Grandma you are missed!

We're a little late with this but we're usually a little late with everything so this is just par for the course I guess. Wow, grandma you were here for 10 weeks and now your gone and there's a huge hole here in your absense. We are slowly adjusting but please know that you are very much missed and thank you so much for all you have done for us while you were here. We've never had so many different apple deserts and they were all so good we never got tired of apples. You were also such an example to all of us as everywhere you went here, you seasoned the ground with the joy of the Lord. God bless you and we look forward to seeing you again in the not too distant future. By the way, Erin still thinks you're flying around with JJ The Jet plane.

It Rains Here... A Lot!!

A couple of days ago Forrest Gump was on and I couldn't resist watching as it's one of my all time favorites. The scene where he's in Vietnam and it starts to rain had much more of an effect on me this time watching it as I could definitely relate.
It has been raining pretty much non stop for the last 5 weeks every day. Sometimes it falls straight down and sometimes it comes from the side like. Sometimes it's real stinging rain and other times it's big fat rain and sometimes it comes up and splashes you in the face. It just comes from everywhere.

As you can see by the picture above, we've had more than our fair share. The night before I took this it was even worse as all the grassy areas were covered and it spilled over the street. I couldn't get a shot as my camera batteries were dead. Some houses were flooded as the waters came half way up the first floor of their houses. This lake above is normally a soccer field by the way. We are thankful we didn't get flooded but we are defintely pretty water logged to say the least.
Yesterday Julie and Erin and I went out to Alva to knock on doors inviting people to our Christmas services at the church. Guess what, it was raining big fat rain which hampered our efforts somewhat. Erin was a real trooper as she held the umbrella while I held her and tried to get flyers out of my pocket. Speaking of trooper, I miss our Trooper (SUV). Enough said on that.
Today is the Kids Christmas Party, so we'll how that goes and report later.
By the way, we've started a blog for the church, www.hillfootsalvabaptist.blogspot.com
Hopefully real soon we'll have a real website.
Ok, gotta go get ready for the Kids Party.
Later,
Marc

Happy 8th Birthday Kayleigh

This is a couple of days late as Kayleigh's big day was on the Friday the 1st and things were a bit busy this weekend.
This year we had a few of Kayliegh's friends from school over and had they had such a good time the festivities went into overtime. I can't believe our little shmooper is 8, what the heck! Seems like just yesterday she was Erin's age but now all of a sudden she is looking like a young lady. Man are we blessed with the best kids in the world or what.
Kayleigh, you are an amazing daughter and we love you more than we could ever express. As soon as we found out that you had arrived on the scene, we began praying that from the time you would be born, you would be a blessing to many. Well our prayers have been answered and continue to be as you have blessed us so much and it has been amazing to see how you have blessed so many others with your beautiful smile, energy and enthusiasm for life. Most of all I know you have been a blessing to God as you have such an amazing spirit and sensitivity to the things of the Lord.
We love you and thank God for you everyday. Happy birthday Shmoopie!!

GX International In Kilmarnock

Last Thursday evening was the last night of Impact World Tour in Scotland. As usual the last night is reserved for GX International (skaters, bikers, bladers, dancers, etc.). Well, it just wouldn't be right if there weren't some kind of challenge once again.

The day started out early as many of us gathered to help set up the skate park in the venue. There were many tired looking eyes as the previous evening with Island Breeze ended not too many hours before. Soon everyone got moving and we forgot how tired we were and focussed on the job at hand. We had to have a full size skate park built by 12 noon so the skaters could have enough time to get a good feel for it. Well, we came real close as most of it was in place just after noon before lunch.

While we were building the skate park one of the local youth leaders informed me of a plot he had heard that there were a bunch of kids planning on showing up with knives and they were going to try and cause problems during the alter call. So, we had a brief meeting with those overseeing security and put a plan in place to beef up security a bit. That meant more police and strategically positioning security personel and once again using the guys from TX for an extra security presense. The police were also instructed to not allow trouble makers in the door. Apparently, they know who they are. Well, aside from one guy who flashed a knife in the bathroom (he was thrown out immediately) nothing happened and many people once again gave their lives to Christ that night.

