Newsletter September 2008

Well, summer in Scotland has once again come and gone. It came on a Thursday this year, and left the same day (or at least it seems so)! Anybody that came on one of our teams this “summer” can attest to it too. However, what we have seen happen in the spiritual realm thisyear with our teams has indicated that the Son is definitely on His way! Ok, I know that’s a bit cheesy but, in all seriousness, after seeing God move through our teams this summer, I have such a sense of expectation that the Son really is preparing to shine on Scotland in a dramatic way. And believe me, we need the ‘Son’ shining on us here much more than we need the sun.


Homeschooling Again- In our last newsletter we asked for prayer regarding our decision as to whether or not to continue to homeschool the kids. We received so many encouraging words from people and we would like to thank you for your prayers. God clearly led us and once the decision had been made, we knew it was the right one. We decided to send Haley back to school to finish her last year of “primary school.” She is in P7 this year (6th Grade). She really wanted to spend her last year with her friends knowing that most likely she will be homeschooled from
next year onwards. She loves being back and has had lots of fun opportunities this year like swimming lessons every Monday.

Josiah is being homeschooled. Another answer to prayer is that I found 2 Dyslexia specialists who gave me some great advice, encouragement and helped me to choose a new curriculum for his reading & writing. I am so grateful to all those who have encouraged me about him as well and I feel much more prepared this year to meet his needs. We are also doing loads of hands on activities this year with Josiah which helps him to enjoy and learn more in school. He is currently doing a unit on ranching and horses and so I let him take 2 riding lessons. The only problem with that is that he absolutely loved it and wants to do more! He has been praying each day for God to make a way for him to keep taking lessons. :-)

Another thing that has come about which is an answer to prayer is that the school is allowing us to send Josiah in for PE and music 2 days a week. I was told it was unheard of and impossible but with a bit of persistence and lots of prayer, God has made a way. This seems to be the perfect balance of the one-on-one attention he needs combined with the social interaction he is craving.

We are also homeschooling Channing who will turn 5 in November. It is very informal. We read lots of books, sing songs, colour and learn numbers and letters together. Probably a typical kindergarten scenario only she still takes a nap in the afternoon and I get a break! She and Éireann spend much of their time playing nicely together. It’s so nice to see their sisterly relationship forming in such a positive way!



Summer Teams- We have already shared with many of you via email about our first team that came this summer so we won’t elaborate here. However, let me just say that what we saw happen during our youth meetings on Lewis gave me an amazing picture of just how quickly God can come to a community and touch so many people. By the end of the week we saw youth from several communities coming to our meetings and the presence of God was so real among us. It was just a taste, but I really believe that it was a picture of what we can expect when God really does begin to move across this nation.

Two weeks after the first team left, a group of 25 people from Riverstone Church in Kennesaw, GA, came to lead a youth camp in Paisley (about 40 minutes from where we live). This camp was a follow on from the camp that they ran last year, and it was INCREDIBLE! The number of young people coming to the camp doubled, and we literally filled every bed in the camp. This was very exciting for us, as we had decided that we wouldn’t advertise the camp as we did last year, but instead just let it grow through word of mouth. It was awesome to see so many of the youth from last year bringing along their friends this year. And their testimonies were so encouraging. One of the guys that came last year began sharing with his friend who was into drugs and a lot of bad stuff and eventually invited him to his church. His friend came and eventually gave his life to the Lord and then came on the camp this year! It was so cool to see this guy just soaking up everything and really going for it during the camp. The worship times were just amazing, and it was incredible to see many of the youth begin praying for each other during the worship without any prompting from us. God really moved and burdened them to minister to each other. As many of you know, it is often hard to put into words the things that happen on a spiritual level. However, coming into this camp, I think that many of us were wondering if there was any way God could ‘top’ what He did last year on the camp. But, I think it is safe to say that He far exceeded anything we expected from this camp. It was as if He just started where we left off last year and then took off from there. So, who knows what will happen next year! I think that one of the key reasons that God moved so powerfully on this camp was due to the spiritual preparation that the team did before ever coming. In addition to the regular prayer that happened on a weekly basis for 6 or 7 months leading up to the camp, they also had 24/7 prayer amongst themselves for the final 10 days leading up to the camp. I can’t tell you how much Heather and I, and the church that we partnered with over here in Scotland, are indebted to Riverstone and this team for their dedication to us and to the young people that we are reaching out to.

My final trip started just 3 days after the Riverstone team left. This trip was actually organized by a ministry called Mission to the World, and I simply volunteered to lead it for them. For me, it was a real answer to prayer, as I had been praying for about 3 years for the opportunity to take a team to the Orkney Islands, which lie off the very north coast of Scotland. About 4 months ago, I heard about this ministry, and that they had organized a trip to Orkney but were still looking for a leader. It seemed like a perfect opportunity, so I said I would do it. I won’t go into too much detail about this trip as this letter is getting pretty long already. However, I will say that the highlight of this trip was definitely the church in Orkney itself. Like most of the places that I go, it was in a fairly remote corner of Scotland that took a whole day of travel just to get there. And yet, I was amazed to find this great church that is totally hungry for the things of God and praying for a revival in Scotland. I am convinced that God is very strategically placing (and raising up) churches and individuals in all the remotest corners of Scotland who are praying and preparing for the revival that He is promising. It still amazes me that no matter where I seem to go in this country that is so spiritually dry, I find pockets of people who are not only praying for revival, but are totally convinced that God is preparing to bring one.

So what’s next… I am hoping to take a team to North Uist in November for a week. This is another Island that experienced a great revival in the late 1950's. News of it spread around the world, and its impact on the island was so great that the main pub in the largest town on the island effectively shut down during the revival because so many people were getting converted that no one was coming to drink (and this was over the New Year holiday!). I took an intercession team there last summer, and now the door has opened for us to take a team to reach out to the youth on the island. In addition to this, I am also in the process of making the plans
for the teams that will be coming next summer.



Disneyland Paris...Here we come!!!- Finally, we wanted to share a really amazing story of God’s provision. For the past year, the kids have been begging us to take them to Disneyland Paris. We have told them repeatedly that it is way too expensive and that we would probably never be able to go. Well, about a month ago, a pastor friend of mine came up to me and handed me an envelope and said that it was an anonymous donation from someone in his church. I opened the letter and inside was £1000 cash (that’s about $2000). We could have certainly put it toward our general support, but because it was such a big donation (and completely unexpected), I waited to see if God would have us do something specific with it. About 2 days later, a friend who knew nothing about our desire to go to Disneyland, or the donation, was praying for us and at one point started praying that God would give our family a vacation. Immediately I felt like God told me that I should use the money to take the kids to Disneyland Paris. So, we have now booked a holiday for 6 days in Disneyland Paris! Isn’t God good?

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:19