;

but God is still ‘HIGH voltage’

The arc is a picture of the mercy seat of God and

we will come before God on His terms or we will not make it.

I have heard the argument about man steadying the Arc and

it holds water to a point,

(Pro 10:29 The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the blameless, but destruction to evildoers.)

but I don’t think it is divine retribution against Uzzah.

Many commentaries you find neglect the fact that the arc depends on being carried on the backs of men.

God does nothing for man without the participation of men.

The deal with Uzzah is that the people of Israel were so far from God that their good intentions led them to violate clear instructions from God about how to approach Him.

People died.

God maintains the typology for its prophetic consistency

and our education.

This is why Moses could not enter the promised land

He struck the rock once; after that God instructed him to speak to the rock, but he struck it again.

Jesus was the rock. Smitten once

and now we must merely speak to the rock to know that living water.

Moses messed up the typology and got a heavenly time out.

Uzzah died for our benefit, not for his punishment.

Same with Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5.

The arc needed carrying in an oxcart because men had previously failed in stewarding what God had entrusted.

As we decide how we will choose to worship God

(frequently on our own terms)
how often will we choose to just practice whatever manner of good intentioned gesture we like and ask God to put up with it?

All paths do not lead to God, only Christ does.

Not Christ plus something.

Not an oxcart plus a strong steady hand...

There is a way that seems right to a man

but it’s end is the way to death.

Better to follow God more closely and know His ways,

the margin of error between good and Holy is slight

but it is also eternally significant.

From the hip...

Remember free advice is sometimes only worth what you pay forit!

Battle Cry

This month the local Presbytery of the Church of Scotland will discuss their position on the decision last year of the national assembly to uphold the calling to ministry of an openly homosexual minister. This is an overseer of the local fellowship who, in his previous charge as pastor, invited his partner to live in the manse with him. At issue is the question of basic biblical doctrines that have been held by the christian church for millennia.

Last month, A street preacher was fined £1,000 by a Scottish court after answering questions about homosexuality. Albeit unwise in the bluntness of his response to hecklers in George Square in Glasgow, this Baptist Pastor was put in a police cell overnight and fined. This was because the hecklers complained to the Police they were upset by how he had answered their leading questions. He was American and was unable to stay in the country for the number of weeks it may have taken to clear his name and refute the charge of causing a 'Breach of the Peace' ! Instead he plead guilty. This is unfinished business and we will keep you informed.
Audio of a Radio Interview with The Christian Institute in UK

We are praying about our role in a local evangelistic outreach scheduled for October 2011 (next year) Leading up to this, I have been asked to consider helping churches prepare over the coming year to disciple new-born Christians. This is monumental and can have a transforming effect on the Hillfoots community. Please pray.

None of this may matter shortly:
Our marriage is still frail and, frankly, Liz is wavering about whether she wants to continue to be married to me. She has stopped coming to counseling and googles "divorce in Scotland". It's dire folks.

We need friends praying for healing of bitterness and fear and to make a way for forgiveness on both sides. I love Liz and am just trying to love well and be responsible to serve this family.

We need to know you are praying and we need your feedback and counsel right now.

Praise!

Something good is happening in Scotland!
God has seen fit to allow trials and refinement this winter.
I have really learned to love my wife like Christ loves the church.
The Lord has healed me of a deep fear of failure and abandonment.
(through something that felt exactly like failure and abandonment!)
Elizabeth is warming up to me again.
She sees that I am committed to Her.
My identity is more plainly rooted in Christ
and not merely what I do for Him.

Something so sinful crept up on us; THROUGH us.
I was railing against a lack of respect.
Liz was injured by bitterness and anger coming from me.
I was bitter and angry due to unmet expectations of Liz AND myself
I had lapsed into a religious performance,
spinning plates and working hard;
trying to outrun failure.
Plain scared.
Faithlessly working...
Trying to earn something, I suppose.
(even though we know where that gets us: Rom 4:4-5; Eph 2:8-9)

I don’t think I could have seen this without the pain and angst that the last four months have delivered.
I am tearful as I type and consider the great things the LORD HAS DONE FOR US.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

I don’t fully understand how it all works together,
but am living in the light of this truth.
...for good
to those who love God and are called according to His purposes.

