Happy Birthday Kayleigh!!!

OK, so this is a week late but what a busy week it was. Actually Kayleigh's 9th birthday was pretty busy as well.

Since this is the Christmas season the weekends get pretty busy so we thought we'd better go out and get the tree while we could which added to the birthday fun.

After that we came back to the house to get ready for the party and the invasion of other 8 and 9 year old girls. Wow, it was loud but they all had lots of fun.

I can't believe Kayleigh is 9. What the heck! I mean that 9 years went by so fast the next blink of an eye we'll be sending her off to college or something.

Well here are a few pics from the day and the next morning when we woke up to a birthday snow. Hammish the Piper woke up to a bit of a chill running up his kilt as the temp. dropped to 12.

The First Snow!!

Yea, today we got our first snow. It's not much (around an inch) but it still looks nice although kind of weird with many of the leaves still stubbornly hangin on the trees. Not too far away up in the Poconos, they had almost a foot so ski season is not far away. We are very much looking forward to that especially since we haven't gone skiing in close to five years. Hopefully this snow is the beginning of a very snowy winter. I miss snow big time.

Does Anyone Remember 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchkock?


Just wanted to let you all know that we are still here and haven't been eaten by any birds. That's the view of our backyard looking towards our very complient neighbors. I have to say, those neighbors are the best ever as they are never disturbing though sometimes they can be quite festive when they celebrate an addition to the neighborhood.
How 'bout that blue sky. I'm telling you if it gets any sunnier around here I just can't take it. Actually, I'm serious as the sun is so bright my eyes can't take it. I guess my eyes got so used to the cloudy grey skys of Scotland they are still trying to adjust to all the sun.

We do get some rain here too as you can see in the pic with the red maple. We planted that tree back in 2003 right after Hurricane Isabella blew down another maple in the back yard. The leaves have been hanging on forever this fall. I've never seen them stay on this long. They're ususally off the trees in the first week of November. The colors have been amazing so they can hang on as long as they want as far as I am concerned. Must be global warming eh.

We'll have more updates soon. Just wanted to let you all (3) know we are still alive and kicking.

13 Lucky Years!



Ok, I can hear Julie saying right now, 'Luck, Schmuck!'. So, the reality is, we've been blessed to have 13 years of marriage behind us now. Hard to believe it's been that long but come to think of it, much has happened during that time span. Lord willing, their will be many more years of marriage and many interesting turns in the road on the way.

So, what did we do for our anniversary? Just the two of us (1st time since 2003) went away to the Poconos, Jim Thorpe to be specific.

Jim Thorpe (named after one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century) is a beautiful little town nestled in the Pocono Mts. of Northeastern Pa. We stayed at the Inn At Jim Thorpe which has been an Inn since the mid 1800's. Some say the place is haunted, more specifically, room 310. We stayed in 312 and as far as I know, nothing paranormal happened while we were there.

During the day, we walked the streets and opened many a creaky door to find quite an eclectic array of shops filled with stuff your just not going to find at your average Wallmart. We also climbed up past some amazing waterfalls and went biking through a gorge on an old railroad bed. Usually the leaves would be peaking out right now with some of the most varied species of trees in North America, but things are a little behind this year so we had to settle for a few very colorful trees instead of what would normally be mountain sides ablaze in jaw dropping color.

Well, to sum it up, we had a great time getting away to celebrate God blessing us with 13 great years.

Here are the other pics that I couldn't get on yesterday.

Liam at Rehoboth Beach trying not to get slammed by a monster wave. Erin and her cousin Victoria who she's renamed, 'McToria'. I guess she's decided she should be Scottish. The other shot is of our golf outing which you probably figured out.

Just thought we'd share a few more recent pictures taken in the last few weeks. I wish I could put a caption under the shot but for some reason this blogger thing is acting weird. Anyway, we've got Erin at Pop-Pop's pool, chasing wild turkeys in the neighbor's yard, the kids harvesting some amazing tomatoes in Grandma's garden, the boardwalk in Ocean City, Md, Liam and Kayleigh on the beach at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on a cloudy cool day, and Liam sizing up his shot during some miniature Golf in Rehoboth Beach.

