Scotland: The Final Countdown

Hey all! Ben Peters here updating you on what’s going on here in Scotland. First of all I would like to apologize for not updating the blog more frequently this past month and a half. In this post I hope to cover a lot of what has been going on the past month or so here in Inverness.

At the end of August we were very blessed to have our good friend and brother Marty Miranda visit us for a couple weeks. Marty has spent the last year serving at a Calvary Chapel in South Hampton, England. During Marty’s time here we got to do a significant amount of exploration around the Highlands of Scotland. We had a wonderful time of fellowship as we climbed the tallest mountain in Britain, Ben Nevis, and we were also able to take one of the guys from the youth group and spend a day out on the Isle of Skye together. It’s always refreshing for me to spend time with Marty because he has so much joy in the Lord and I am so thankful for his friendship and how the Lord ministers to me through our fellowship. Please pray for Marty as he continues on with the work down in South Hampton http://www.calvarychapelsouthampton.co.uk/.

This past month has been an absolute blur. As most of you probably know already, Nate and I are both returning to the States. Between all the going away parties and the packing and shipping of bags and boxes I feel like I’ve barely had a chance to stop and breathe. Thankfully though this last week we cancelled most of our weekly meetings in preparation for our return to the States. I am very sad to leave my Scottish brethren and I will dearly miss the youth here. God has shown me so much in my time here, He has grown me so much as a man and as a teacher. Though it is hard to leave the people we’ve invested so much of our time and hearts into, I am still very excited about the new direction the Lord is leading me in. Please pray that the Lord would provide for Nate and I as we take this new step in continuing our educations by returning to school in the States. Also please continue to pray for Leo Rose and his wife Cheryl as they continue the work that God has called them to here in Inverness. The Lord has really been greatly blessing this work. Over the past year we’ve seen God raise up leaders from within the church and we’ve seen extraordinary growth not only in the size of the youth group but most importantly in the spiritual maturity of the youth who are attending. Please pray that God would raise up replacements to come in and continue investing in the lives of the youth here in Inverness. God truly has lit a beacon of hope in this dark place. Help stoke this fire through your prayers.

BP, Signing off.

Scotland: Coffee Shop Gospel pt 2

Hi there! You are reading the words of Nate. The past few weeks has been pretty hectic, we've had 3 weeks of running a coffee shop and on the last week we ran the CYC by ourselves on top of it! We didn't have all that many unchurched folks coming in to the coffee shop much to our disappointment, but whoever came in that didn't know about God we gave a gospel of John.

At the end of last week we had an evangelist by the name of Al Terhune (http://takinit.org/) staying with us. It was an awesome time of ministry, we hosted a “kidz club” outreach and he gave the gospel and a bunch of kids got saved! About 3 adults got saved while he was here as well. He was definitely a very gifted evangelist, and his constant focus on the gospel really encouraged us. Almost everyone he came in contact with received the gospel! I've been praying for more open doors for the gospel in my own life and God has been faithful to answer that prayer.

Yesterday I went for a run and decided not to take my ipod (which I always bring) so that I could pray. As I was running I passed an older man who was walking his dog, he seemed very friendly and seemed to be enjoying his walk. I turned around at the end of my run and caught back up with him and his dog walked up to me, so I prayed “Lord open the door.” and He did! We got to talking and I found out that he was an ex-church of England guy who had been burned by religion, and now that he was getting older he was afraid of death and started thinking of getting back to church in hopes that he might get to heaven. We didn't get to walk very long because his car was only about a quarter mile away, but by God's grace I got to explain the whole gospel to him! He listened very intently and thanked me for telling him that and got in his car and drove off. I can only hope and pray that he called on the mercy of God for salvation once he got home, but I know for sure that God ordained that conversation.

The lost are all around us, God is sovereign, pray that He would open doors for the gospel and open the eyes of the lost through not only us but you as well!

Scotland: Coffee Shop Gospel

Hey everyone, Ben here with this weeks update. Boy do we have a great couple of weeks lined up. Let me lay it out for ya. Nate and I are taking over the CYC for the next three weeks and we have recently obtained all the equipment we need for the coffee shop. So what better way to start things off than with a grand opening of the CYC Coffee Shop! Nate and I have received training on the machine and are now espresso and latte` making experts and we’ve enlisted an army of students from our youth group to help us run the place for the next three weeks! God really is blessing us here. The CYC is strategically located on the bank of the river Ness and there is a heavy amount of foot traffic in front of the building. Please pray that God would bring people in to get some coffee and that He would open up doors to present people with the gospel.

BP, Signing out

Scotland: An Extraordinary Encounter

Hey everybody, this is Nate reporting in for our bi-weekly update. An interesting thing happened to me the other day while I was working at the Christian Youth Center in town. It was a rainy day and I had just come in from washing the windows when I heard the doorbell ring. It was too early for it to be any kids from the school, so I went down to see who it was. I opened the door to find a man there who had piercings and tattoos all over and had cuts on his arms. He was very troubled looking and he asked me if I could talk to him, so I said yes and invited him in to have a chat.

He told me his name was Stuart, and he said “Oh don't worry about these cuts, they're just self harm” He went on to tell me that he was a paranoid schizophrenic and he had run out of money to buy food recently and hadn't eaten in two days. And since he hadn't eaten in two days he also hadn't taken his pills in two days! Since he hadn't eaten in two days I took him down to the corner store and bought him a sandwich.

