I tried to blog from my phone the other day and everything fell over when I submitted the text. I think I was too ambitious.

We have had a number of outreaches lately. Some where people respond positively and some where people respond negatively, but at least they respond.

Michelle and I have been discussing street preaching and its effect and what it is like standing on a step ladder trying to convince people of your point of view. I have to laugh when people say Christianity is a crutch. I can think of far easier crutches, like alcohol for instance. It doesn't require anything from you other than your health, and sanity. But to get back to what I started saying at the beginning of the paragraph, we were discussing these things. We spoke to Glenn (our veritable venerable vicar) about what we were feeling and he said something I think is very helpful. he referred us to 1 John 2:27 which talks about the anointing 'abiding' with us. He told us that when we stand up we should be mulling this over, that the anointing of God (and God Himself) is with us when we are speaking. We should expect to speak with His power as He is with us from the very beginning. He is with us every moment of the day. The only thing that prevents us from acknowledging His presence or feeling the power thereof is us. So when you next stand up to preach or are worried about how someone will receive what you are saying then think about the anointing abiding with you. It has helped me loads, especially in terms of having confidence to speak when I am ascending my little white ladder.

Hooray!! I finally found the time to update the site.

This Sunday we went preaching on the royal mile. We set up near some kids and did the "Good Person Test" with them. We were there for about an hour. We convinced some of the group to come to church with us that afternoon. They listened to the loud worship band, after which two of the guys left because they were hungry and hadn't eaten. Three stayed. And two decided to become Christians when Glenn gave the altar call (I keep spelling altar alter, but I guess in this context it wouldn't be 100% wrong).
We are going to preach on Saturday at an event that Paul (Edinburgh City Missions Guy) is organising. I'm going to miss the rugby, someone better get saved.

I'm still trying to get the new blog software happening for everyone else to do their thing, but time is still at a premium even when you have more of it.

Life in Edinburgh is definitely a lot slower than in London. A very good thing. We haven't started doing any street preaching yet. We did "The Prisoner", a play that Michelle wrote, on the Royal Mile for the first two weeks of the festival. We got a good response. It is amazing that as soon as you mention the name of Jesus you lose half the crowd. There seems to be only two ways to treat Him; accept or reject. I was reading in John about how He told His disciples they must eat His flesh and drink His blood (see here). He lost everyone other than His twelve disciples with that statement. (obviously He didn't mean literally but that is how they took it. Unless you hold to transubstantiation, but that is another discussion)

We ran into some trouble with the event organisers, they said that we were preaching in a section of our show, which I disagree with, but after discussing it with them we modified the play so that we got our message across without any audience interaction. After our play we went as dog's bodies for Paul who works for the Edinburgh City Mission. That was pretty cool, it was nice to have a few decent conversations. After having preached on the street for about four years now one starts to feel itchy about not talking to people about Jesus. I don't mean that the street is the only place to talk to people about Jesus, I mean that I haven't had much opportunity to speak with people in any meaningful way.

Street performers and Comedians are very friendly when you talk to them in the street.

We have joined up with a church called Edinburgh city church (website
here ). It's very cool we like it.

I guess that's all for now. I am still trying to get the website updated so that Kim and Grant can blog what is happening in Bristol and London. Apparently Ray Comfort is coming to preach in London, which is great. I will be in Portugal. Oh well, I will just have to drown my sorrows in coca-cola, peri-peri chicken and chips, and sardines, and some more chicken, and maybe another coke, and probably some more fish, in an open-roofed restaurant on the beach...

I was going to blog about our move to Edinburgh and about the outreach we have been doing in the street and about the trauma of cutting my hair and how I am trying to revamp the site so that I can organise blogs for Kim in Bristol and Grant in London, but my wife just phoned because she has run out of petrol and Dillon is "so thirsty". So I guess it will have to wait. Please leave a comment if you read this so I know that I share a place in this world, a place in this wooooooorllllddd.......