What a fantastic day we enjoyed yesterday with our guests, John and Kirsty Wilson. Their sincere faith and joy was contagious and not a single person left the church after service anything other than hugely uplifted! John shared something of his own story and together we reflected on the miracle of grace that has seen him come from being a lost and broken addict to the fully-alive and transformed human being that he is today. And more than that; his gift as a preacher is evident for all to see! His theme was ‘Faith without works is dead’ and the power and passion with which he spoke was truly remarkable.

In the evening, Kirsty shared with us concerning her work with ‘City Hearts,’ an organisation committed to supporting people who have been saved after having been trafficked into the UK. As with John, Kirsty’s passion for Jesus and for the people she now works with was obvious for all to see.

We wish John and Kirsty well in their future work and will pray God’s blessing on them in the days ahead.

Here’s the link to John’s interview and talk:

Our Havilah work is among the most challenging of our programmes – mainly because there are lots of disappointments to be endured along the way. Sometimes, it seems as though great progress is being made only for the person concerned to slip back. This is the way it is when working in the field of drug addiction.

It means that when ‘successes’ are recorded, there is great rejoicing. Each one is hard won. Recently, one of our guys – who’s been with us for years, usually struggling – has made the breakthrough. He’s stayed the course in rehab, has got himself clean and is now engaged to be married and in paid employment for the first time in over a decade. (more…)

Holy Week saw the sanctuary of our buildings transformed into the setting for the Easter Code – a fantastic programme for p7 children to learn interactively about what Easter is really abo0ut. This is the third time that we’ve run the programme but, for the first time, it was a venture that all of the churches in Arbroath were able to share in together. Unity is always worthwhwile working for.

With over 280 children attending the six sessions that we ran, it was a very demanding week for all concerned but the volunteer team rose to the challenge and the sense of it having been ‘worth every ounce of effort’ was shared by all! A huge ‘well done’ to Stuart, our Associate Minister, who coordinated the programme to great effect.