Scotland: God Works Even in Tragedy

Hey all! Ben and Nate here. Just wanted to give you this weeks updates on what God is doing here in Inverness! If you read our last post you’ll know that our arrival here was in the wake of tragedy as one of the students of a local high school had been killed in an accident. This incident has really shaken the students. In an attempt to console the school has brought in a few alcohol counseling agencies, but the kids can see right through them. The lack of love and compassion that is being shown amazes me to no end. The director of the school actually told some of the students to “Have a cup of tea, stop crying and get over it. Roddy would have wanted it that way.” But we are seeing God work through this tragedy in the lives of the students.

On Thursday we had our first youth meeting at the Christian Youth Center since Roddy’s death. A group of about fifteen kids or so showed up, most of them were first timers. We wanted to be sensitive to the situation so we offered our ears just to listen to the kids. What you must understand about the highlands and Scotland in general is that people are very private about the way they feel, especially in regards to faith. None of the kids wanted to talk, so Leo continued on with the message for the night out of Luke 15: The parable of the lost sheep. As the study was drawing to a close, Leo transitioned to the gospel and upon giving the invitation there were seven kids who responded publicly. The next day on Friday, we took over sound and video responsibilities for the memorial and Leo conducted the service. Once again, Leo shared out of Luke 15 and when he gave the gospel message somewhere between forty and fifty people responded publicly. God is absolutely amazing! Among the people who responded was Roddy’s mom. Not only did she take a bible afterwards but she expressed an interest in continuing in the decision she had made.

God is so faithful! We’ve been asking Him and praying for Him to bring many to salvation through all of this and He has! Thank you so much for your prayers. Now we would ask you to continue praying for these people. Pray that their decision wasn’t just an emotional response like the stony ground but a true conversion, pray that they would come and hear the Word of God that it may take root in their lives and that they would bear fruit.

Nate and I would also ask you to pray that God would enable us to confidently step into the role of teachers, as we will be fully taking over the youth ministry starting this week, and that God would grow us as teachers of His Word and fill us with His Spirit. Also we have a couple new pictures and in case you didn’t know, you don’t have to be a registered user to make comments on our blog posts, it’s open to the public. If you want to read the news articles on Roddy’s death, you may do so by clicking these links: Article #1 Article #2

Keep lifting up the prayers!
Team Scotland