All in all we had over 600 recorded commitments out of approximately 6000 that heard the gospel at all the different events. Normally, 7-8% is the average for western developed nations. New Zealand had about 8% but we wern't quite that optimistic for Scotland because we had been told over and over again not to expect much. I am going to be very skeptical about the skeptics from now on because God is much bigger than any of our preconceived negative notions. 10% is amazing considering much negativity in the beginning here and that is probably a low number as we are being conservative because we don't want to sensationalize anything.

After the show, I had to take the kids and Betty back to the Ywam base, get the kids in bed and then head back to the venue for an all night tear down. Actually, we were there till 4am which isn't as bad as I thought it would be. The next morning, Erin woke up at her usual 7am so we didn't get much sleep and I was one cranky dude all day and we weren't finished yet. We went to a celebration dinner back at Fenwick hall. I was definitely not in the mood for that but after we got there and saw some of the teams for probably the last time, heard some testimonies and shared communion together, it was well worth it!

Tonight, we have one last time to gather with some of the people who were involved with the tour. Frank made a video from the footage Jeff got which we will watch and I'm sure we'll hear more testimonies as well. Its so cool to see the encouraging faces and stories of the locals!

I am feeling though a real sense that it is time to move on and report for our next assignment God has for us. I'll share more on that tomorrow. Actually, it might not be until Wed. because a nice family from Kilmarnock has opened up their house near Inverness for us to go away for a couple of days. It's really out in the boonies, about 20 mins from Inverness so I'm sure there's no internet there which will be good to get away from for a few days. Inverness is on the north side of Loch Ness so we'll be on the lookout for 'Nessie'. On the way up Sunday morning we plan to stop off at a Calvary Chapel for church if we make it in time. This is a church that was planted about a year and a half ago by some people that came over from the states and they have over 150 people attending there which is amazing in this country. Hopefully, we'll make it on time and I'll report on that as well.

Till next time, may God bless you all richly.

Here's a good verse to ponder as well.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." - Phil. 4:8

Island Breeze Night

Well things didn’t actually start out too well on this evening as around 5 pm we received a phone call from the venue stating that a large truck had just struck a utility pole and had taken the main line to the arena out. This meant no power for the venue and around 300 homes in the nearby area. Word has it that the driver leaped out of the cab for his life as there was a live wire dancing around the truck. He actually would have been safer to stay inside the cab as he was grounded by the tires on the truck. By jumping out he came very close to losing his life. If he had even glanced a part of the vehicle while jumping out, he would have been fried on the spot. Praise God that didn’t happen. Having had many shall we say challenges in New Zealand which threatened to stop the shows on each night, we weren’t sweating too much with this one even though we had less than 2 ½ hours till show time. We prayed and sent out prayer requests around the globe and got down to business. We ended up having a good connection with Scottish power and had some generators brought out in the mean time. The show went off about a half hour late powered by 3 generators but looked flawless from the audience perspective. We knew differently as the whole lightshow pre-programming was lost from the power outage so Tchiago, the light tech. had to do it manually. The other thing I just found out about yesterday was that the stage catching on fire during the fire dance was not planned. When it happened, myself and everyone else in the venue thought it was planned with piro-techniques but it was an accident. It did however look really cool as it completely surrounded the guys doing the dance and seemed to go out by itself on cue.

So, other than the power thing, the night went off great with many more coming to Christ. One of the really cool things that happened with the power outage was the owners of the venue got to see how Christians respond in a crisis situation. He was blown away watching how we all just got down to business without anyone freaking out or yelling and cursing at each other. That was encouraging because he commented that had it been anyone else, there would have been a complete meltdown. Just a little reminder that we are being watched all the time by unbelievers to see if we live up to our words. Before the whole thing began, John Ross the Tech. team leader had us all together praying that specific prayer. Praise God for that.

More tomorrow,

Marc

Team Extreme Night in Kilmarnock

I don't know what the deal is but I have been having so many problems with the blog lately which is why there was no post yesterday.

Though this is a week late I thought I'd continue to share some pics from the different nights and so these shots are from last Tuesday night of our evening with Team Extreme.

Since this was the first night in the main venue things got a bit crazy when volunteers were checking in. That's what is going on with Raquel, Julie and Heidi to the left. This picture was actually taken after things calmed down a bit but it was pretty crazy just prior to this when the Local Links, Stewards and other volunteers were checking in, getting signed up and getting their passes.
In this shot a couple of TXers were getting ready to have a race by seeing who could get these big tractor tires to other end of the arena first. That's Victor from Latvia to the left with Jimmy from USA getting in position to officiate and one of the guys from Samoa ( I can't remember his name) to the right. The Samoan ended up winning but it was real close.

