Hello from Dunoon!
We have been here for 6 days now and ministry has been going well. We are yet again involved in holiday clubs in the afternoon and youth clubs in the evening. Our final youth club event is tonight at 7pm (1pm central time) so please keep praying for us that we would be intentional with our time and really preach the gospel not on our strength but through God. One girl, Kayleigh, accepted Christ one of our first nights here and has been a joy to get to know.
On a more stressful note, we have had some visitors to our team which were unwelcome: Mr. and Mrs. L. Ice. Kelsie and the other assistant, Cassidy are literally on their fourth full day cleaning nits out of a few girls' hair and they are exhausted. Yesterday they worked from 8am-midnight and only completed two of the four girls who had it. So please be praying for positive attitudes and patience as these days are beginning to wear on them heavily. Finally, pray that our students would not let themselves go home mentally and remain invested and involved in our work here. It's that point in the summer where it is easy to let things slide and try to coast until we get home but we are praying that that would not be the case here.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Govanhill - Glasgow, Scotland
Where has the time gone? It's already July 16 and two weeks from now we will be back in the states, hard as it is to believe. Upon leaving Drumchapel we spent about ten days in Govanhill, a neighborhood in Glasgow. Govanhill is a very impoverished neighborhood and also has 159% more violent crimes than the Scottish average making it a perfect place to set up camp for awhile. Additionally it is a large cultural hub with over 30 languages spoken just in a few block radius of our church. Many middle eastern and Romanian people live in the neighborhood and these were the kids we interacted with the most. We actually had very little interaction with Scottish youth during our time here. Ministry was intense and exhausting as we ran Holiday Clubs Monday through Friday for 3 hours a day and Youth Clubs for 2 hours every night. Several of our students also had the opportunity to share their testimony each night with the local youth, but the evening club was very
challenging. We encountered many teenagers that were disinterested in discussing anything religious and were only interested in playing ping pong or dancing. It is was a great growth opportunity for our team, especially when they were able to engage in conversation with kids who were either Muslim or Atheist, as most of the kids we met were.
Our team also performed their dance and dramas every day and we even went into downtown Glasgow on Saturday and did two performances. During the second performance a couple of our girls, Rachel and Emily, shared the gospel with two women on the street and they made commitments to Christ that day! So there is some very real, very intense ministry happening and it is so cool to see how our team is learning and growing in their faith. We had a Culture & Heritage day in Edinburgh on Monday and went to Loch Lomond for a hike and a little R&R on Tuesday but now we are in Dunoon and ready for our last week of ministry before heading to London to debrief.
Please continue to pray:
- For healing as many of our team over the last 3-4 days have been sick with what we suspect is some sort of stomach virus and several others have been battling colds.
- In addition to Damien from Drumchapel, also pray for Azam, a Pakistani man that I met who grew up Muslim but doesn't really believe in anything anymore. I shared with him on Friday night and he even returned for church on Sunday but he remains unmoved by his sinfulness. Please pray for his heart to be softened to the Gospel.
- Pray that our team would finish strong during our last week of ministry and that we would not be overcome by exhaustion.
challenging. We encountered many teenagers that were disinterested in discussing anything religious and were only interested in playing ping pong or dancing. It is was a great growth opportunity for our team, especially when they were able to engage in conversation with kids who were either Muslim or Atheist, as most of the kids we met were.
Our team also performed their dance and dramas every day and we even went into downtown Glasgow on Saturday and did two performances. During the second performance a couple of our girls, Rachel and Emily, shared the gospel with two women on the street and they made commitments to Christ that day! So there is some very real, very intense ministry happening and it is so cool to see how our team is learning and growing in their faith. We had a Culture & Heritage day in Edinburgh on Monday and went to Loch Lomond for a hike and a little R&R on Tuesday but now we are in Dunoon and ready for our last week of ministry before heading to London to debrief.
Please continue to pray:
- For healing as many of our team over the last 3-4 days have been sick with what we suspect is some sort of stomach virus and several others have been battling colds.
