First Outreaches

Here is a quick update on our first couple outreaches. We went out Friday night to the City Center of Glasgow. Since it's around Boxing Day, I think most of the shops were closed which meant we didn't have alot of people out there. We still got to hand out quite a few tracts and have some great conversations.

Here is a pic of Matt handing out a tract:

Then we got to head back out during the day Saturday. There were thousands upon thousands of people to talk to. We had about 14 open air sermons by 10 different preachers. Many hundreds of people stopped to listen and we got to talk one-2-one with many people each. It was a street preacher's dream.

Here's a picture of the mass of people that was constanly coming right at us.



Here is my first open air using trivia. Lynn was nice enough to take the good person test for me and was rewarded with 2 pounds even though she didn't pass.

Praise God for the guy in the yellow jacket in the foreground. He came up to me afterwards and said he grew up Catholic, never had a Bible, but always wanted to actually read the story of Jesus Christ. I was very humbled by his encouragement for me.

I was amazed today at the humble nature of the Scotish people. They were very humble when talking about the things of God and would be reasonable even when they totally disagreed with you.

Here is Jeff talking with a gentleman who told him where he could go:

Just kidding about that one. He was actually very civil and wanted some clarification on something we said.

All in all it was an amazing day. We spent six hours straight out there and there were still thousands of people we didn't get to talk to. I'll miss fishing spots like this in America.

Well, I better get some sleep for church tomorrow. I probably won't blog again until Monday since I need spend tomorrow finishing up my sermon for Monday's New Year's Eve lunch. Thanks for the prayers so far, and I'll need them extra tomorrow.

~Mark

City of the Dead

This morning we got to go to the Glasgow Necropolis (city of the dead) where they had hundreds of graves with many from the 1800's. There was also an amazing cathedral there that was around 700 years old. Here are some pictures from the trip.






Here is the grave of John Knox, the main protestant reformer in Scotland.



And here is the whole gang; Sam, Jeff, Matt, and me (left to right).









There was this plaque in the cathedral in honor of a group of Martyrs (people who died for their faith) with a poem. The best part are the last two lines.


We're heading out to the streets tonight which I'm looking forward to. I'm not feeling that great right now, so hopefully that will go away. Sorry this isn't longer, but I'll post more tomorrow about our fun tonight.

~Mark

The Eagle Has Landed

Well, I made it! I am officially in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. The flight went great, although I didn't get any sleep at all. The London airport was pretty interesting, but everything turned out ok. Using Pounds and Pence for the first time was pretty fun. And having people turn around and stare when they hear you talk is pretty cool.

The best part so far was when Jeff picked us up and drove us around town. It was such a crazy feeling as a passenger in the left front seat while driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Here are some pictures of the drive:

Very beautiful countryside, although the city is older and there are many run-down buildings next to really nice new ones. We also got to check out a Scotish "Wal-Mart"-type store. Here is a weird shaped Pepsi bottle (and Matt):

And some authentic Scott's Porage Oats like my mum used to make. Well, if she happen to be Scotish:

Praise God for getting us here safely. After talking to Jeff, I have a great anticipation of what's going to happen this week. Please keep us in your prayers. Right now I'm heading to bed to hopefully shake off some of this jet lag.

~Mark

Packing

Merry Christmas, all! I'm back in my condo doing laundry and getting things all packed up for Scotland.

FYI, here is my flight info:

Wednesday Dec 26, 2007
Flight 50
Depart DFW @ 5:05pm
Arrive LGW @ 7:55am (Thur Dec 27)
Flight 6698
Depart LGW @ 11am
Arrive GLA @ 12:30pm

Sunday January 6, 2008
Flight 6699
Depart GLA @ 6:10am (I know, yikes)
Arrive LGW @ 7:35am
Flight 51
Depart LGW @ 10:15am
Arrive DFW @ 2:35pm

GLA stands for Glasgow, where my friend Jeff lives and where we'll be spending most of our time (map). Here is a pic just to get an idea of what we'll be doing each day:



For those who don't know, I did street ministry and open air preaching with Jeff in Downtown Dallas for a year and a half. He left for Scotland in July with his family to live and do ministry for a few years. He's the Pastor of Evangelism at New Mercy Church in Glasgow. There are some more pictures of his team on the street under the evangelism section of the website.

Anyway, I better get back to the important stuff. Thanks for checking this out, and I will hopefully keep you posted with pictures and info when I land.

~Mark

First Post

Well, here is my new blog to record my time in Scotland for my family and friends left across the pond. Right now I'm sitting in my parent's house on Christmas Eve. I've still got alot of packing and preparing to do, but Lord willing, that will get done after presents and turkey tomorrow. Thanks for checking out the blog, and hopefully I'll get time to update it often on my trip.

~Mark