Overall the evening was a major success with over 1500 in attendance and close to 300 coming forward for the alter call. Well over 200 were registered decisions for Christ. Praise God!

After the alter call Jeff went around with Candace (from Ywam, Edinburgh) and got some amazing testimonies from people. Jeff also was busy getting footage of all kinds of stuff which has just been edited by Frank into a 40 minute video. We'll be sending some home to Jeff and others some time next week after they're duplicated. We just finished watching it and it was really cool.
Tomorrow I will try and give a report on Island Breeze complete with pictures as well. Till then I hope you enjoy these pictures and the wee TX report.

IWT Week in Pictures

Since we are way behind in blogging I thought the best way would be to do kind of a photo journal type of thing.

The picture on the left was shortly after the team from Zion arrived and recieved the obligatory Scottish greeting from Alec the Piper. As some of you know, it comes complete with an optional bagpipe lesson (which I have opted out of because there were entirely too many lips touching the mouthpeice for my comfort). Anyway, many of the team gave it a try with Jeff sounding the least like he was putting a duck through a tortuous excruciating death.

On Friday we broke camp at our house after a great night with TX the night before with over a hundred kids and some adults coming forward to make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

On Saturday we headed down to Ayr to help out with the 'Death and Desire' concert at the 'Ark' a Christian led dry pub. Though the band was very good, the gig to be honest was a bit of a dud as hardly anyone showed up so it was just music and no ministry. We were pretty disapointed as the club had mentioned on many occasions that they average as many as 250 per night. Besides IWT staff and Ark staff and groupies, there were probably 15 kids that showed up. The other disappointing thing was that the only lyric I understood from the evening was something from one of the other bands which I can't repeat here on this blog. I know what some of you are thinking, Marc's getting old, but as we left the building that night, one from the Zion team said the exact same thing and that person was at least a decade younger than me. All that being said, the guys from 'Death and Desire' were really nice guys and I'm sure somewhat disapointed in the evening as well.

On Monday we had set up day at the main venue which by the time this picture was taken was just about complete. That's Tchiago the lighting technition from Brazil in the pic to the left. He was a trip as he was always joking around and a lot of fun to be around. He also really knew his stuff and did a great job with the lights. As with anything of this magnitude you are going to have some challenges and at around 1pm on set up day we had our first one. We got a phone call from customs that our sound and lighting equipment truck that came over from Norway was held up in customs because the ferry company didn't have the right paper work. Well after much prayer they finally released them after about 4 hours which put us really far behind but it all got done in the end.
On Tuesday we had another challenge as an inspector from the Kilmarnock council told us our stage wasn't set up properly but that was taken care of as well and we were ready for the first night with Team Extreme International.

I'll post on that tomorrow.

Bye for now, Marc 

Things Getting Back to Normal

First of all I am sorry to all of you out there that have been waiting for blog updates on the tour last week. I had tried on several occasions to post a blog only to be blocked by the internet system at the Ywam, Seamill Centre where we were staying. I was extremely frustrated as I spent a good deal of time only to have it be lost out there somewhere in the blogosphere nether regions. Oh well, I'll give it another go and I think it'll work this time as we are back home now.

It's good to be home in our own beds and back to normal schedules. By the end of the week, we were all pretty exhausted especially after the last night as many of us were up until 4am. That wouldn't have been so bad but Erin's sleep schedule didn't change just because it was IWT week in Kilmarnock. She still woke up at 7am and repeatedly yelled, Dadda, Daddy until I gave her my undivided attention. So, on Friday we had a total of three hours of sleep and we weren't finished yet as we had a celebration dinner in the evening we had to attend. Needless to say, I was one cranky dude all day long and not much fun to be around. The celebration dinner was pretty cool as many testimonies were shared and we said goodbye to many of the team members for the last time. They were a fun yet strange looking bunch as we had people there from all over the world including: Latvia, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Germany, Samoa (and some other south pacific countries that I can't pronounce or spell), New Zealand, Brazil, USA, Canada and of course Scotland. These people came in all different sizes as well as the Team Extreme guys were somewhat larger than the rest of us. One of our goals each day was to get in the food line before them to ensure that there would actually be food leftover. Most times we were successful.

