faith – Scotland Rising

Fear is a liar!

2 timothy 1.7

On Monday, I has the privilege of speaking to the Portknockie ladies guild. It was my first time to attend a ladies guild, but what a fun day it was. As it was my first time, and Portknockie is such a wee village, I will admit that I had fairly low expectations for attendance and engagement. Boy, was I ever wrong. These ladies take their guilds very seriously, and that was so refreshing.

I was invited to this event last fall, so I’ve had plenty of time to come up with my message and I didn’t really feel any sort of pressure or nerves as the date drew closer. I had intended to use my thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer (the podcast I did in January, for Radio Free Buckie) as it was a pretty easy message from a fairly well-known passage of scripture. Last week, as I was looking over my notes and praying about my time with the ladies I felt the Lord was leading me in a different direction than the one I’d planned to go in. In fact, I felt it was pretty clear he wanted me to scrap the Lord’s Prayer message entirely and talk about fear instead. What?!

As I was praying about the afternoon and looking over my notes, 2 Timothy 1:7 kept coming into my mind, “He has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power, love, and self-discipline.”

Seriously?! Who was I to talk to anyone about not living in fear? I’m the kind of person who loves the adjectives, low-risk and secure. I don’t dislike change like many people do, but I don’t really fancy the idea of high-risk anything. Bungie jumping, parachuting, swimming with sharks, fear factor kinds of things that get your adrenaline pumping are absolutely, 100% not for me. I like certainty. I like organization. I like well-planned, well-thought out endeavors.

In the end, the Lord won, and I ended up talking about how fear is a liar. The kind of fear the Enemy whispers in our ear makes us focus on ourselves – on our intellect, gifts, skills, talents, as well as our shortcomings, anxiety, envy, pride, jealousy, fear, low-self esteem, and our past failures, and keeps us from fully relying on God to step in and shine through us. This kind of fear makes us plant our feet in the sand and say to the Lord, “I will go this far, and no further,” because we cannot control or manipulate the outcome. In our own strength and intellect, we cannot guarantee a win. And that’s the point.

Satan absolutely does not want you and I to be reliant on God to accomplish His purposes in this world. If I only allow myself to be used by God to the extent that I can accomplish the work on my own intellect, gifts, skills, and talents than I’m able to keep all of the glory for myself, and that’s not how God works. He works best through my weaknesses – in the times when I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that without Him and his intervention, there is no way that I can do what it is He’s called me to do.

Without Him, I am not going to be able to talk to that person about Jesus. Without Him, I’m not going to be able to serve effectively in this ministry he’s given me. Without Him, I’m not going to be able to love people like he loves them. I’m not going to be able to be the kind of encouragement, or teacher, or prayer warrior, or life example He has called me to be. And that’s exactly what our Enemy wants from us – for us to be self-reliant, mediocre Christians who look only within ourselves for the ability to get things done for Jesus. Because he knows that when we act in our own power, on our own intellect, within our own gifts, skills, and talents we will be far less effective for Jesus than we would be if we’d just say, “Yes, Lord, whatever it is You want me to do, I’ll do. Where ever You want me to go, I’ll go. However You want me to serve, I’ll serve.” And then for us to fully trust in Jesus to show up and show out when He promised he will.

What about you? Has the Lord asked you to do something specific, and you’re pushing back because you know its way outside of your comfort zone?

~Brittan~

Revival? What’s that?

take heart

Missionary life is, in a word, difficult.

It’s not necessarily troublesome because we sold everything that offered us stability and a life in America. That’s scary, sure, especially when the time comes for us to move back. We’ll have to find a way to start over from scratch, but that’s a problem for another day, and one that can be solved fairly simply. The Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills, I have no doubt that when He calls us back to the States he’ll provide for our needs there.

Missionary life is not problematic because we moved thousands of miles away from everything and everyone we know and love. Ten years ago, that might have been a legit consideration, but thanks to technology and the Internet, we can talk to our family and friends every single day for free, if we like. And, we have made some beautifully dear friends here in Scotland, and leaving them now, or in the foreseeable future, would absolutely break our hearts.