Since all the fun, we've been busy getting our house in order, going to school and doing a few painting jobs. Things are far from normal, but we are getting there slowly and yes, we still miss Scotland and our friends there terribly.

The weather here after some very hot weeks, is now absolutely amazing. Sunny everyday with highs in the 70's and lows in the 40's and 50's. It just doesn't get any better. I love this time of year especially when the leaves start to change which they are just beginning to do.

That's all for now but stay tuned for a new series entitled, ' Things You Won't see in Scotland'.

Marc

One Busy Month







Well as you can see from the pictures above we've been pretty busy this 1st month back here in Pa. Not bad though as it's been fun kind of busy. First we got a week at Bethany Beach and visited the board walk in Ocean City, Md one evening which is where the shot of the sand sculpture was taken. Then it was a week at our house where we spent many hours painting and putting things back together. Then some more time at the beach, this time at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. In between we squeezed in a trip to Hershey Park and a few visits to Pop Pops pool.

We are still mired in boxes as we just got our stuff back about a week and a half ago. Things are slowly coming together but it will probably take us another week before we really feel like we're getting organised.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the kids started school and seem to be doing well adjusting and actually enjoying it.

We do miss Scotland and our friends there very much. We had the whole morning service this past Sunday at our church where we shared on our experience in Scotland and as we showed some pictures it was hard to get through without shedding a few tears. Scotland will always be on our hearts and I for one can't wait to go back some day.

Some have asked if we will continue the blog since we're now back in the states and the answer is yes. I just haven't had much time to post anything recently but things should be getting more normal now.

Well that's all for now, I will keep this a little bit more up to date now that we are starting to get back in the groove of things.

To all our friends in Scotland, we miss you terribly.

God bless,

Marc

A Day in the 'Fair City'


Believe it or not the best route (and least expensive) for us to go back to the states was through Dublin, Ireland. So, on Wednesday morning with about two hours sleep, we headed out of Edinburgh en route to Dublin


We checked into out hotel, got a little rest and then headed into the ‘Fair City’ on a quest for some good music, souvenirs and of course a pint of Kilkenny. We were successful on all accounts and had a great time even though we were dog tired. Actually one of our goals was to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College but we were too late as they just closed right before we got there. I think he saw us coming and raced to lock the doors. Actually even if it were still open we wouldn’t have paid to see it as they were charging 8 Euros to get in.

Well after a great night sleep at the Tulip Hotel, we headed to the airport and took off from Dublin around 11:15am. For the most part the flight was good but we did have some turbulence. I wasn’t enjoying that particular aspect of the journey as my imagination begins to go wild thinking of all kinds of potential catastrophes all the while putting on the, this is no big deal face for the kids. Actually, they thought it was fun like they were riding on a roller coaster or something. All I could think of was, how much stress are these planes designed to handle and I wonder how old this plane is.

Well the plane held up just fine and we landed smoothly at JFK in New York at exactly 1:01pm. We were scheduled to land at 1:00pm but I decided I would (being a Christian) extend them some grace and not complain.

To be continued…

Our Stuff is Packed and We're on Our Way Home...

This was the scene on Friday as some of our goods friends here came out to help us load the container. Since we had a somewhat multicultural team here, we decided to assign them roles that would go along with their geo-stereotypes and it worked to perfection.

We had Frank the German in the truck making sure everything was organised so that it would fit perfectly and it did. Amazing job by Frank as I'm still sitting here in utter amazement that all of our stuff fit in there. Then we had a few Americans telling everybody what to do and a Scot and Pa Dutch team letting us know how we could do this much cheaper. Oh and Pastor David who kept us all in prayer and no one was hurt and we filled the truck with 15 mins. to spare.