I will share more in the next post but I thought I'd wait 'till I could get my pictures up from the camera which is currently in a room where someone is sleeping.

More soon.

Marc

Extreme Move of God
Wow, what a night! I just returned about a half an hour ago from Team Extreme night in Tillicoultry and I have to say all of our expectations were surpassed by far. The venue was completely packed out beyond capacity (around 400) as some had to stand in the back. Normally in a western nation we'll see about 7-8% in attendance come forward to make a commitment to Christ, tonight I think it's safe to say at least 20% came forward which we were all blown away by. God was defintely moving as there seemed to be no hesitation as the front of the stage was flooded with people. It was a bit crazy because we only had about 10 or so from the local church trained to be Local Links (councelors) so we all had to jump in and get as many names written down as possible. Those that came forward will be followed up with a phone call where they can make arrangements for discipleship to take place. No doubt some of those that came forward were probably not sincere but I know many were so we should lift them up in prayer that the foundation of a fruitful Christian life will begin now. No telling what God will do in the lives of these people.

Tomorrow we're off to West Kilbride where we'll have base camp at the Ywam Seamill base for the Kilmarnock leg of the tour. I will try and keep the blog updated while we are there with what I believe will be some exciting stuff happening.

Until then, Pray! 

Impact World Tour Has Arrived

Yea, that's right the tour has arrived and by the beginning of next week the teams will have done 42 school assemblies and 6 satellite shows and that's all before the main outreach where there could be in excess of 2000 per night at the Rowallan Centre. So far the school assemblies have had rave reviews and I just heard today that the TX International prison outreach had many of the inmates give their lives to Christ. Tomorrow night is TX in Tillicoultry which is a wee town just down the road from us here where we live. We'll be there all day tomorrow with the Zion team which as I am writing this are watching Monte Python's, 'The Holy Grail'. On Friday we'll be taking them down to the Ywam Seamill base to set up shop for the Kilmarnock outreach. I will keep you updated with pictures as well. Until then, Pray!!! 

The Castle Interior
I thought you all might want to see the interior of the west facing section of our wonderful castle. Pretty impressive eh. One thing I forgot to mention was that this was where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned for a year. She was otherwise known as 'Bloody Mary' because she used to have the the protestants persecuted and eventually burned at the stake. So, if she was imprisoned, she deserved it. By the way, that's one of the reasons we got such a great deal on this place. That and the fact that there's no windows or central heating. Minor details....

Julie didn't want me to use this picture originally because she said I look like I'm going to the bathroom.

Cheers 

Happy Anniversary To Us!!
Hard to believe it's been twelve years but on this date twelve years ago we were wed. It was a beautiful autumnal day with crispy cool temps., clear skies and the fall leaves of Pennsylvania just hitting their peak. It couldn't have been a better day and I couldn't have found a better bride.
Well as you can see from the quite spacious abode in the background, we've done alright for ourselves in the years since. It's a bit taxing as far as upkeep goes but we really enjoy the Scottish castle retro thing. The thing that really sold us though was the really nice park bench and the big lawn for the kids to play on and the fact that the whole property is surrounded by water. This way we can tell well in advance when an annoying sales person is approaching. That's when we pull out the vintage 16th century catapult. We insisted on having that or we just weren't buying. Sometimes you really just need to be firm if you want to get what you want.

In other news....

The tour is fast approaching and things are getting pretty intense. Last Friday we had a youth 'Impact' night and had Jesse and 4 of his teamates from GX International come and do some skate tricks and breakdancing and then share the gospel to a crowd of mostly non-Christian youths. They were quite a wild bunch but God was defintely doing something there that night as we were there for several hours afterward hanging out with many that wanted to know more about God. It was really cool to see. I think it also instilled a real excitement in some of the leaders from the local churches. There is definitely an electricity building in the Kilmarnock area. Stay tuned for more updates because things are really starting to happen. 

Grandma's Back in Scotland
Ok, so she's actually been here for over two weeks now. We've been a little slow with the blog thing lately, I guess there's too much happening these days. It didn't take long for grandma to discover the apple trees in our backyard. She barely hit the ground and she started peeling apples. In the two weeks she's been here we've had just about every apple dish you could imagine. Can you say (in a Forrest Gump and Bubba voice), Apple Cake (now sitting in the kitchen waiting to be eaten), Apple cobbler, Apple sauce, Apple pie, Apple crisp, Apple crumble, Apple butter, Apple baked oatmeal, Apple pancakes.... I know there's something I've left out but I think you get the point. We've been spoiled silly with deserts lately. By the way, we still have a ton of apples on our trees so I'll let you all know of any other apple inventions that may come about in the near future.

