Bridges to Scotland!
Hello from the northeast of Scotland! It's hard to believe that we're quickly approaching three years on the field, first in Wales and now Scotland. We've been in Aberdeenshire for eight months now, and we're excited about the good things taking place. We've experienced many changes and adjustments along the way. We're continually amazed at the connections God has allowed us to make for the sake of His Kingdom. The Lord is at work.
THANK YOU! Thank you to all our senders! Thank you to all our faithful supporting friends and sponsoring churches. We couldn't be here doing any of this without you keeping us in prayer and in monthly financial support.
We need 25 individuals or churches to partner with us in this mission within Scotland! 25 more partnerships at $20 per month will put us on track with where we need to be for serving here. Adding this amount of new or renewed monthly support will keep our support account strong as we prepare to enter our next three-year commitment on the field. Would you personally, your church, small group, Sunday School class, men's discipleship group, women's ministry, youth ministry or missions committee consider adopting us in monthly support?
What are we doing in Scotland? Here's a summary of what's going on with our ministry here:
National Botanic Trip
• Meeting the people of our village and building relationships with them.• Praying strategically in locations throughout the region.
• Connecting with the families in the growing community of people across the area who are choosing to home school their children.
•Networking with ministry leaders and Pastors of various denominations and streams across the area.
• I (Samuel) recently ministered at a Teen Challenge center for men where one man received Christ and two prayed to be delivered from crippling anxiety.
• Bethany is assisting a church in Peterhead (20 minutes from us) in getting a children's ministry up and running.
• We're opening our home to fellowship gatherings and building connections through hospitality.
• I recently shared my testimony and the gospel with a couple of our neighbors while visiting them in their homes.
Foundation Church Leadership Team
• We've built a strong friendship with an independent, Spirit-filled church in Peterhead called Foundation Christian Fellowship. Through prayer and discussions, Foundation has decided to become the very first IPHC congregation in the nation of Scotland!
• Preparing for the official launch of the IPHC in Scotland this fall which will be called The Arise Network, Scotland.
• Building a relationship with a family who just moved to this area from the Philippines where they were in ministry and part of the IPHC.
• Preparing to offer Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI) courses and a discipleship series in the near future.
• Praying over the Cruden Bay/Whinnyfold/Hatton area concerning a church plant.
• Possibly beginning a home group within the next few months which could become a house church.
• Claiming the Auquharney House property as the future site of a Scottish ministry training base.
• Listening to people and their stories.
Did you know?
> Scotland is now considered to be more secular (repaganized) than England and Wales?
> In 2022, 51.1% of Scottish people marked themselves as having no religion. When you take this statistic and add in the reality that many who categorize themselves as "religious", "spiritual" or even "Christian" have not heard the pure gospel message and are not actually born again, then the number of the unreached/unsaved is truly much higher than this. The fields are white unto harvest!
> The State Church here is the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and is rapidly declining. The rate of closure for Church of Scotland churches is more drastic than the Church of England or the Church in Wales.
> There is a stronger push for national sovereignty and independence from the United Kingdom here in Scotland than in Wales. In 2014, there was a national referendum on whether to become independent from the UK and 45% voted yes. Interestingly, one recent report explained that a high percentage of older people in Scotland favor staying in union with the UK. The report went on to say that current polling trends across Scotland indicate a stronger sentiment for independence among young adults and that another vote concerning independence could pick up steam again in about ten years. Regardless of what happens with that, we are here to focus on business of the eternal Kingdom, which cannot be shaken.
> Doric is a distinct language and is a dialect of Scots which is unique to this northeast corner of Scotland. Some of the older folks speak Doric.
> Scotland was on the IPHC's list of priority nations in regards to the Arise 2033 global vision (5,000 new churches planted globally and a ministry presence in 150 nations), but we now have an IPHC presence!
> The power of the gospel, the effectiveness of prayer, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit cuts through and overrides all cultural, linguistic, ethnic, denominational, and political barriers!
Blessings,
Samuel Joshua, Bethany, Isaac, Philip, and Lydia Bridges