Thanks again to: Frank and Becky (Becky is an admin. master who typed out our whole inventory in a few mins. which would taken me a whole day), Gary who kept us laughing and thinking with his great sense of humor and keen insights, Pastor David who kept encouraging, praying and working hard (reminded me of Nehemiah rebuilding the wall), Dave for his never ending enthusiasm, energy and creativity and great sense of humor, Louise for looking after the kids while all this was going on. You all are amazing and we will always remember you and miss you greatly.

It's Unanimous!

Well, sorry to keep all three of you hangin' in suspense but I just thought it would be more fun that way.

Last Wednesday we had a special meeting to decide as a church to formally invite David Fraser to be the next pastor of Alva Baptist Church. David came out and answered many questions and I must say, he did so flawlessly.

So, we are extremely excited to announce that by a 100% unanimous vote, David Fraser will be the next pastor of Alva Baptist Church effective July 15th 2007.

I could not be happier about this because in my eyes, he is the perfect person for the position. This was totally a God thing as they say here in Scotland.

As many of you know I was taken on staff at Alva back in late November and it was agreed that we would all re-evaluate in six months to determine whether or not the church and I think we should continue. Well, that six months was up at the end of April and after much thought and prayer, Julie and I decided it was time for us to return to the States. When we informed the church, they were much sadder than we thought they would be. Don't get me wrong, we thought they liked us but we just didn't know they liked us that much. Some of them had the look of throwing in the towel. And though we were a bit concerned for the church ourselves, we encouraged them to keep pressing on and that God had a plan in all of this.

Well, a couple of days after that I received an e-mail from my good friend Chris Lawson who had just returned to California from Edinburgh. He told me about a friend of his that had just moved here to Scotland and had an interview with Stirling Baptist Church for the youth pastor position that had opened up recently. Since we had attended SBC, Chris thought it would be good for us to fill David in on the church a bit. I had a feeling at that point that this might be the guy for Alva so I e-mailed David and told him I'd prefer to speak with him on the phone.

A couple of days after that we spoke on the phone where he informed me that he hadn't gotten the position at SBC. David and I spoke for a good long time and we seemed to hit it off immediately. He had been an associate Pastor for the past 8 years at a Calvary Chapel in the LA area. I happen to have a tremendous respect for the Calvary Chapel ministry philosophy which is built around expositional preaching through the whole of scripture, an emphasis on worship and being equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit. These were things that we implemented at Alva not knowing we'd be laying down a foundation that would be a perfect fit for the next pastor.

At the end of the conversation I told him about Alva and the need for a pastor there and would that be something he might be interested in? He said he had some other options but that he was open to that as well.

As the days and weeks went by, the Holy Spirit was giving David more and more of a heart for Alva. As a matter of fact they turned down all other options, rented a house in Alva on faith, and waited to see what the outcome would be. I think we all knew though what God had in mind, it was just too obvious.

So, Praise God for putting this whole thing together. This is one of the coolest God things I have ever seen and God alone deserves the praise and honor.

One of the things we've tried to bring to focus in the church is that a successful church is a sending church. So, Alva Baptist Church will be sending us with their blessing and prayers to the USA as missionaries. Pretty cool eh.

By the way, looks like our container will be here to pick up our stuff on July 19th to take to America. Pray that we will have the strength for this whole endeavor. We've got to pack it ourselves which is no small feat.

God bless,

Marc

Well It's Official Now



No turning back now as we have officially booked our shipping and flights and will be returning in late July. I just hope our ship doesn't have to go through any weather like that in the picture. Can you say perfect storm?

Anyway, we have tons of stuff to do but life as normal has to go on as well. The kids are still in school for a couple of more weeks and Erin is in the midst of potty training and everything else she does which is lots of fun.

So many things have been falling right into place and the latest one came yesterday when the kids found out who their teachers would be next year. Every year this has been a time of real anxiety for Kayleigh especially. The latest confirmation from God that we are doing the right thing was that Kayliegh would have had the most dreaded teacher possible. So, we are escaping just in the nick of time. There have been many more confirmations including the pastoral position at Alva Baptist. Tonight we are having a meeting to decide whether we should formally invite David Fraser as the next pastor. After this is made official, I'll share the story of how this came to be. So stay tuned.