Well, things are certainly getting very busy here as tomorrow will be the third time this week I will travel down to Kilmarnock. I'm kind of bummed because I will miss Kayleigh's dance competition but I guess that's the nature of things right now. She's got another one next month that I will not be missing.

Today it was sunny and warm so I took a few hours off this afternoon and took Liam out to the golf course for 9 holes. We had a great time and we both shot well especially Liam with his 'Happy Gilmore' golfing technique. He ended up at the green the same time as me for every hole. Too bad the course closes for the season on Sunday because we both would like to do that a little more often. The reality though is that things are gonna be crazy busy here in the next couple of weeks. The teams have started arriving this week and more will be here next week. We've got over 30 school assemblies lined up and 1 prison program all leading up to the main outreach evenings on the 31st and 1st and 2nd of November. There's much more to be said but I think we'll just try and report on it as it happens. Just pray!!
More soon.
Marc 

Hi-de-Ho!Its been awhile since I actually blogged. Marc is doing such a fantastic job so I just let him at it! Love the b-day greeting, are'nt I blessed?! Alot is happening and will be happening in the next few months and I dont know how much time we will have to blog but I want to fill in a few blanks just now.

IWT is snowballing and the teams will be here around the 19th of Oct. ready or not! The stage will be set and we are expecting God to do some awesome things! IN THE MEAN TIME... there are loads of projects to get done. Kilmarnock just came through a time of "Transformation" seminars that were IWT organized and we are already getting some exciting feedback from christians there and some awesome stories of people sharing their faith like never before and personal lives transformed. At one of the nights when Mark Anderson (our International IWT Director and founder) was speaking he challenged the church (19 participating churches btw and whoever else gave ear) to make Jesus Lord COMPLETLY of our lives... to examine what I actually believe ... to lay down EVERYTHING at the cross and make an effect on our generation... to be the witness that God intended and to be thankful for allowing us to participate in His salvation of people for Eternity. From my seat it seemed like an easy 2/3 of the church responded! Amazing night!!!

In other news... MOM IS COMING!!! We are soooo excited that she will Lord willing be here next week and will stay for a few months. We havent had mom time in over a year and look forward to just hanging out with her and not recovering and being sick this time! Hopefully it will be a much needed break for her. THe kids are beside themselves with glee and with a little luck Erin will be saying Grandma by that time. :) I couldnt resist this cute picture of Erin. She just decided to start posing and luckily I could actually find the camera before she got tired of saying cheese.

Here we go... Kayleigh had to research some facts about Scotland and this was her star fact chosen by her teacher. "The highest recorded temp. in Scotland was 32.9 c at Greycook on 9 Aug. 2003. Prior to that the record was 32.8 c (also 89.6 F) at Dumfries on 2 July 1908!" Go figure! It was warm here then too! :) Rainy today but amazingly dry and sunny lately. Its off to research the Isle of Iona now for homework. How cool is that?! More Later... love to all, Julie

Hi-de-Ho!
Its been awhile since I actually blogged. Marc is doing such a fantastic job so I just let him at it! Love the b-day greeting, are'nt I blessed?! Alot is happening and will be happening in the next few months and I dont know how much time we will have to blog but I want to fill in a few blanks just now.

IWT is snowballing and the teams will be here around the 19th of Oct. ready or not! The stage will be set and we are expecting God to do some awesome things! IN THE MEAN TIME... there are loads of projects to get done. Kilmarnock just came through a time of "Transformation" seminars that were IWT organized and we are already getting some exciting feedback from christians there and some awesome stories of people sharing their faith like never before and personal lives transformed. At one of the nights when Marc Anderson (our International IWT Director and founder) was speaking he challenged the church (19 participating churches btw and whoever else gave ear) to make Jesus Lord COMPLETLY of our lives... to examine what I actually believe ... to lay down EVERYTHING at the cross and make an effect on our generation... to be the witness that God intended and to be thankful for allowing us to participate in His salvation of people for Eternity. From my seat it seemed like an easy 2/3 of the church responded! Amazing night!!!