Missionary life is not particularly arduous because we’ve had to learn and adapt to a new culture, new foods, new ways of doing things, a new language, new government structures, etc. To be honest with you, we positively love, love, love living here. A small town isn’t for everyone, but it is for us. A small church isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it is ours. A mature congregation isn’t often the target audience pastors and church planters set their sites on, but we serve here with gladness. We’re living out God’s purpose for our lives here, and you’re a part of that.

What makes missionary life so wearisome are unmet expectations in why we came here to begin with. As you know, we came here three years ago to help usher in revival. To reinvigorate the Church in Buckie – not just the Church of Christ, but the Church in general. We came to teach, preach, disciple, and proclaim who Jesus is and what he’s done for the human race. We’re here to help people understand the greater purpose for their lives, and to bring hope, help, and restoration to broken and hurting hearts and families. We came to see the Gospel transform a community in rapid decline. We came to help others who are on the same journey. We came to see Jesus move in mighty and undeniable ways…..and we’re still waiting.

We haven’t been resting on our laurels; hoping, praying, or believing that all we needed to do was show up and God would show out. We’ve been busy – praying, fasting, searching, working, and listening for the Lord to direct our path here, and He has.

We haven’t been frequently distracted by worries over money. When you live 100% on the generosity and faithfulness of others, money worries can easily overwhelm and terrify you. But the Lord has graciously given us absolutely amazing partners – that’s YOU! Because of your devotion to the work of the Gospel here in Scotland we have been able to share Jesus with more people than we can count.

When we moved here in 2017, I purchased a dozen NLT bibles to give away, and it took us two years to give all of them out. This past Christmas, we made an appeal for fund to purchase another dozen NLT bibles to be given out during our Christmas in Narnia events, and praise be to the Lord, y’all responded in a big way. In case you haven’t already heard, we gave out SIX of those bibles to new Believers in less than six weeks!! We’re planning to have a baptism service sometime in March to celebrate the decisions that have been made for Him because YOU helped us give away a Bible.

When we arrived at the Buckie Church of Christ in July, 2017, Sunday morning attendances fluctuated between 8 and 14 people, depending on what week of the month it was. On January 5, 2020 we had 30 people attending, with 10 folks out (traveling, working, or ill). In 2017, there were ZERO families with children coming to the church. Today, we have 6 kids who attend regularly with their families, and I can say with joy that their singing, laughing, and rustling sounds are breathing new life back into the dried out bones of the Church.

Yes, God is absolutely, positively, undeniably moving here! But it looks a whole lot different than revival does in America. And it certainly looks a whole lot different than what we imagined or expected. The Church here is decimated, numerically but also spiritually. The State Churches are so liberally minded and politically tied that they have become a roadblock to evangelical Christianity. State churches and many of the mainstream denominational churches hold the tenants of their denomination above the authority of Scripture; and where the two disagree these churches opt to uphold and proclaim their denominational creed over Biblical mandates.

There are pastors all over the country (including our wee village!) that openly deny the authority and inerrancy of the Scripture. They stand in their pulpits and preach a social gospel that feeds people’s egos and idols, but does not call for true repentance of sin, righteousness in living, or accountability to God’s authority as Lord and Saviour of their lives. These are good men and women, who love people and have a genuine desire to help others, but they are paving a path to hell that is being gladly followed by millions!

In this country, the Gospel is under direct attack from both that government and the State church. Traditional family values are under attack. The Bible has been disregarded and deliberately tossed in the rubbish bin in favor of political correctness, a false sense of tolerance, and whatever ‘gospel’ is being preached by the deepest wallet. Christians are being told by the government that we cannot call sin, sin. We cannot tell people their lives are a mess because they are living outside of God’s will for them. We cannot tell them that Jesus loves them and died for them. And that’s not just outside of our own walls….the government is now regulating what we say INSIDE our churches.