Later,

Marc

Coincidence? I don't Think So.

Very Important Message by John MacArthur

On the heels of the Paul Washer message about the American Church, give a listen to what John MacArthur had to say at a National Prayer Day gathering in Colorado Springs last month. I think this man is one of the true prophets of our day as he speaks the truth of God's word uncompromisingly. I'm sure there were plenty of people who showed up that day wanting to here a nice fluffy patriotic American/ Christian message. Listen to what actually transpired, you could hear a pin drop in that place.

What do you think? Has God given America over to its sinful desires? Here's the passage in Romans that he is referring to:
"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen." - Romans 1:24-25

John MacArthur on Larry King Live



More Later,

Marc

Here is an Amazing Message. Hopefully it will work.

One of the questions that always seems to ring in my head with regard to Western Christianity is why is it so hard to distinguish the believers from the non believers? This message goes right at that issue and is very compelling. This is just part 1, I will post the other parts in coming days. I would love to hear comments about this.

God bless,

Marc





To listen to the rest, go HERE.

Taking In The Scenery

This morning I went out for a run and bike ride (no, I'm not training for a biathlon, just trying to get my fat but in shape) and the scenery was amazing. Yesterday I mentioned how I would miss it so I'm really trying to take it in as much as possible. Today the air is pretty clear so you can really see the western highlands including Ben Ledi, Ben Lomond, Ben Ann which are about 20 miles to the west of Bridge of Allan.
I am looking back at the weather in Pa with envy though as it would be nice to experience some warm weather and an occasional severe thunderstorm. Today our weather here is 55 and mostly cloudy. I keep forgetting it's late May because we still have the heat on and you have to wear a jacket outside which hardly ever happens this time of year in Pa. Like I've said many times before, the weather here is November with the occasional glimpse of May. May didn't show up this year however as the whole month has been cooler than average. This of course has drawn a loud silence from the global warming alarmists which is interesting because just last month they were easy to hear everywhere because April in GB was supposedly the hottest on record. I love how they use the word 'hot' here when it's like 73.
Speaking of weather (one of my favorite topics) I have been trying to post this cool weather/ end times video from youtube on here and it just won't let me do it. If anyone has any advise one this I'm all ears. I did everything they told me and I keep getting an error script.

Anyway, that's enough from me for one day. All three of you can now resume reading after passing out from the shock of seeing posts on two consecutive days. Shall we go for three? Stay tuned.
God bless,
Marc

May Greetings from Bonnie Scotland

I say 'May' greetings because I believe this is the first May post which is pretty bad. Sorry to all three of you who read this that we've been slacking lately.
One of the reasons for this as we are in the preparation stage of moving back to the states. Again, we are targeting late July as our re-entry time but nothing is booked yet. We still need to book our shipping company which has turned into a major task as we've been shocked at the cost. The price has literally doubled since we came over so we are shopping around and getting quotes from a bunch of different companies. Once we get that nailed down we can then look at flights.

Since our departure is about 2 months away, the reality is really beginning to settle in and to be honest, I (Marc) am getting a bit sad to leave this place. I mean, every day we drive past breathtaking scenery we just aren't going to see in Lancaster county if you know what I mean. I will also miss living in a town where we can walk to just about everything including school, grocery store, library, Liam's soccer practice, post office etc. It is a great place to live and raise kids but it does have its drawbacks as well. At the end of the day though it's not about any of that, it's about being obedient to what God has called us to do and we feel strongly that God has indeed called us back to Pa, for now at least.
So, we will try and keep up with the blog the best we can so all three of you will up on what's happening. Oh sorry, did I mention that only three people read this blog before?

More soon,

Marc

Rumors, Rumors, Rumors



We've been having a lot of people asking us if we are moving back to the states and there's been a bunch of confusion over the timetable. Let me first say, this is not easy as we feel as though Scotland is just as much home for us as Pa. We've spent a good amount of time praying about it and have decided it's time to head home to Pa. There are many reasons that played into our decision to return and perhaps at some other time I'll go into that more. The main point with this post is that we clear up any confusion on when we intend to return.