In other news... MOM IS COMING!!! We are soooo excited that she will Lord willing be here next week and will stay for a few months. I feel bad that I will be taking her away from the rest of the family (especially Arlene... praying for a speedy recovery!) but really appreciate everyone sharing her with us for a time! THe kids are beside themselves with glee and with a little luck Erin will be saying Grandma by that time. :) I couldnt resist this cute picture of Erin. She just decided to start posing and luckily I could actually find the camera before she got tired of saying cheese.

Happy Birthday Julie!!!
It is hard to believe this will be the 15th time Julie and I will be celebrating her birthday today. While pondering this I couldn't help but think back to the first and how nervous I was. It was the day after our first date back in September of 1992. We spent the whole day together first visiting my church, lunch at Houlahan's in King of Prussia, and then the Philly zoo so I could introduce Julie to some of my relatives in the primate section. They thought she was great by the way. Well, I guess things were going pretty well as we decided to stop off at Valley Forge Park on the way back and sat and chatted for a couple of hours. I knew the next day Julie's parents who I had not yet met, were having a surprise birthday party for her which I was invited. Well, after spending the whole previous day with her I was a little bit leary about appearing at her party the day after thinking she may feel a bit overwhelmed at the attention I was giving her. That on top of meeting her parents for the first time and most of her friends who I hadn't met before including one lad (complete dork by the way) who was very interested in Julie and wasn't that thrilled that I had come on the scene. So now you can see why I was a bit nervous. But I was on a mission so I wasn't going to let a little nervousness get in the way. After all, my good friend Mike had prophesied the night I met Julie by calling her my wife.

Well, I said all that to say this, as a wise man once said. Instead of getting the feeling that I was overdoing it, Julie made me feel like the most important person there and after all these years is still doing the same thing today. I guess this sounds more like an anniversary because whenever we celebrate Julie's birthday, it reminds me of how things began with us and all the amazing experiences we've had together over the years. I never would have imagined what God would do with us and through us including those three wonderful children in the picture above.

Julie, you've been an amazing friend, bride and mother to our children. I love you and hope and pray that you have a wonderful birthday and that this next year of your life will be filled with many blessings.

Happy Birthday!!

Marc 

Happy 6th Birthday Liam!!
Today, August 22nd is Liam's birthday and is actually the 3rd Liam birthday we've celebrated here in Scotland which unofficially makes him half Scottish I guess. It's hard to believe he is 6 already as it seems like it's been barely a blink of an eye since he entered this world. Liam is quite the character and I must say as his dad that he is the coolest son a dad could ever ask for. Just look at that face and tell me he's not the cutest guy you've ever seen.

Yesterday for Liam's birthday we took him and some of his friends to the Safari park just a few miles from Stirling. All in all everyone had a great time so special thanks to Gary (The park manager and one of Liam's friend's dad) for going out of your way to make sure we had a great time, which we all did.
Here are some other pics from the big day. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed being in them. Liam, you are the best son we could have ever asked for and we love you to bits.
We pray that each coming year will be better than the last and that God will continue to bless you and enable you to be a blessing to many more people.

Happy 6th Birthday Liam! You're the coolest.

Mom, Dad, Kayleigh and Wee Erin

Scenes From Scotland
Yesterday while we were returning from being out all day we spent some time praying in the car. Sometimes I get frustrated with living in a foreign country when things just don't make any sense at all. In my frustration I can loose sight of the bigger picture like why we are here in the first place. Sometimes I think I must come accross to God as a spoiled kid who has lost sight of all he has been given. One of the things that came to mind last night in prayer was what a truely beautiful country God has allowed us to serve Him in. The pictures here are from our latest excursion to the isles of Mull and Iona with the Andrews about a week and a half ago. I just thought I would share them with you all and invite you to think about what an amazing God we have. His creativity as well as His love is boundless even for a spoiled kid like me.



 

Back to Work
Last week we had a nice vacation spent with the Andrews but in the wake of that funfilled time we are left with the reality of getting back to work and catching up with the stuff we had to lay aside for the week.

Kayleigh and Liam are even getting in on the act selling genuine American lemonade from their roadside stand. They actually had several customers and all were quite satisfied with the product and the service.

