Prestoncrest Missions

39 Wishart Drive
Broomridge, Stirling FK7 7TR
Scotland, U.K.
Tel: 011-44-1786-816259
Email: mitchvick@btinternet.com

July in Stirling

The month of July has been an excellent time for us, both in the congregation’s work and personally. Despite the summer season and a number of our own people out of town at various times, our worship services have been very good, and attendance has held up remarkably well, with a number of visitors each week. It has been challenging, with John Renwick still not yet fully back to work, and with Dick Carter out of town for an extended period. I have done the majority of the preaching and teaching, and Tristan has covered the Searchers class. We have shared responsibilities in our mid-week classes.

Church News

The church is well, though have been saddened at the new that John and Sandra Fairley will be moving to York in northern England, where they will attend the church at Morley (near Leeds). We will miss them. Tristan and Leslie enjoyed visits from friends back home, and from Leslie’s parents and sister. They will be leaving this week for a short furlough but will be back in mid-September. Isobel and I enjoyed having Robin and Chrissy in Scotland during most of the month, though it was very much a come and go” kind of visit. Since they were here to assess possibilities for their future work in the British Isles, they were very busy visiting and working with churches all over the country, but we still enjoyed the time we had with them. The church enjoyed hearing Robin preach on his first Sunday with us, as well as his song leading on the final Sunday before returning to the States. The weeks ahead will be demanding.

Camps Tayside and Heatherbell

Summer means youth camp time, and both Scottish camps, Heatherbell and Tayside, had excellent sessions. Robin and Chrissy helped at Camp Tayside and really enjoyed their week with kids throughout the Scottish congregations. Reports from Camp Heatherbell were also good.

FriendSpeak Continues

Our FriendSpeak outreach continues in a revised format for the summer. Since so many of our regular helpers have been out of town at times, we have met regularly with Danny, Jie, and Carey on Tuesday afternoons (Tristan and Leslie also meet with them on Fridays). Several weeks ago we enjoyed a BBQ with the students at our house, and the group enjoyed trying a Scottish game, Crokinole. We will be sorry to see Carey return to Taiwan at the end of August, though Danny and Jie hope to remain longer. We were pleased, and a bit surprised, when three new potential FriendSpeak readers came with Carey last Sunday, two from Taiwan and one from Germany. We will not be able to begin work with them in FriendSpeak until mid-September, but for the moment we are encouraging them to keep coming to church and Searchers’ class each week, which they seem keen to do.

Family News

Isobel and I have had a busy month with Robin and Chrissy’s visit. We really enjoyed having them here and managed to get a few days off with them, despite the busy schedule. Isobel has been doing some extra hospital shifts to cover for staff vacation time. Hannah is now finishing her second clinical placement, in family practice and getting ready for the next phase. Laura and Clay are also well and preparing for Clay’s return to teaching this week.

We are so very thankful for your interest in the church in Scotland. We continue to ask you to pray for us. The weeks ahead will be demanding.

Yours in the Lord’s service,
Mitch and Isobel Vick

Dear Fellow Servants,

The past month has been filled with challenges – some good, some unfortunate.

CHALLENGES

On the good side, I have been doing some long planned renovating of my living room, and the disorder of such a project is always a challenge. However I have had lots of help from my fellow Christians, though I tried to spread out my requests so I didn’t get on people’s nerves. Someone was always available for the task at hand – whether scraping old paper off the walls, removing floor tiles, moving furniture or painting. MARK was especially helpful. Together we papered the ceiling, re-plastered the walls and put down new wood flooring – all in three weeks between my regular teaching and counselling sessions and Mark’s packing for their upcoming move. Yesterday I decided, however, that enough is enough. I will finish the edging to cover the heating pipes sometime this winter at my leisure. But even without that done, the room is very livable and refreshingly light compared with before.

Sadly, the list of unfortunate challenges is longer.
–Twice in one week we had very heavy rains which left me with an inch of water in the basement. The second time, I went down during the storm to see just where it was coming in and am hoping that the plumber will get the necessary changes made before the next downpour. I hesitate to complain, however. One neighbor’s basement had over five feet of water! It was quite a storm!

–In the total confusion of the renovation, I lost me keys. I’m still hoping to find them in some box, but I’ve changed all the locks just in case. It was not a good feeling that some stranger might be able to get in easily.

–The one remodelling task I didn’t do myself was floating (levelling) the floor, but while the workers were doing it, they left the front door open because they were constantly coming in and out with supplies while working upstairs. I assume it was during this time that my laptop was stolen from my office on the ground floor. There were no signs of a break-in, and I think that if it had something to do with the lost keys, they would have taken more. They only took what could be grabbed very quickly. Fortunately, I had just backed up my data two days before – except my emails. And fortunately, I had Jim’s computer upstairs, but I still have to reinstall lots of things and am still trying to figure out what passwords I need to change.

Needless to say, I have been feeling very vulnerable again, but actually, each of these situations could have been a great deal worse. God is good!

PRAYER ITEMS OF A MORE SPIRITUAL NATURE

The various Bible studies I mentioned in the last letter continue, and besides studying with RUEDIGER, Simone’s husband JUERGEN is now coming to worship regularly.
KATIA, who was baptized in September last year, has been bringing her mother to worship. In fact her mother even came twice when Katia did not.
AMADEUS, a young man from the Frankfurt church, is in Bremen for three months working on a project that is part of his Master’s thesis. He is a very pleasant addition to the church.
MARK and KAREN have finished their two years of language study in Bremen and are moving the end of August to Chemnitz to help with the work there.
DAVID, who was in the hospital with Jim, no longer returns my phone calls. It is so sad to experience someone so close to standing before the Lord refusing to even consider the possibility that He is.
“SPIRITUAL MILK” – I’ve nearly completed a 12 lesson series for new Christians that I have been doing with Simone. The next task is to work the lessons over a bit so that someone else could use them, too.

USA TRIP

I will be making a trip to the Chicago area, Memphis and Searcy in a few weeks to visit some of my supporting churches and also to attend the Harding Lectureship. Continuing to counsel and teach during these past difficult months has helped me greatly, but I have had a hard time concentrating in my own personal study. So I have decided it is time to fill up my own “tank” and will use this opportunity to do so. Of course, I will also stop by to see the grandchildren in Florida on my way home, but you probably guessed that, right? I will be with them for the anniversary of Jim’s death.

In closing there is something I would like to share with you that I rediscovered on Jim’s computer. This was the last sermon series he preached before getting sick.

The Heart of the Worshiper
Part I: A Heart filled with godly longing
Part II: A Heart filled with godly feelings
Part III: A Heart on its Way to God

He preached Part III exactly one month before the end of his journey.

Thank you very much for your continued prayers. Gott mit euch!

Your fellow servant,
Elsa Springer