So, since we would like to be back with plenty of time for the kids to get acclimated for school, we are looking at somewhere between late July or early August. That being said, we haven't gotten our plane tickets or booked our shipping so hopefully everything comes into place. The airfares are really high right now so I'm watching and hoping they'll come down some and soon. We're also waiting to hear back from our shipping company that shipped our stuff over here. They're taking their good old time getting back to us which is a bit frustrating but I'm sure it'll all come together.

The picture above was taken in our front yard (garden for you Brits)about 5 months before we headed off and I can't help but think of how much has changed since then. Kayleigh and Liam have grown so much, and God has added another wee lassie (Erin) to the fold. We've also had many valuable life experiences and challenges that we have grown from and wouldn't trade for anything.

We are now wondering what God has in store for us back there as with God there is always a purpose to everything. That being said, we need quite some time to get our act together and our heads straight so we'll see what happens.

So, until then, please keep us in your prayers as there will be many challenges in the next couple of months preparing and then re-entry is a whole other thing as there's bound to be some major culture shock that may make us want to take an immediate u-turn.

OK, enough said from me.

God bless,

Marc

God is in Control


Last night we had our second installment of our 'Origins and Endings' bible study. Last week we went over some basic beliefs on how things got started here on planet earth and of course the universe. We had a fairly small turnout last week and to be honest I wasn't having much faith we would even have as many as last week, so I only printed out 8 copies of the lesson. Well, God smacked me upside the head for that as we had twice as many this week as last and He also had another big surprise up His sleeve.
We pray every Sunday in our 11am service that God would move people's hearts in Alva and draw them to churches where they will hear His uncompromising word proclaimed with clarity. Our prayers have been answered as two heroin addicts came in off the street last night, confessed their sins, and asked Jesus into their hearts. It was amazing, with lots of prayers and tears flowing and a joy that filled the room. For me (Marc)it was without a doubt the highlight of our whole time here in Scotland. The irony of the whole thing totally blew my socks off as I kept thinking of how the joy we all experienced last night was by far, better than any drug could ever give. God is amazing, and He wants us all to experience His joy which far outweighs anything the world can crank out.
Please keep these two guys in prayer as they will need lots and lots. Pray that they will be completely healed from this addiction and their lives will be completely transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And in all your prayers, PRAISE GOD!

God bless,

Marc

Happy Birthday Erin
OK, so this is a little late as Erin's big 2 year birthday was actually on the 7th. We had a great time with Lori and KC (Marc's sister & brother in law)and a bunch of other friends that came over for the occasion. Frank & Becky were not able to make it due to illness but had us over their place the week after which is where Erin got her own line of pickles and olives which you can see in one of the shots. Over all it was a great time had by all and most importantly, the birthday girl herself was loving every minute of it.

The Tomb of Jesus?

Well, here we go again. Last year we had the the Da Vinci Code which was nothing more than a re-hashing of the 1982 book, 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' which was completely debunked back then.
All through history there have been people trying to discount the validity of the scriptures and the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The latest which I'm sure many of you have heard about is the so called discovery of the tomb of Jesus and his so-called son. Once again this is an old story that was debunked several years ago. Unfortunately, some will buy into it without doing any research and the damage will be done. This is another reminder that we always need to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason for the hope that lies within us. 1Peter 3:15
Here is a great refutation of this latest attack on Christianity by Paul L. Maier Ph.D.,Litt.D:

Dear Friends and Readers,

...Please, lose no sleep over the Talpiot “discoveries” for the following reasons, and here are the facts:.

1) Nothing is new here: scholars have known about the ossuaries ever since March of 1980. The general public learned when the BBC filmed a documentary on them in 1996. James Tabor’s book, The Jesus Dynasty, also made a big fuss over the Talpiot tombs more recently, and now James Cameron (The Titanic) and Simcha Jacobovici have climbed aboard the sensationalist bandwagon as well.