Well I have to say after taking a look at our blog I thought it might be necessary to let you know that our lives here in Scotland are not all about the beach and lounging in the sun. We actually do some work here and as we come out of the summer holiday period and get closer to tour time, the work load is going to get more and more intense.

Today I'm at home watching the kids while Julie is at the office trying to take care of some of her responsibilities there. I think she may be heading out to do some man on the street video stuff for another video we are working on.
We are also in the process of organising not only the main tour but many events leading up to it. At the end of this month we have the 'Transform' seminar which is three nights with different speakers including Mark Anderson, the IWT founder and leader of YWAM Campaigns based in Kansas City. Mark will also be speaking at a fundaraiser we will be having on the 2nd of Sept. up here in the Stirling area. We are also planning a youth prayer and praise evening with a prayer walk preceding it that day in Kilmarnock. There are many other things happening with IWT as well but I don't want to bore you.

We are also involved although to a limited degree at this point with helping out at the Alva Baptist church. We'll update you on that soon.

Julie and I have also been asked once again to be a part of the Willow Creek annual Leadership Summit being held this year in Stirling. This is not the actual event. That will be held at Willow Creek this month. After that is done they will do the international version on DVD in several different laocations around the world. Last year it was in Glasgow which turned out to be interesting as I got lost on the way to the rehearsal and ended up picking up a couple of hitch hikers who led me to the church. I'll be playing drums again and Julie will once again be taking care of the hospitality for us back stage people. I have to say I don't agree with much of it from a philosophical (using many secular marketing techniques for church growth) standpoint but it's an opportunity to see what's being taught and promoted without paying the outragious fee. I also enjoy being a part of the worship team and spending some good time offering up praises to God. It's also an opportunity to engage in discussion about what's being said by the speakers. I was actually very impressed last year in speaking with the other musicians about what was taught. Some of them had some really good comments. That's one of the things I like about Scots, they're not impressed with anyone no matter how big they are in the church or the world. They'll tell you what they think. Kind of reminds me of Philly.

Anyway, that's scheduled for the end of Sept. so we'll give a review when it's over.

I think that's enough said for today.

Cheers,

Marc 

Scotland with the Andrews Clan
Today we said goodbye to the Andrews after spending a fun filled week showing them the sights and just hanging out. As you can see from the pics, we all visited the Stirling castle, Edinburgh, Mull and Iona, among other sights. I think the favorite seemed to be hiking the Mts. of Glencoe and seeing the Isles of Mull and Iona. Special thanks to Wolf and Arlene for taking us along with you, we had a great time seeing that amazing place once again.

From the Hamer perspective, it was great to just see some of our family and catch up on what's been happening in their lives. As you can see by this picture, Hansy boy has grown up a bit. We still call him Hansy boy though. Valia had the kids laughing almost constantly, especially in the car on our trip to and from Iona. She and Liam were still laughing in the car 'till well after 11 last night. It was also good to hear of the next chapter in Jon's life as he is heading off to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania this fall. How's that for a mouth full. It sounds like a great school so we wish Jon the best and a great experience their.

God bless Andrews clan, you are already missed.

Wow, it's been an amazing summer weather wise around here as we have been seeing temps consistantly in the 70's and 80's. Today I'm back in a sweater with the temps more where they should be in the mid 60's.

I'll post more pics from the Andrew clan invasion soon.


 

Sunday with the Hamer's
Some of you may be wondering where we go to church on Sundays and what the church looks like. Well on a typical Sunday morning we attend Stirling Baptist Church in downtown Stirling. Why Stirling Baptist? Well, it was the first place we attended when we moved to the Stirling area so we said, hey this is cool and we stayed. The church has 3 services at 9:45, 11:30am and 6:30pm. We attend the 11:30 service because Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest so we take full advantage and sleep in as long as possible. Lately we've been arriving at 11 so I (Marc) can get the drums in order and prepare for worship. The kids will go to Sunday school and if Julie is not in the creche, she'll find a seat towards the back where all the Americans are told to sit (just kidding).
Dress is pretty casual but we still like to dress up the kids on occasion as you can see with Erin and Kayleigh wearing their new purple dresses. After church it isn't uncommon for us to get together with friends and take in the sights as you can see Dave and I doing below. Hey, I need my Sunday afternoon nap so why not have it at the Stirling Castle eh. Well, that gives you a bit of a snapshot of our Sunday experience. Ta, Ta for now.