Prayer notes from Friday 24th November 2023

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Pray for the Sunday services. The morning service in AYR is due to be taken by David Parker and in KILWINNING by Duncan Peters. The evening service in AYR has Brian Morton as the preacher.

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· Please continue in prayer for the Keith family and especially for Lindsay as she is still awaiting a date for the planned surgery. Pray that Lindsay will be suitably prepared for the demanding surgery.

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· Free Church Day of Prayer Across the denomination Wed 29th Nov is a day of prayer, calling all of us to pray for our church, our nation, our world, and one another. Please join us in praying that God will use His church for His glory, and that many in our nation and across the world will come to know Jesus as their Lord and saviour.

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· Prayer meetings The prayer meeting in Kilwinning on the 29th (7.15pm in the Playz) and the one in Ayr on Thursday 30th (2pm in the hall) will be based on the materials provided by the Free Church for the day of prayer. Please pray for a good turnout at these meetings and that those who attend will be encouraged and benefit from this time of united prayer.

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· CARE, Scottish political issues Give thanks for the significant influence of the many Christians who are engaged in every sector throughout Scottish society. Please pray especially for God to help MSPs and others seeking to bear witness to God’s truth and light regarding important moral and justice issues within the prevailing secular atmosphere in the Parliament at Holyrood.

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· SU Scotland Our priority this year has been to see a growth in the number of SU Groups in schools. Please pray for more leaders and more groups to emerge in the region where you live.

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· Prison Fellowship Scotland Continue to pray for the staffing issues seen throughout the Scottish Prison Service. Pray that more men and women will feel called to this work, and it will ease the pressures on the prisons.

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· Tearfund, Myanmar Continue to lift up those who have had to flee their homes and are Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Myanmar. There are an estimated 40,000 IDPs due to the ongoing conflict. Pray for access to support, and resources for the local churches who have historically been supporting the IDPs. Ask for the basic needs of the IDPs to be provided.

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· Osamu and Mairi, Japan Thank you for your prayers for the move to the new location in Tagajo city in September. The Lord wonderfully supplied all the needed furniture and necessary equipment for us to start the service on 17th September. We have felt God’s assurance that this is the place of His choice. Pray that the Lord will guide us step by step as to the ways to reach out to the community.

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Free Churches

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Kiltearn Minister – Gavino Fioretti

· Friday Club meets in Cornerstone at 7pm. Please pray that God will bring the right number of children along and for His blessing to accompany the work there.

 

· Please pray that the congregation will be a light in and to the community, that many from the community will connect with the congregation and come to know Christ through their witness.

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Wick

· Please pray that the Lord would send a worker, or workers, who will encourage and build up His people, and promote the work of His Kingdom in Wick.

 

· Pray that the believers there, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how high and wide and long and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – so that they may be filled to all the fulness of God.

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Greenock

· Please pray for the congregation, that their ministry will be strengthened during a time of vacancy, and that God would bless them.

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A Place to Call Home

As you can tell from the title, I have a new place to call home and it has been an amazing answer to many prayers, yours and mine. In many ways I am a stranger in Bolivia, in a new continent, new country, new people group, new language, new team – in all of these new things, so to find a place to call home was deeply humbling and I’m incredibly thankful to God.

I moved in on Monday 16th October. The house is not close to the city centre, but it’s certainly within the city and seems to be on a relatively quiet street. There is a Catholic church and garden at one end of the street and the main city prison at the other end. I’m thankful that the landlady is a very nice friendly older Christian lady. She actually lives in Santa Cruz and it’s her sister and brother-in-law in Sucre who I’ll be dealing with.

So, my first week in my new home – it’s so lovely to have my own space and my own privacy! After all these weeks living out of one suitcase it is so amazing to be able to unpack into my own home. I’ve been able to organise my own kitchen and go to the market and get lots of fruit and veg.

Church

Church is going well. Since I’ve been staying with Lucia, I attend her church and it’s lovely to be welcomed there. As I begin to understand some words of Spanish it’s so good to be able to join together in worship. I also have a Spanish Bible and I hope to be able to navigate Scripture between my two Bibles.

Challenges

I mentioned in the last newsletter the challenge of adapting physically to the high altitude and high temperatures during the day. Thankfully it’s much cooler at night and can even be quite cold at times. The adaptation process to the physical environment in combination with being with new people, while immersed in a new culture, speaking a new language, with a new people group while simultaneously endeavouring to get enough sleep and rest for my body, mind and spirit, can be quite challenging.

(The above is taken from Marsali’s October 23 newsletter which was downloaded from the Smithton website. Marsali Campbell is in Bolivia with Pioneers.)