What a view

Everywhere you look on this island the beauty of God's creative work is evident. There is another view, however. This view reveals the need for the Gospel in people's lives. There are so many churches here that have been closed. They are used as bed and breakfasts, some are used as civic centers, many former churches have been torn down and others, yet, stand in ruin, with trees and plants as their only parishioners.

So much of the power of God's Spirit worked in the lives of the men and women of the Reformation in this country. Today, there is an ambivalence to the Gospel or even the things of God. The lust for pleasure, the desire things and the rule of self occupy the pursuits of most people. The church itself seems to be in a place of discouragement and frustration. For example, the church I will be speaking in tomorrow night is one of four parish churches that is pastored by only one man. With fewer and fewer people pursuing the Gospel ministry, the fact is that there are many churches without any shepherd. The parish I will be working in for the month of July has three churches. In August and September, I will be in a parish that has two churches without a pastor.

I am terribly excited to be here. I want to be an encourager to the believers and an evangel to the gracious love and mercy of God.

As of now, I have no way to download pictures. I hope to that capability before too much longer. I was told that there will be a young man at the Bible study tomorrow that has some expertise in computers.

One of the Scottish friends that visited us last summer in San Antonio, took me to see the manse where I will be staying in July. The building, itself, looks in rather good shape, and I have been told that it will be well appointed with furniture by the time I arrive. I have been told that there will be a phone and internet hook up soon.

I have also been given the use of a little Ford Fiesta. It is in good shape and gets good gas milage...around 40 miles to a gallon. That is important here, for one liter of gas is 1£ and 30 (the equivalent of $9 a gallon)

For all of God's provision I am deeply grateful.

A funny thing happened on the way to Scotland

Well, after a pretty rough start to my day...I had to pay an $80 overage on my luggage...things seemed to be going pretty well, until I got to Atlanta. I thought that I would have about 8 hours to rest in the Crown Club, but as it turned out, Delta did not send my luggage all the way through to Inverness. I had to walk about 2 miles, all total, to get my luggage and then to the British Airlines counter, which by the way was closed when I got there. I had about two hours to wait befor they opened at 1pm.

I did get to the club room and had a nice four hour stay which was very relaxing. They had good food and comfortable chairs. I got checked-in in good shape. It even looked better once on the plane. The plane was sold out, and yet I and another fellow had the middle seat empty between us. Amazing we commented to each other. And then a woman with a baby moved in behind us. You guessed it. This child screamed almost non-stop for six hours. By the time the baby finally wore himself out, I was so wired I couldn't sleep.

I was picked up at Inverness by our friend, Morag. When had lunch with a friend and then on to the manse. I slept for 13 hours and went to church this morning and then to an open air meeting this afternoon. I was asked to share my testimony and it was a joy to speak about the grace of God and the power of His salvation!

Tomorrow I will go to investigate the areas in which I will be preaching over the next two months.