Hey All,

We have had quite a few weeks of travel, nothing major or mad but good chunk of miles racked up and a lot of great people in some great places!

We spent some time a few weeks ago in Strathdon where we have some CLAN Gathering planning meetings, for the Young Adults program. This was fantastic, the team we have is outstanding, plenty of really spiritually deep people, with lots of ideas we can bring to the Young Adults this year!

The weekend after that for me and Zoe was spent in Belfast being spoiled by my parents and catching up with mainly close family.

The weekend just gone has been spent in West Kilbride and Livingston! We arrived in West Kilbride on Thursday last week to spend a couple of days meeting with YWAM peeps to catch up relationally as well as talk strategy and vision with our line leader, Dave Ausdahl. And then there was a YWAM Scotland BBQ!! Around 80 - 90 people were there, as was a bouncy castle and lots of food!! Great times!

Sunday was then the Almond Vineyard, and a hog roast! Warning, hog link not for faint hearted or vegitarian... Again lots of food and lots of good people, and another bouncy castle!! This one wasn't for adults tho... :(

So we are now all back in Aberdeen!

This week we have lots of meetings, including the pastors/ministry leaders lunch, various friends and collegues as well as hopefully an American girl called Sarah who has a real heart for Aberdeen, God inspire her to bring her gifts to this city! Oh and we also have a Scottish Sarah(Bell) staying with us as she progresses towards moving to Aberdeen to work in Dyce High School.

As usual lots on the go, need to get back to work on www.northatlanticdreams.net, and www.secure.clangathering.org.uk, and a bit on another soon to become visible site!! Oh it is a lot of fun!!!

God is good and He is the one who inspires!!!!

Praise Him.
Ian

Zoe and I have been enjoying a couple of days in Belfast, home
cooking, trip to the zoo, lots of time with "nani" and "nanda"! Today
we are off to my home church, St. Mary's. Looking forward to seeing
everyone again and Zoe being made a fuss over!

It is very easy to come back to a place so familiar and slip into who
you were when you were last there. The expectations of everyone is
that you are the same person, which is very reasonable! However with
God we are always being transformed more into His likeness(if we allow
Him) and so this time I am back I am a different person than before
and it takes a concious choice to live that out. Thus was most
highlighted after DTS with YWAM, but no less true every time I come
home.

What's great about God is that He loves to test us, with the point of
showing us how much we have changed!

Praise Him!

Ian

www.247prayeraberdeen.org

Sun day 31st May ended 2 weeks of 24/7 prayer in Aberdeen, well it was proposed as 24/7 prayer, ended up being day prayer! In partnership with Graham Black of the Siloam Trust we felt that God was asking us to create a prayer room in the town centre and offer it as a service to the Church, with the aim being a prayer community.

The room itself was very well received, plenty of people met with God, lots were blown away by a new way to pray, and a Muslim lady and a guy who didn't know Jesus walked in to find out more! The guy came back a second time and gave himself to the Lord! Praise Jesus!

A word from another room user,

I've managed along to the prayer room for two short stints and have loved every precious minute of it.
I came with a view to praying for our church (Aberdeen Vineyard) which has a healing service on Pentecost Sunday and I REALLY want to see God move there. But, as so often with God, He has given me so much more.
I started each session using the Scriptorium to focus myself on God. And as I got to each passage - I just happened to be copying two of my favourite passages - Psalm 18 and Isaiah 40 - each talking of the restoring power of God.
I finished each session with worship - when the sense of the presence of God was almost overwhelming. The prayer room is indeed a sacred space - Holy ground!
On Friday after I had prayed for our service - I just knew, once again - it's all about Him - it's all about Jesus and only through what He has done. And that He would have done it even if it was only for me. The prodigal came home (see Homecoming space)
I drove home along the beach and was blessed with an amazing sunset and I just had to take my worship onto the beach. I was singing along with my i-pod and dancing on the beach. I must have looked crazy!
It has been a long, long time since I have had such joy in the presence of the Lord.

This is what it is all about, creating space for people to come before God, whether they know Him or not! Trusting Him for the good things He wants to bring out of it.

As we reflect on the fortnight we will take away many positives from it, and look to God to see what the next step on the journey is. He wants a vibrant bunch of crazy people seeking Him at any hour of the day, believing Him for miracles we haven't dreamed of and seeing thousands coming to know the King of kings!

A taste of what God wants to do can be heard in this encouragement we received on the website:

Just want to thank you for this opportunity. I have really met with God during the time I've been at the prayer room. Particular this morning as I came a bit discouraged about the news of the the church of Scotland minister. As I prayed for Aberdeen, God reminded me of a dead city (Famagusta) that I had seen during my holiday to cyprus. It was heartbreaking to see no life, nothing just empty buildings that once bubbled with life. As I prayed it was like I was looking at Aberdeen. I began to see small pockets of light visible in various parts of the city. As i prayed I then see runners like those during the olympics with torches in there hands. They were going through the city lighting fires- fire lighters. Then as I prayed more into this I seen a river of like Gold lava running between the fires connecting them.

Prayer is the spark, fuelled by the power of God.

After this I no longer felt discouraged and realised that God has a much bigger plan for this city and there is a continued call for us to keep on praying in partnership with the Holy Spirit and we will see men and women of God, old and young rise up and make a difference!
So I want to encourage you with this just as i was and am, that our prayers are making a difference and not to give up even when it sometimes looks is if darkness is prevailing.

Mandy

We thank God that he met with people that came in and used the room, it is His faithfulness that meant we were honoured with His presence.

Onwards to the next thing then!
Ian