This week alone, the Scottish and English parliament’s have revoked Franklin Graham’s speaking tour of the UK; siting his views on traditional family values and same sex marriage as hate speech, which flies in the face of the political and social agenda of the UK. The Destiny Church movement in Scotland, offered their buildings as open venues for Franklin Graham to come and speak in, and the town councils where those churches are located have (at the behest of Parliament) issued immediate eviction notices to the Destiny Churches who are meeting in rented buildings within those communities. You see, Jesus and the Gospel are under direct attack here in Scotland and the UK. Christians are being openly persecuted for holding Biblical views and morals.

Recently, we announced on Facebook that Chick-fil-A had opened a restaurant in Aviemore, Scotland, despite having to close their location in England because of the LGBTQ uproar. The owner of the resort where the restaurant was opened has claimed to be a Christian and was prepared to take the heat because his customers had been so pleased with the service and quality to that point. I am sad to report, that restaurant has now closed down after being open less than 6 months because the political pressure the Scottish Parliament and their affiliates put on that business owner; simply because Chick-fil-A stands for traditional family values and support Christian based programs and initiatives. Satan is hard at work in the UK, using whatever means necessary to thwart the message and hope that is brought through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Christians feel they no longer have a voice as these types of attacks build in momentum and frequency. The Church is discouraged. Evangelical pastors are tired and disillusioned. Satan believes he can smell the stench of defeat in the air and is gathering his forces for a mighty ambush, set to inflict a fatal blow.

What can we do if its this bad already? We wait. We watch. We pray. And we stay focused on the certainty of the task the Lord has set before us – to go into all the world, teaching and proclaiming the Gospel, making disciples, and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because only He can bring the gift of new life.

Because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection power that raised him triumphantly from the grave, Satan is an eternally defeated foe, and he knows it. But that fact does not stop me (and you) from conceeding defeat in our personal lives to the Enemy. When we become so focused on our own discouragments, unmet expectations, disappointments, and the skirmishes around us we deny the Lord’s power and provision that, “greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.” As Christ followers, the Lord did not call us to wallow in the hard, but he, through Jesus Christ, has given us the authority and power to boldly proclaim the Gospel until he returns again, despite the hard.

So yeah, revival is coming. Will it be easy? Definitely not. Will I see it in my lifetime? Maybe…maybe not. Am I allowed to get discouraged? Sure, for a minute or two. But then, I embrace the difficulties that come with being a Christ follower and I put my armour back on and join the battle again. What about you?

~ Brittan ~

Shepherd’s Pie anyone?

As many of you know, in January we kicked off our Sunday night services with a first century church approach. We begin each week with a common meal, usually something simple and hearty, like a bowl of soup and a dessert. Occasionally, I’ll switch things up and make a regional favorite like mac-n-cheese, stovies, or this week’s menu of shepherd’s pie for those who don’t love soup (aka. Sam!). After we’ve eaten we move into the worship center and engage in about 20 minutes of video driven praise and worship, and then Sam spends about 35-50 minutes teaching from the Bible. Our attendance has been running consistently in the low 20’s each week, which seems really tiny compared to most of our church partners in the States, but for winter time in Buckie it’s great.

This week was a bit unusual in attendance, we have a lot of people out ill with the flu and late winter colds. To be honest, the day could have been really discouraging had the Lord not provided encouragement for us in some unexpected guests in our evening service.

shepherds pie

Last night at 5:55 p.m. Sam, myself, and two of our faithful ladies were staring at each other over a massive pan of shepherd’s pie, feeling a bit disappointed that we were the only four who had come out for church. We knew in advance that a couple of folks would be out of town or at another church for a baptism service, but where was everyone else??? We could only assume the worst as I silently contemplated how many freezer containers I would have to come up with to ensure the 10 pounds of shepherd’s pie I’d fixed wouldn’t go in the bin later this week. As the four of us sat in silence the door opened and an unfamiliar face popped in – “Are you having a night service?”

