New Jersey Konnected with Alva
This has been a great week as we have had the priveledge to host an amazing team from New Jersey who have led a Vacation Bible School in the wee town of Alva at the Alva Baptist church. It has been extra fun for us as 4 out of the 11 on the team are relatives which we haven't seen for about a year. We are having a great time and the outreach which just ended today has been extremely successful with over 30 kids attending each day. Many of the locals from Alva have commented about how exciting it is to see some life at the Alva Baptist church. Up until a couple of weeks ago there were about 6 people attending, the youngest being 68.
This team from New Jersey couldn't have been more perfect as they are all full of energy, have a variety of gifts and talents and they have been a blessing to our family and the people of Alva. It's been really kool to see how God has put this thing together as well. The planning started about a year ago in Randy and Diane's (Julie's sister) living room but up until about a month and a half ago, we weren't sure what they were going to be doing. We had this feeling though that God had something specific in mind so we just kept waiting to see what it was. Dave Barrie, the youth leader from Stirling Baptist had taken on a project to try and resurrect this dying church that was ready to close it's doors. Well to make a long story short, we told him of the New Jersey team and so the next step was to get the churches approval which came through just in the nick of time. The idea was to raise the profile of this church which had become an afterthought in the community. Well, you can't put 16 Americans in a small Scottish villiage for a week and not have people notice. Our prayer is that the 30 plus children that showed up for the VBS will come back this Sunday and bring their parents and make commitments for Christ. Pray that this will happen. I'll share more pics in the next few days. That's all for now though.
Marc 

Good Timing
Belated birthday presents are great. Today we were having a bit of a rough day and low and behold I look for the mail and find this package from the Dowdalls. An autographed copy of the Eagles Encyclopedia. How cool is that!! Thanks Steve, Lisa and the Dowdall clan, your timing couldn't have been more perfect as I was having one of those homesick days again. Perhaps I'm Pennsylvania grown and that's where I belong, I don't know. Maybe most missionaries are homesick, who knows. At any rate, it's moments like these that help us along.

Thanks again guys for thinking of us, we miss you big time.

Marc 

The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond
The Picture to the left of Erin was taken on the shores of Loch Lomond. We just thought perhaps if you find yourself singing the song sometime, you may want a visual to go along with it. The Mt. in the background is Ben Lomond which rises to around 3200 ft. above sea level. Most of the time the top is covered in the clouds as you see here.

We are eagerly anticipating our next guests coming on Sunday. We have a team of 11 coming from New Jersey to help a local church that is giving it one more go at it before closing its doors.
This will be a great time as the team consists of Julie's sister Diane and husband Randy (he will be known as Randall during the week, Randy means amorous over here, actually there's another word that begins with an h but I thought I would for once use some discretion), two of their three children and 7 others coming from their church. We will be doing a Vacation Bible School and various other things as well at the church (Alva Baptist Church). Alva is a small town right at the base of the Ochil Mt. range so on one of the days we would like to go on a prayer trek to the highest peak over the town and spend some time praying for God's spirit to move in a big way over this land. Hopefully the weather will hold out although hiking in the rain is kind of fun too.

Last night we had a special 'Selah' praise concert at church. I really enjoyed it as I had the opportunity to play drums with some great musicians. Their regular drummer they had with them for the past 4 years has moved back to Ireland so I have been asked to assume that position now which I am honored to do. I wish I had my own kit but the one they have isn't so bad. It's a 5 peice Premier set and it's sounds pretty good but I do miss my china boy cymball and my chimes. Actually I miss my kick pedal and all of my cymballs. Oh well, at least I get to play. The great thing is this church is pretty big so I can really hit them as hard as I want, no brushes here. The only problem is I have some tendenitis in my left elbow so every time I crack the snare I get a pretty good pain shooting up the arm. Hopefully that won't last too much longer or they'll have to shoot me up with steroids. Bla, Bla, Bla.... The important thing was that God was really stirring people's hearts during the evening which was an answer to prayer. There is just so much apathy here so we were praying specifically against that and the people really seemed to be moved, praise God!

The weather here has been pretty amazing so far this late spring with much sunshine and temps in the 60's and 70's. We also been sucked into the whole world cup thing as we actually found ourselves shouting at the tv the other day watching the Americans play the Italians. That was by far the most exciting soccer game I've ever seen. I thought the Americans totally outplayed them but the game ended in a 1-1 tie. I wonder how much money the refs got from the Italian government, just a thought. Next game is Thursday against Ghana. Go USA!!

That's all for now, more later.

Marc 

The Kirsten and Brigitta Show
We had a great time hosting our neices Kirsten and Brigitta who actually left about a week ago. Sorry to take so long in posting. They brought a bunch of sunshine into our lives both literally and figuratively speaking. The weather was great while they were here and their smiles and energy were contagious.

They definitely left their mark on Bridge of Allen as Julie said she never heard so many whistles while walking down the street with them. I think that's because I'm usually the one walking next to Julie.

The picture above was taken by Stirling Bridge, the sight of the Battle of Stirling Bridge way back in 1297. In the movie Braveheart, the Battle of Stirling was set on an open feild which was historically inaccurate. I'm not sure why they did that, ask Mel.

Our condolences go out to the whole Andrews family as while Kirsten and Brigitta were here, their grandparents passed away. Kirsten and Brigitta, you were the real Bravehearts as you amazed us with your joy in the midst of such a difficult time. You were a real blessing to us and the kids just loved every minute of you being here and playing with them. Kayleigh is still practicing that hurdle technique you taught her Kirsten, and Liam has that reverse spin move down pretty good Brigitta.

God bless you and please know that we are praying for you and your family.

Thanks Arlene and Wolf for sending the girls over, you've raised some pretty impressive children.

Well, that's all for now. More soon, I promise.

Marc 

My Homesick Top Ten List

Every once in a while I get slammed with a serious bout of homesickness. Lately it's been pretty intense but has been dulled a bit by all of our recent and current (Kirsten and Brigitta) visitors. Well I thought it might be somewhat theraputic to list my top ten things I miss from home so here it goes.

1. Family (I kind of have to say that eh)
2. Friends (same as above)
3. Church (I guess I'm being really pc here so far)
4. My drums
5. Our house with the basement where I kept my drums
6. Cable TV (ESPN, The Weather Chanel, Fox News and Jim Gardner and the entire Action News Team, Comcast Sportsnet.
7. Beyond the Pale
8. Cheap stuff (everything is cheaper in America, stop whining about the gas, it's over $7. a gallon here).
9. Food (Cheesesteaks, hoagies...reasonably priced reastaurants with good food, etc, etc, etc.
10. Philly Sports (Phillies, Flyers, Eagles....you can have the Sixers). I have had enough of Soccer and Rugby, I just can't take it anymore.

Well, I don't know how theraputic that really was because I'm still thinking of more things to add. Perhaps there will have to be a part b at some time.

That's all for now, I've got to go and check the weather and see how the Phillies did last night.
Later