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

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!