Suddenly the room felt like it had been jump-started. “Yes! We’re just getting ready to have dinner. Please join us!”

“Oh, you’re having dinner? What time is the service, we can come back later?”

“No need to come back, we have plenty of food, and we’d love for you to eat with us.”

“Okay, let me go get my husband…”

A few minutes later we were joined by this lovely couple who live near Inverness. They happened to be in our area for a mini holiday and were on their way home when they passed by our building and saw our lights on. As we ate dinner together we learned that he is an ordained minister in the Free Presbyterian church in Scotland and he is not currently assigned a church but travels and preaches in a few churches ranging from Dingwall to Oban (on the West coast); and his wife is an American expat from Illinois who came to Aberdeen with the Rotary Clubs of America in 1990 to study for two years at the University. She met and married her husband and has been in Scotland ever since. It was fun to hear her accent, which is definitely not Illinois any longer but certainly not Scottish either.

Even though it was just the six of us we had a great time of fellowship, worship, and teaching. As I flopped in my chair last night at 9:00, having managed to get the remaining pan of shepherd’s pie into the fridge, exhausted and a bit despondent about the low attendance, Sam remarked that the couple told him they were blessed by our service and that they hadn’t eaten all day so the meal was an unexpected treat. Instantly, my heart broke for them and at the same time my feelings of self-pity and discouragement evaporated. We may never see this couple again, but I know that the Lord placed them in our path to encourage us, and us in their path to feed them.

Friends, we’ve been in Scotland for six months now, and while I would not say the honeymoon phase is over a lot of the glitz of a new ministry has worn off. Traditionally, February and March are the most difficult months here, and this February is proving to be a bad one for our community. Last week 5 people passed away from various illnesses. The previous two weeks before saw nearly that same number each week. Yes, the days are beginning to get longer by a few minutes each day but illness and seasonal affected depression are at their peak in our community just now. Morale is very low and it’s easy to make excuses to stay home and do as little as possible. The enemy is working overtime to keep people distracted, grief-stricken, and ill so they can’t or won’t come out and hear the Word taught.

Sam’s Sunday night teaching series is appropriately named – Game of Thrones. There is indeed a battle raging in our world for who will be King on the throne of our heart, and currently it looks like the enemy is making his move. What he doesn’t know is that we don’t give up that easily. We know who wins this battle, and the Devil’s time here in Buckie, Scotland is running out!

Oh, look…it’s time to get lunch sorted…shepherd’s pie, anyone?

Sunday Night’s

Hey y’all! Well, here we all are, 2018 is officially well underway and most of us have recovered from the Christmas and New Year festivities. I’ll confess, Sam and I spent the week between Christmas and New Year vegging out, mentally and physically recovering from all the busyness of December. Our first Christmas and Hogmanay in Scotland was incredible though, and we are both so grateful to be serving the Lord here.

Last week (January 7th) we launched our long anticipated and much prayed over Sunday night services, and we had a great attendance and heard lots of positive chatter this week. Of course I wanted to find a way to exercise my gift of hospitality, so we started out the evening with a soup and sweet dinner. We’d also invited several other pastor’s from our community who do not currently have night services at their churches and were pleased to have many of them attend as well. I know as someone who serves in a leadership role in church how nice, and important, it is to just be a part of the congregation and get fed spiritually.

We started the service with a great time of modern praise and worship; and while we don’t currently have a band we have been able to download new Christian praise and worship songs and videos from the Internet and use those to facilitate a great time of corporate worship that is much more modern than what you’d normally see in a church service here in the UK. I’m so grateful for technology.

