yay, Candace is pregnant... with our third. and a due date somewhere around July we think.

yeah, thats it... Ive not got anything more profound to say. Praise God, and pray for a healthy 9 months for mom and baby.

thursday night after everything was over, it all needed to be packed up and put back on trucks... so we worked hard to tear down the entire stage, all the lights, all the sound, all the skate ramps, chairs etc. The night started out with lots of people, but as we went into the morning hours, the group got smaller and smaller.

Because of my experience with Club Worship, and things like this, I was determined to work hard till the very end... there is camaraderie and a team work spirit that happens at the very end of something like this. I connected with some of the local men that night in a special way - really great guys. After a hard night of physical work, some of them had to go to work in just an hour or so after we were done.

I think it was around 4am till we finished... something like that.

 

Since we needed to vacate our rooms at the YWAM base, we found a place to crash at the Laviers home. Coming in at 4am, we were all tired and dirty people.

David & Geraldine Laviers are a wonderfully hospitable couple with an imaculate home. It was really great to be with them even for a short time.

After sleeping as long as I could (10:30am) I came downstairs to some tea and great conversation with Geraldine. We talked about the Lord, and Scotland and stuff... They are Gideons, and passionate about spreading the Word of God. They also gave us each one of the new pocket testaments - really nice bibles. It was great to hear about their church (Central - in downtown Kilmarnick) and the work that is going on there - especially for young people.

Eventually, Heidi joined us, and then Nate. So we had some breakfast.

This picture was taken much later, after our little run to the mall... Nate absolutely needed to buy some fancy shoes - I think he has issues! :)

 
 

I dropped the team off at Glasgow airport... and the camera flew with them to London, where this next picture was taken. In front of Big Ben.

 

I stayed an additional 3 days and just sort of relaxed and got caught up with the Hamers, and kids...and mom of course. I played some PS2 games with Liam, Got to lead worship at Alva Baptist Church, where Marc and Julie will be serving for at least the next 6 months. Got to experience Guy Fawkes night with burning this guy on a huge bonfire - with the entire town of Bridge of Allan. I also enjoyed some lively conversation with Dave, one of Marc and Julies friends. Dave, Louise, and their little girl Lilli, are lots of fun.

anyway,

The team and I had the identical same layover in London - 14 hours from 9:30pm-11:30am Maybe I will try to give some more details another time. I walked around basically all night - just checking out the sights, sounds, and smells of London. 

the altar call for GX - where many decisions to follow Christ were made. I went around with the camera afterward, and a local lady went with me I think her name was Anne... in any case, we interviewed young people who made decisions... and it was interesting to hear them share about their experience. One guy probably around 17 or 18 said that he just felt a strange physical warmth fill his whole body. He actually had a hard time expressing himself because he was emotional. Another girl probably 17 shared how that she had known about God, but never had really followed him, and tonight she decided to follow Christ in a new way. She had seen one of the earlier performances (I think the GX satellite outreach at Stewarton)

There were tons of kids in the 10-13 range - and it was hard to tell how sincere they were... but at least there was a local link to follow up with them, and encourage them to be part of something at a local church.

 

one of the slower times at the registration booth.... at its peak, there was craziness trying to get all of the volunteers and everyone registered, and signed in. Stewards (ushers), local links (prayer counsellors,) security, everything was so well organized.
This is where Julie, Mel, Heidi, and Nate spent most of their time around the big events.

 

lighting was pretty impressive when it was all set up. Im sure that it all looks better on video, but i dont feel like capturing and all the work it would take to post it here.

 

This is the room back at the seamill center where we stayed - where we often had devotions in the morning - and the chance to share what God was teaching us.

Many of my wow moments came from reading Phillipians... It was important to do this every day, even when we were exhausted... cuz you gotta keep your armor on you know.

This was a beautiful space (it used to be an old peoples home) and is called the Arran Room because you could look out the window and see the island of Aaran across the "firth"

 
 

thursday, the GX team was rockin it. The hip hop dancers were good and the skating, and bmx bike stuff was pretty impressive, here are some pics.

some pyros going off behind the dancers... nice pic nate.
 

ohhhh yesss... more fire please!

 
 
  

wed nights outreach was with Island Breeze - and the most impressive outfits we dont have good pictures of... but the fire dancing was pretty amazing...