After we got his sandwich we headed back to the CYC and I asked him if he had ever heard the gospel before and he said no. So I told him the gospel and he was extremely interested in it. He told me that what I was saying seemed like it might be the truth and I assured him it was. He had to go quickly because he didn't have his pills with him and he was anxious to get back home and take them, but he told me that he really wanted to hear more and that he'd come back later. So I gave him a tract and a Bible and sent him on his way. Please pray for Stuart that he reads his Bible and gets saved, and also that he would be healed from his schizophrenia and that we'd get another chance to talk to him.

God is such an amazingly intricate planner. It's mind blowing to think of all the things that went into me giving that man the gospel. First someone had to tell him about the CYC, then through a long series of events God brought him to a place of desperation where he had nothing left and then God brought the CYC to remembrance and he had to get on a bus and get over there at exactly the time that I was there that morning. And on top of all that God had to fill me with His truth and give me the words to give Stuart. Truly God is sovereign, His works are unfathomably vast.

Oh yeah, and we've got a bit of a praise report, God provided two men to drive for the Creation Fest trip with the youth. Please continue to pray for that trip that God would provide the funding and make it a life changing trip for the youth. As always thank you so much for the prayers! God bless and don't forget to tune in next bi-week! Same bat time, same bat channel!

Nate

Scotland: Summer Plans

Howdy folks! Sorry for the slowness of updates, we've been a little busy this past week with a couple of friends from Michigan visiting, but we're back on track and we're picking up the slack! This week I'm going to fill you in on our super-secret plans we've been cooking up for the past few weeks. Ben and I are pretty excited about what God's got in store for the coming months.

First off, we are cooking up some plans for two more Bible studies. One will be a guys discipleship group studying through the book of Judges. And the other will be a Bible study we'll be starting up at the local college. The guys discipleship is very likely to work out, but the college study is dependent on whether or not we can get in to the college. So pray that God would work out all the details of these two studies, especially the college study because there really isn't much ministry going on in that age group in Inverness.

Next up on the agenda, we're planning to help open up a Christian coffee shop in the Christian Youth Center (where we do Thursday night Bible study). It'll be a few weeks and we'll be having music and giving a gospel presentation on the weekends God willing. So pray that God would prepare the hearts of those we'll be reaching out to.

And finally, we're planning on taking the youth group on a trip down to England for a big festival called Creation Fest, it's a three day Christian music extravaganza! It's going to be a total blast and a great opportunity to spend time with the kids. It's also going to be a chance to see some of the youth step into positions of leadership, so pray that God will use the trip to raise up leaders within the group.

So there it is, an exciting inside look at the top-secret plans of Ben and Nate. These are all up in the air, but we're working to make them a reality. Thanks so much for your prayers and thanks for reading! We love you, good night!

Nate

Scotland: Children of the Most High

Hey everybody. Sorry about not having an update last week. Nate and I traveled down to York, England to visit the Calvary Chapel Bible College right after church last Sunday. Considering the amount of outreach that we had done in the past month Leo thought it was OK for us to take a bit of a breather so we hopped a train and headed for England. The outreach team that came to Inverness met us at the train station and showed us around the city of York. It was really refreshing to meet all the bible college students and just to have that fellowship with other likeminded young people. While we were there we attended classes from Romans and Revelation to Apologetics and Church History.

We had opportunities to look around the town. Everything was in bloom and I often found myself just sitting on the wall staring at the beauty of Gods creation. We got to see some awesome sights like the Minster but even the magnificence of the building paled in comparison to the beauty of Gods creation in bloom. Every night while we were there the team would cook dinner for us and we all sat down and ate as a family. Its awesome to know that when you become a child of God you get adopted into a huge family that’s always eager to take care of you. The family atmosphere was so prevalent that someone felt it was alright to start a food fight! We had so much fun!

Nate and I are really excited. We ordered some proper bibles for our Thursday night kids and they have finally arrived! We had each kids name printed on the bible to make this gift even more personal. Please pray that they would develop a hunger for God’s Word and that they would be faithful to read it. We also have a guys discipleship group in the planning so please keep that in prayer.

Don’t forget to hit up our prayer section and our photo gallery.
This is Ben signing off for Team Scotland.

Scotland: More outreach than you can shake a stick at!

Hey everybody, this is Nate checking in for our semi-weekly update. Ben and I have had quite a busy two weeks, you'd think things might slow down a bit after the York team left, but that just wasn't the case. Last Friday we had a team from Atlanta come and put on an outreach event we called Connect. It was a lot of fun, Ben and I ran the lighting and powerpoint, the team did a great job keeping things exciting and Leo closed the night with a gospel presentation. We had free Bibles sitting on a table and encouraged the kids to take them, and 20 or so took them, so pray that these kids read their Bibles and come to know the Lord if they haven't already.

Just last night we had yet another event (I know, 3 in a row! We must be crazy!), we put on a Christ-centered passover banquet with a messianic Jewish family that we know. Several of the kids from the Thursday night Bible study came along and we all had a great time serving at it. About 50 people turned out for it and everyone enjoyed learning about the passover. No lambs were harmed in the making of the meal.

The Thursday night Bible study has been going really well too, the kids have been asking a lot of really great questions and by the grace of God Ben and I have been able to answer them from the Bible fairly well. God has also been growing Ben and I as teachers more and more every time, so that's been awesome. We'd like to disciple the kids more one on one and really pour into them in that way, so please pray that God would really make that fruitful and pray that we'll see these kids grow in God tremendously.

That's all for now, thanks for being so cool!
Nate