2) All the names – Yeshua, Joseph, Maria, Mariamene, Matia, Judah, and Jose -- are extremely frequent Jewish names for that time and place, and thus most scholars consider this merely coincidental, as they did from the start. One-quarter of Jewish women at that time, for example, were named Maria.

3) There is no reason whatever to equate “Mary Magdalene” with “Mariamene,”as Jacobovici claims.

4) So what if her DNA is different from that of “Yeshua” ? That particular :Mariamme” (as it is usually spelled today) could indeed have been the wife of that particular “Yeshua.”

5) What in the world is the “Jesus Family” doing, having a burial plot in Jerusalem, of all places, the very city that crucified Jesus? Galilee was their home. In Galilee they could have had such a family plot, not Judea. Besides all of which, church tradition – and Eusebius – are unanimous in reporting that Mary died in Ephesus, where the apostle John, faithful to his commission from Jesus on the cross, had accompanied Mary.

6) If this were Jesus’ family burial, what is Matthew doing there – if indeed “Ma-tia” is thus to be translated?

7) How come there is no tradition whatever – Christian, Jewish, or secular -- that any part of the Holy Family was buried at Jerusalem?

8) Please note the extreme bias of the director and narrator, Simcha Jacobovici. The man is an Indiana-Jones-wannabe, who oversensationalizes anything he touches. You may have caught him on his TV special regarding The Exodus, in which the man “explained” just everything that still needed proving or explaining in the Exodus account in the Old Testament! It finally became ludicrous, and now he’s doing it again. – As for James Cameron, how do you follow The Titanic? Well, with an even more “titanic” story. He should have known better.

There are more arguments, to be sure, but I want to get this off pronto.

With warm regards,
Paul L. Maier

Pray for those that are easily decieved by this kind of nonsense.

God bless,

Marc

Scroll down for other current pics...(since we have not updated our pics. tab in years!)

Back to school... tomorrow after a 6 day weekend and most of it spent with our good friends the Canters visiting from West Kilbride. The kids had fun rollerblading, playing at the park, putting on shows, exploring, swimming, making badges and pulling every toy out during the rainy days! What fun! :) Its always worth it for some time with friends!

Oh, did we mention that LIAM was leading man in the Primary 2 program at school?! What a man! In spite of his 2 wiggly front teeth, he delivered his lines and songs very well and we were proud! They both memorized Scottish poetry for Burns day so next time you get a chance, ask them to recite it! Fantastically cultural. So far, that's the only time they have a Scottish accent I think. :)

Re: church... Don't let Marc fool you! There are many, many, many more positive comments and observations than negative! In fact, we are so encouraged all around with the growth and life there so far. David and Miranda mentioned that on visiting back again recently after the summer handover there were amazing changes. You know, sometimes the challenges are good to set before you so as to refocus and motivate on the things God puts before you.

Seriously I've been encouraged and this past week was great! We have seen some new friends come out to church as a result of the Paint Pots program, people walk off the street coming in with needs, stories and some kind of searching, some growth in the deeper study with Christianity Explored and some testimonies of salvation in the last few weeks too! In spite of Marc's comments on praying in the 'wrong spot' in communion, someone else commented that it was the most meaningful communion she ever experienced. He has been doing a fantastic job there and people keep coming so that must be a good thing and a God thing! God is doing something and in spite of us, so we are so pleased to be a part of this all for this little time.

The Kids are doing well and all sleeping like angels at the moment so off I go too!

'Paint Pots' and the Sunday Service

This was the scene today at Alva Baptist and as you can see we had a good turnout for 'Paint Pots' and everyone had a great time. If you look closely you'll find Erin in blue and pig tales at the far table. Julie told me Erin acts like she owns the place as when everyone leaves she shows them to the door and tells them goodbye. She has us laughing all the time.