As far as the teaching goes, Sam has been working really hard over the last couple of months on putting together lessons that are a good combination of his “How To Study the Bible” and “Footprints” series. If you’ve ever been a participant in either of those studies you’ll know that he has an incredible gift for taking the Bible and setting it inside of the bigger picture of history and world events, and ties that all together with God’s plan of salvation for us found all through the pages of Scripture – from Genesis to Revelation. This current teaching series will last this entire year, and very likely extend into the next couple of years, so he’s got his work cut out for him, that’s for sure. But everyone loved his lesson and are looking forward to coming back next week.

Sam capped off the night with an amazing Gospel presentation from Genesis 5. Yep, that’s right, the first geneology found in the Bible is a presentation of the Gospel message of Jesus. I was floored when I saw this, especially as someone who’s been in church my whole life, I’ve never before heard this but I want to share it with you because it is just one more confirmation that we’re God’s plan A! Pull out your Bible and turn to Genesis 5…

Name Meaning

Adam Man

Seth Appointed

Enosh Mortal

Kenan Sorrow

Mahalalel The Blessed God

Jared Shall Come Down

Enoch Teaching

Methuselah His Death Shall Bring

Lamech Despairing

Noah Comfort

If we are to read these name meanings as a sentence it says:

Man was appointed mortal sorrow; the blessed God shall come down teaching that his death shall bring the despairing comfort.

Praise the Lord!

Ophelia

So apparently there’s a hurricane headed our way today. It doesn’t happen often, but Scotland has been known to experience a hurricane or two in her time. Strangely, most of us here are at peace simply because life on the north east coast of Scotland is typically windy with a chance of rain on a daily basis. Add in the fact that we all live in snug stone houses, many which have withstood worse storms for well over a hundred years, constructed with walls nearly 3-feet thick, double and triple glazed windows, and Ophelia is no more than a blip in our daily schedules. I guess with all our friends, family, and partners located in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina we couldn’t escape our fair share of inclement weather this year.

It’s hard to believe that we were here in Scotland just one year ago this month (October 5 – November 9, 2016) on a vision trip, seeking the Lord’s will in whether or not we should come back as missionaries. We prayed for the Lord’s guidance and provision for nearly two years preceding that trip, and many of you joined us in those prayers. While we were here we prayed like crazy for discernment and wisdom, and when we left we both felt strongly called back to Scotland, and Buckie in particular.

In what can only be described as a series of sovereign events over the last year the Lord has provided every means necessary in order to get us back here as quickly and painlessly as possible, and we are grateful every single day for His timing and provision.

Not a day goes by where y’all don’t cross my mind and my prayers, because without you none of this would be possible. I am also thankful for the brilliant {and free!} technology that allows us to stay in touch with family and friends so easily. When Sam was here before he spoke to his parents once a month for just a few precious and expensive minutes. Letters back and forth took weeks to arrive, and his parents watched their grandchildren grow up in photos with visits back to the States happening once every few years. Now, we speak to friends and family on a daily basis through email, messenger, and video chats, which make the distance separating us seem minuscule.

But there is a spiritual storm raging here, and it’s pressing us on every side. Every single week one or both of us have encounters with people who are far from Jesus. We have conversations with hard-hearted folk who have been left bitter because they have only ever had bad encounters with Churches and people who claim to be Christ-followers. We’ve seen people failed by a broken secular system and they naturally assume the Church is just as faulty and flawed, and they are extremely leery to have any part of it. We’ve had heartbreaking conversations with good people who are caught up in bad doctrine, misguided theology, archaic traditions, and are Scripturally illiterate.

The work around us is mentally and spiritually exhausting, but the Lord continues to provide us with rays of light and peace each week. We’ve had 18 – 21 folks in church for the past several Sunday mornings, with a few folks out ill or on vacation. Our ladies Bible study group is continuing to grow, and the Lord is revealing Truth as the ladies enthusiasm for His word increases. People in the community are beginning to take notice of our wee fellowship and asking questions. And the Holy Spirit is moving and active in our Sunday morning and Monday night prayer services.

In Luke 10:2, Jesus promised his disciples an abundant harvest if they were willing to get out in the fields and work. So, here we are, Lord…please use us.