They did different ethnic dances from different islands - and taught different greetings and such. Lots of great percussion and beautiful costumes.

This was the night that the power was cut to the venue, and the show had to go on late. I was really amazed that everything went pretty smooth despite the power being out. There were lots of flashlights in use, and I guess there was emergency power in the bathrooms and such, so it all worked out. It was still a great night, and I remember interviewing local links that felt that the ones they talked to on this night seemed even more sincere.

 
 

This is the place where the teams (and us) ate some of our meals - when we were in the area. This community center is in Fenwick (pronounced fennick) next to the church where we worshipped on sunday. In this place, all the different teams would come together to eat in between their school outreaches and setting up in the main venue.

We also used this space to make 1500 lanyard badges (you can see a pile of red ones on the table in the foreground) it was an attempt to organize students on the busses - and to help them get back on the right bus. I'm not sure the method really worked, or was implemented correctly - probably it was too last minute.

 

The wonderful volunteers who fed us. There must have been an army of ladies (and sometimes men) cooking and doing dishes and keeping the teams well fed. Wow, what hospitality... we were working hard to serve them through this big event, and they were working hard to serve us and making it all happen. I tried to constantly thank them, since the food was great... but I dont think our gratitude was ever equal to what they put out.

We often had some type of soup or sandwiches, fruit and yummy desserts.

  

tuesday night was team extreme... you can see us setting up the stage. If you look closely, you can see me helping this huge guy (i think he was from Tonga?) We are setting up the block for them to smash up.

 

rolling a car is pretty dramatic. One guy did it by himself. the other guys were there just to spot him. Someone should have cleaned out the trunk a bit better cuz all this junk sort of flew out the window.

 

As you can see, the altar call was packed out - with hundreds making first time committments and rededications and stuff. The testimonies from these big guys were pretty powerful.

 
  

the night after our first big night (with team extreme) it was really late till we were done at the venue. But never too late to head out to the ASDA (pronounced aazzda) which is now owned by Walmart - and opened 24 hours a day. This one was in Kilmarnick. We were famished, and went in to buy some frozen pizzas around midnight sometime - which we proceeded to take back to the base, and bake - yummy.

Nate was really giddy about eating his pizza, and this strange flavor of ice cream that he got - which tasted exactly like cake batter.

 

more skate ramp building pics
 
 

Being in a place of such beauty - it was impossible to not worship God. One day we did our morning devotions on this beach, and it was really good stuff. Way too short a time though. Much more work to do back at the main venue.

  

this is our best team picture...

there is a bit of a story, in that Heidi had found a good spot for a group picture, and we finally had a couple minutes to get there, but then it started to rain, and get cloudy and stuff... we could hardly believe it... so we decided to go anyway. When we got there, we took a couple pictures and all of a sudden, the sun started shining, a rainbow appeared, and we all thanked God.

 

look closely in the background, you can see a rainbow. It is a little bit hard to see, but it comes down right in between Kairsie and myself

 

this is the seamill center - a YWAM base - a huge facility that was mostly empty for the week we were there because all the teams being trained were sent out on outreaches for the week.

 

this is the Rowallan Center, beginning to be filled up for the nights events. Because of parking, and facilities, etc, the maximum that the place could hold was 2000 people... which we maxed out on thursday night (and pretty much filled on the other nights)

  

finally I am getting to post some more scotland pictures.

once the main outreach days hit us, our schedule was such that posting was difficult, especially to upload pictures and stuff...

now that we are back in the states, and I have a more solid internet connection, and I have all of the pictures on a dvd, so it is much easier to post.

I will do my best to remember what was happening when the pics were taken.

below are some shots of unloading the skate ramps, and setting up the stage... quite a bit of work... and we worked closely with the IWT teams, and the local people to get it done.

 
 
 
  

there are some more fun pics and stuff from scotland on Marc and Julies blog. heres a link to make it easier
Marc and Julies blog marcandjulie.blogspot.com

also, see the IWT web site here

http://www.impactworldtour.co.uk/

the following statistics don't begin to measure the spiritual results - and the things that God was doing in the hearts and lives of the people impacted. But it does give you an idea of the scope of the event we were a part of in scotland.