Prayer:
1. For growth from strength to strength in our marriage and family.
2. We begin studying through Genesis on Sundays from 3-5, with topical sermons from those chapters the following Sunday worship and home groups to discuss these during the week.
I hope to see a reduction in diverse studies and a focus on the same body of scripture church-wide.
3. The Chaplaincy at the local HS is flourishing and Kids know they can depend on me for an answer from the Bible.
This is feeding into the Christian club on Tuesdays after school.
These kids are asking for a Bible study, and I think a discipleship course will suit them.
4. More families are turning up at the church on a Sunday and we need strong vision and leadership for the kids ministry.
5. We are planning to participate in an evangelistic mission in October with Impact World Tours from YWAM.
This will help us to focus on discipleship training now, in anticipation of the event in the Fall.
6. I pray that we will be able to develop a younger generation worship service over the summer to be up and running for the Fall.

Vision & Mission:
Study, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer...
...Making disciples

Thanks for being good friends and faithful to pray,
Dave

Halelujah!

The View From Here

I smoked a cigar tonight.
It was the smoothest tobacco I ever tasted.
Still, it was tobacco. I wouldn’t do it often.
I certainly wouldn’t tell my son about it.
But I just stepped outside and walked VERY slowly tokin on this stogie.
I found I suddenly had a bit more time to pray.
And, by God, I had something to say!

Mostly, it went like this:
Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
WHAT in tarnations am I doing HERE?!!!

I found myself walking in the glen on an overcast, moonless night.
The woods are peculiar at night in the dark.
The lines between flesh and spirit seem thinner.
“What was that rustling over there?”
There was a sense of pent-up history calling out from the wood.
But the boogie man can’t get me in the shelter of the most high.

And THAT is my point.
There is a fruit of this time of trial for Elizabeth and me.
Liz is emerging from depression
into the strength of her true identity in Christ.
I am being freed of (perhaps lifelong) fear of calamity.
(to use another word favoured by Yosemite Sam)

That which I have greatly feared has come upon me.
It seemed like our marriage was bleeding arterially.
Ministry options threatened to come to a grinding halt.
I was alone and without recourse;
until reality presented itself in light of faith in God.
To quote Led Zeppelin “You are never alone”
Better to quote God: I will never leave you or forsake you.
Christ specifically: Lo, I will be with you, even to the end of the age.

My hands dropped to my side at some point over these last two months and I was as good as dead. Apprehended, it seemed. Busted for being so scared; and so stressed; and so desperate to control the course of MY life.

So I am still here.
We are still separated.
It still sucks.
But it is getting better.

We share a mutual hope, Liz and I.
And I am happy to report that God is faithful to hear our prayers and we see that He is at work on each of us during this time. We are again encouraged to trust that ‘one’ has genuine good will toward the ‘other’. And God is building us back up to ‘choose to’ honour the covenant rather than ‘have to’. This language is less peculiar to me after this ordeal.

It’s like we were frogs in a pot and Liz was the first to say “wait a minute, this is freakin HOT” and jump out. We have some bad habits and some lame 25-cent psychology worming through this process, but God seems to be sifting through insult and injury to bless us with humour and the joy of life.

I just wrote this email to the course moderator for this class in Pastoral Care to let him know I will miss the final project submission deadline; because his class didn’t make the cut when I was setting priorities right over these last two months. Maybe I will get to submit my case study another time; maybe I just crashed and burned. Maybe this tanks my accreditation as an approved minister with the Baptist Union of Scotland. But God has watched me face the fear and choose the wife of my youth and refuse to roll over in the face of external pressures and ‘curse God and die’.

So... I smoked a cigar to celebrate (like we just had a baby).

I think ministry was the gift of grace through all of this.
People came alongside of each of us.
The fellowship here in Alva is completely supportive.
You came to both of us together and separately.
We made new friends and heard from old friends.
We have been ministered to by God almighty
through faithful servants.

No one abandoned us or sniped at us.
Everyone who deemed it appropriate to respond was gentle, with few words and offered to pray; and followed up to affirm that they were praying.

I was embarrassed that we were in real trouble.
And now I am mostly proud to be God’s;
and to call you all friends.

We’ll need to get Liz to blog on the same subject,
when she is up to it.

Please keep praying and lifting us up
and please don’t let our plight and testimony be wasted on you.
Keep marriage from degrading over time
and never give up in the midst of the storm.
“He is able” “He is faithful”

We came over here to ‘call Scotland back to her First Love’ (arrogant)
God has given us ourselves as a gift
and called us to Him first, in love.

How bout that?

PS Cigars are kind of nasty, after the fact.