BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

(photo:Tim McDonald)
My wife helped coordinate a fantastic missional Thanksgiving. I heard there was almost 70 people in total. A mixture of Americans, people from church and several mom’s who Kellie, Britany and Jaelyn know from School. Around 1:30 or so, people started showing up with loads of food. We had two, 22lb turkeys, a huge ham, bowls of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casseroles, five or so big things of stuffing, cranberry sauce, homemade breads, gravy, pies galore, I know I am forgetting things… tons of food.

Living next door to Tim and Britany allowed us to open our hall doors and people would just flow back and forth. After the meal, in our flat we had NFL Football on the Nintendo Wii going, next door the ‘Apples to Apples’ game was a hit. Around 6:15 more people showed up and we had some ‘left overs.’ Being almost comatose by this time, we popped in a movie and ‘vegged’ for the rest of the evening while others played more Wii.

Living in Scotland, thousands of miles from my family, it is great to see how true God’s word is, when it says, “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”

I am particularly thankful this year to how faithful God has been to carve out for us a great family in our adopted homeland. God, You have done great things for us and we are filled with thankfulness and joy.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Stephen Irwin (teammate) has recently edited some video’s about our Church.

You can check out the first video HERE.

And the second video HERE.

Thanks Stephen, good work!

This past Sunday was a big milestone for our church. It was our first time to break the 100 person barrier. The exact number was one hundred eleven.

These last couple years have seen daunting obstacles and significant milestones. They have seen times of incredible discouragement, and times of amazement at what God was doing as he called us into existence.

I am convinced that the single most determining factor of our obvious headway (especially these past 25 months) in comparison to so many others facing defeat is the hundreds of people in Scotland and across the world praying our little church into existence. I am also convinced that if that prayer cover were removed we would be swamped by a flood of darkness currently held off by God in answer to your prayers.

Join with us in giving thanks to God who has proven over and over that He still hears prayers and that He is still moving.

We had a fantastic Church retreat this weekend at the local YWAM mansion in Paisley, Scotland. What a powerful time!

While at the retreat I saw some handmade journals for sale. There were some fantastic covers, but this one I choose because of the quote at the bottom by Anne Lamott.

“Hope begins in the dark. You wait and watch and work. You don’t give up.”

I think what struck me about that quote was how true that feels as I think of the efforts of starting our church. Starting it in a dark place, hopeless without God’s obvious intervention. We had to wait on Him, watch, and work hard. After much perseverance in discouraging times the church took root.

Times are still dark. There are things we still are waiting for and watching for and working towards. And still the call is the same… to not give up. May God continue to call our church into existence!

We still need much prayer. The war is hard. Pray that we will continue to see God moving, pray that we will be diligent in our work. Pray that we as a church will persevere in this city.