- In addition to Damien from Drumchapel, also pray for Azam, a Pakistani man that I met who grew up Muslim but doesn't really believe in anything anymore. I shared with him on Friday night and he even returned for church on Sunday but he remains unmoved by his sinfulness. Please pray for his heart to be softened to the Gospel.
- Pray that our team would finish strong during our last week of ministry and that we would not be overcome by exhaustion.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Drumchapel, Scotland
Hello world,
Kelsie and I are currently in Drumchapel, Scotland. We've been here since Monday evening so today is our fourth full day here. The students and summer staff have been leading a Holiday Club for the local kids aged 5-12 (Holiday Club is the European term for a VBS). During the first half hour of the program the kids participate in worship and watch a skit performed by a few of our students. They also have been learning Ephesians 6.15 by heart, "Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the good news of peace with God." Matt (our trip leader) and I have been leading the kids in the hand motions for the verse and I have also been leading the kids in warm-ups (which are exercises but more meant to make them laugh than really stretch them). They also have snack time, games, crafts, and a Bible story that all support the story for the day. Today is the final day of our Holiday Club and on Sunday we will be leaving for Govanhill, which is located in Glasgow.
Scotland is very beautiful and reminds me very much of Ireland as I suspected it might. Kelsie loves it here and is the only person on our team who has been to Drumchapel previously. The last Royal Servants trip that came here was the EuroQuest team in 2009 when Kelsie was a small group leader. It's a small area but we've performed at the local park a couple of times and our students have shared the gospel with many different people. Some have kept the tract our students gave them and some have torn it up. But as our team learned at training camp, "Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God." We are merely called to share God's love with the world, not convince them of it. Only God has the power to do that.
Our remaining itinerary is roughly as follows:
July 5-15 Govanhill, Glasgow
July 15-23 Dunoon, Argyll
July 23-28 London, England
July 29 Flight Home
Please continue to pray:
- That Kelsie and I would keep moving toward God, and consequently, toward each other.
- For our students to keep pushing on as we have been doing Holiday Club in the afternoons and street ministry in the evenings and that they would not succumb to weariness.
- That Damien, a young Scottish man who has been hanging out with our team and the Scottish Christians here, would know the truth of Jesus Christ. He has a thousand questions and clearly is searching for something to fulfill him but thus far is content believing there is no God.
Kelsie and I are currently in Drumchapel, Scotland. We've been here since Monday evening so today is our fourth full day here. The students and summer staff have been leading a Holiday Club for the local kids aged 5-12 (Holiday Club is the European term for a VBS). During the first half hour of the program the kids participate in worship and watch a skit performed by a few of our students. They also have been learning Ephesians 6.15 by heart, "Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the good news of peace with God." Matt (our trip leader) and I have been leading the kids in the hand motions for the verse and I have also been leading the kids in warm-ups (which are exercises but more meant to make them laugh than really stretch them). They also have snack time, games, crafts, and a Bible story that all support the story for the day. Today is the final day of our Holiday Club and on Sunday we will be leaving for Govanhill, which is located in Glasgow.
Scotland is very beautiful and reminds me very much of Ireland as I suspected it might. Kelsie loves it here and is the only person on our team who has been to Drumchapel previously. The last Royal Servants trip that came here was the EuroQuest team in 2009 when Kelsie was a small group leader. It's a small area but we've performed at the local park a couple of times and our students have shared the gospel with many different people. Some have kept the tract our students gave them and some have torn it up. But as our team learned at training camp, "Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God." We are merely called to share God's love with the world, not convince them of it. Only God has the power to do that.
Our remaining itinerary is roughly as follows:
July 5-15 Govanhill, Glasgow
July 15-23 Dunoon, Argyll
July 23-28 London, England
July 29 Flight Home
Please continue to pray:
- That Kelsie and I would keep moving toward God, and consequently, toward each other.
- For our students to keep pushing on as we have been doing Holiday Club in the afternoons and street ministry in the evenings and that they would not succumb to weariness.
- That Damien, a young Scottish man who has been hanging out with our team and the Scottish Christians here, would know the truth of Jesus Christ. He has a thousand questions and clearly is searching for something to fulfill him but thus far is content believing there is no God.
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