Yesterday the Sunday service was good as we had probably our best turnout so far since we've been there. There's still a real hyper traditional attitude among some of the old guard. Apparently I must have messed up yesterday with the communion because one of the 'old guard' told someone that it was awful. I think I didn't pray at the right time or something so she had a fit. I'm sure I'll hear more about it before too long. Last week we had some people leave in a huff because the service went over time (7 mins.). They were pretty ticked off saying they weren't coming back. I guess these are the challenges of being a pastor, at least some of them anyway. Oh well, you can't please everyone. Stay tuned for my next screw up, maybe you'll get a good laugh from it.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. So many times I've seen people in churches make a big deal over things that don't matter and then totally ignore the stuff that does. Kind of really makes you wonder.

Stay tuned,

Marc

Great night last night in Alva as we had a few more people show up and had some great discussion. Christianity Explored is primarily designed for those curious about the Christian faith but as we are finding out, it is also good for those that are young in their walk as well. One of things I keep finding out is that there are so many out there that have a really warped view of the gospel because they have never been clearly taught what scripture says about how we are saved. So many still think (even in protestant churches) that you can somehow do enough good works to earn your way to heaven. The bible couldn't be clearer on this as this is what it says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9

If that's not clear enough (I don't how it couldn't be), give the sermon on the mount a read sometime (Matthew 5-7) and you'll see that Jesus makes it emphatically clear that we all are guilty of sin and our so-called good works aren't going to cut it. There are many more scriptures I could share to support this point which by the way is the most important aspect of the Christian faith. If it seems like I'm a bit passionate about this well, I am. Actually I'm angry that there are so many men and women in pulpits around the world that give such a muddy message. If they don't preach the clear gospel message that we are saved by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone, they do not belong in the pulpit.

There's an elderly lady in our church who has no peace because for years and years she has sat in churches week after week listening to a works based social gospel. I'm sorry but that is a crime because she lives in fear every day of her life. Jesus doesn't want us to live in fear, he wants us to experience the peace only he can give through the blood he shed on the cross for the remission of sins. One other thing we discussed last night; when we say we need to somehow do good works to enter heaven, we are saying that what Jesus did on the cross wasn't good enough, it wasn't complete.

There's much more I could say but I'll save it for another day.

God bless

What Now After IWT?

Many of you I'm sure are wondering what we are up to these days after the tour has gone through. Well lets just say God's timing couldn't be better.

Last summer in anticipation of the tour we were wondering a bit what we would be doing afterwards and if we would even continue on here in Scotland. At the same time God was tugging our hearts toward this wee Baptist church in the town of Alva about 7 miles from our home.
Some of you will remember that last summer we had a team from New Jersey come over to do a vacation bible school at this church which was very successful. Just prior to this, the church had actually seriously considered closing it's doors because their attendance had dwindled down to about 6 older people who were running out of energy to keep the place going.

After the vacation bible school, we went back to attending Stirling Baptist through most of the summer but kept thinking about this church and finally we made a decision to start attending and see what God had in store for us.

Not long after that, David Barrie, the youth pastor from Stirling Baptist (who was overseeing Alva Baptist) asked us what our plans were after the Impact World Tour went through in early November. We told him we weren't entirely sure as we were praying about it and to be honest we were very concerned about our finances and seriously considering returning to the states in December when our lease was up.

All during this time we were very concerned for the church and the lack of consistent leadership. Because there was no pastor - they would have a different preacher every week with very little substance in the messages most of the time. Well after much prayer, Julie and I were more than willing to step in and help out in these areas but we thought, if this is from God, someone will invite us to fill this role. Shortly there after, that's what happened and now we are pastoring this wee church on an interim basis.

Please pray for this town of Alva that souls would be drawn to hear the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. We plan on just preaching the word in an expositional fashion starting with the Gospel of John and going straight through.

We are also starting a Christianity Explored course on the 18th of January for those curious about the Christian faith. Pray for that as well.

If you are interested in what's happening with the church you can check out our blog @ www.hillfootsalvabaptist.blogspot.com There's also a link in the links section at the top left.

The picture above is of the church. Yea it looks really small but can actually seat as many as 200 comfortably believe it or not.

We'll have more updates soon.

Till then, God bless.

Marc