It also is not a good measure of how these teams had an impact even on the host familys they stayed with. I heard so many powerful stories, it is hard to put it all in words here... "this week in the schools in Kilmarnick, it's cool to talk about Jesus"

I know that some of the local links are really excited about the opportunity to disciple some of the young people who made decisions for Christ.

anyway, here are some statistics... compiled by Julie

2006 Scotland Tour
Events
44 school events
26 schools
20 churches involved
3 church based outreaches
3 youth club events
1 prison outreach
countless presentations and sermons in churches
3 satellite (1 night, 1 team) outreach events
4 hub (full performance and stage show) outreach events

IWT Team Members
27 Team Xtreme team members
13 Island Breeze team members
6 Death & Desire team members
24 GX International team members
17 Tech Team team members
32 Support Staff team members
5 visitors

Attendance
4950 students at school events – conservative estimate
417 at Tillicoultry satellite event
400 at Stewarton satellite event
43 at prison outreach
hub night attendance based on sections filled but most likely it was much more as people were standing all around:
1500 at 1st hub night
1000 at 2nd hub night
2000 at 3rd hub night

Recorded Responses
387 First-time Commitments
103 Rededications
112 Others – for prayer, to receive bibles, to find out more
602 total recorded responses (more than half under the age of 18)

Bits and Pieces
50 stewards (ushers)
145 Local Links (altar counsellors) in Kilmarnock area
11 Local Links in Tillicoultry
over 1000 bibles distributed by Gideons in Kilmarnock area events
99 bibles distributed in Tillicoultry
78 steel bars bent by strongmen in TX
4 hot water bottles burst by TX strongmen
6 baseball bats broken by strongmen
280 bricks shattered by strongmen
1 amazingly large skate park built in hours
more than £55,000 raised from the locals

If anyone was following day by day posts from scotland, sorry… things got nuts for a couple of days, and time to blog was non-existant, or rather, sleep became a priority – just to survive… in any case, this is an attempt to catch up. I know that the stories wont be fresh, but hopefully it will spark some thoughts.

I would post pics, but Nate has all the good team pictures on his camera, which is back in the states by now… I will update and post some pictures next week.

Tuesday, the first day of IWT Impact World Tour.
There were probably 1500 people in the Rowallan center to see Team Extreme. Nate, Heidi, and Mel helped out in the “office” or registration area. Which meant that we had to be early, and stay late from each of the events… but that is cool… but it made for late nights. Kairsie was a steward (like a cross between an usher and security) and had her work cut out for her with tons of rowdy young people (some call them NEDs non-educated delinquent. I spent my time shooting video for a future volunteer video focused on IWT in Scotland. I think it was one of the best jobs available because I got to hear lots of awesome stories from local links (prayer counselors, etc. ) God was really moving throughout the entire event… I will give some more details later.

Tuesday night was a late one, we were sort of pumped and hungry when we left (around 11pm) so we stopped at the ASDA (walmart) got some frozen pizzas, some other snacks, and headed back to the base… I think it was 2pm till we all got to bed.

Wednesday we were able to sleep in a bit. We all went to the venue early, and stayed late all week. Except Thursday we had to be there at 7am to help set up the massive skate ramps and stuff. Wednesday night the teams included Island Breeze (the Polynesian dancers) and Death and Desire (hard core band)

Thursday moring, we all got up early to help setup the massive skate ramps. So I think I had like 4 hours of sleep or something. After lunch, we headed back to the Seamill base to check out and take a short nap, and pack and stuff… it was great to have that space but it was entirely too short…. Then we were back to the venue to help run the final night with GX international… the skateboard, BMX, Hip Hop dancers etc.

I was pretty impressed with the DJ, he spun a block of trance music as people came into the show. I was also impressed with the dancers for the most part – the routines were huge, the breakdanceing was well done, and the stage lighting, and video stuff was really great. The BMXer Thomas was amazing… but the boarders kept missing their tricks, and blaming it on wet ramps… so who knows.

In any case, each night there was an altar call with response. The followup
Links with local people, and hand-writing postcards to the people who made first time commitments.

It was great to hear stories of how God was affecting change throughout the entire event, pre-event, during the event, behind the scenes in the churches, and schools cet.. I would like to write more, but I am falling asleep… will update another day