“Jesus, with Thy church abide; / Be her savior, Lord, and Guide, / While on earth her faith is tried: / We beseech Thee, hear us, / We beseech Thee, hear us.
Keep her life and doctrine pure; / Grant her patience to endure, / Trusting in Thy promise sure: / We beseech Thee, hear us, / We beseech Thee, hear us.
May she one in doctrine be, / One in truth and charity, / Winning all to faith in Thee: / We beseech Thee, hear us, / We beseech Thee, hear us.
May she guide the poor and blind, / Seek the lost until she find / And the brokenhearted bind: / We beseech Thee, hear us, / We beseech Thee, hear us.
Oft’ in sorrow, oft’ in woe / Onward, Christians, onward go //”
To my brothers and sisters in Christ:
Thank you for your prayers for me as I was in isolation for two weeks. I was upheld so graciously by God’s good hand in that time. And I am now free! It has been wonderful to start walking around our scheme and start seeing the people here. Yesterday I was able to meet my next-door neighbor and have a lovely little chat. It’s exciting to look forward to all that the Lord has in store for these next couple of years; I don’t think we really have any idea about all the wonderful ways God will work. “…the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” (Habakkuk 2:20)
highlights from the week:
Ragged School of Theology! As an intern with 20schemes, I have weekly classes and homework from 20schemes’ Ragged School (you can click here for more info). This semester I have classes on the Church, Systematic Theology, and Christian Ethics. Here’s Mez McConnell with his bananas during today’s class on prayer:
And here are a few pictures from my walk around Merkinch yesterday. Please pray that the Lord would give me insight about our community as I walk the streets as well as “divine appointments” with people. Also, I praise God for the beauty of the canal, river, and North Sea that hems us in on three sides. What a refreshment for my soul. The last picture is a view looking back over the water towards our scheme.
WAYS YOU CAN PRAY:
- Please pray that the Word of God would be sweet to me and that I would continue to hunger and thirst for the Lord. I am just as needy for the Lord as the people here in Merkinch.
- I joined my first team meeting as the third member of our church team this week; please pray that the three of us would be knit together in love, humility, and transparency.
- Please pray, too, for opportunities to speak the Gospel; I’ve been specifically praying this week for a relationship with one person in our scheme.
Thank you for your prayers! I am so grateful to be in this mission together with you as we bring all these prayers before the Almighty. When I think of you and your prayerful support, I think of Paul’s words in Philippians 1: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”
Maranatha,
Claire
P.S. A few of you have been confused by the 20schemes update that came out last Friday. If you saw it you may have noticed that the update had some fake news about which state and church I came from in America, and that was indeed a mistake. Hope that clears things up a bit and puts your minds to rest. 🙂
Claire in Scotland 