John Murdo Davidson Testimony

[0:00] When James was speaking, he said, it's all of Christ. And that is right. And when we stand up and give our testaments, we have to be careful that we don't make it about ourselves.

[0:16] There's always a great danger in that. And that is true. But we've been called to testify as God's people. We have a new song in our mouth as children of God.

[0:31] And we're to convey the gospel to all who will listen. Now, as children, as we sat in Sunday school, and as we sat even in day school under Christian teachers, we memorised the Catechism.

[0:59] We memorised the Psalms. And I remember doing that in Carly Primary School. We had been living there for about two or three years, my dad and my mum then.

[1:10] And there was only three brothers. There's four brothers now. There was three brothers, myself, Lewis and Scott. I was in primary three.

[1:20] Scott was in primary two. No, Lewis was in primary two and Scott was in primary one. We were all in one classroom in Carly Primary School. There was only about 15 or so kids in that school.

[1:35] And we had a Christian teacher called Mrs. McCauley. Mrs. McCauley was about, as far as I was concerned, about 200 years old.

[1:45] Mrs. McCauley was one of the most holiest and most beautiful women I have ever met.

[2:00] Mrs. McCauley would teach us the Psalms all morning, the Catechism all morning from nine o'clock, and what I remember, till lunchtime.

[2:12] No more, no word of English or maths or any of that. No, no, no. And we all learned all that. We learned the word of God in school. You know, we had to go home with a wee card with the Psalm.

[2:25] I think Psalm 40 was one of them. If I remember correctly. And Psalm 100 and learning and wrote memory. You know, wrote memory. And in the afternoon, Mrs. McCauley used to give us English and maths.

[2:39] And she used to set the workout to Mrs. McCauley. And Mrs. McCauley would set the workout. And Mrs. McCauley would stand back behind her bed. And she would stand like this.

[2:51] And Mrs. McCauley's mouth would be moving. As she shut her eyes. And she would go like that. And I had no clue what this wonderful woman, Mrs. McCauley, was doing.

[3:07] Not then did I know. I would learn later what Mrs. McCauley was doing. As a family, we moved to Barbos.

[3:19] I was from Plankham 4. Moved to Barbos where we settled as a family. Barbos are... I have more of a memory of Barbos than I do of Carly. I remember Mrs. McCauley. But we didn't go to church as a family in Carly.

[3:32] But when we went to Barbos, we started going to church as a family. For periods of time. Not all the time. Okay. But my dad used to kick us out the door every Sunday afternoon to go to Sunday school.

[3:45] And I often tease her that it's because the Grand Prix is on. And he wants to be Sunday quiet. I'll send the four boys out to Sunday school. But we went to Sunday school to the Barbos Church of Scotland.

[3:56] Hector Morrison was the minister then. And as children, we were surrounded by godly Christian teachers. Sunday school teachers and teachers.

[4:09] Mrs. Smith was my new teacher. Mrs. Smith was a wee bit more strict than Mrs. McCauley. But she was another beautiful, holy Christian. And she used to teach us the Bible and all about Jesus as well.

[4:23] From primary four and five, I think it was. Mrs. Smith. So that influence in my life and in the life of my brothers and many boys and girls.

[4:36] These women were women of prayer. I had two grannies who were women of prayer. Not that I knew it. And I have many, many, many, many happy memories of being around Christians in Barbos.

[4:54] A lot of neighbours were Christians. And my friends there, mothers and fathers, were Christians. It was wonderful. It was great. It was great. And even though our house was not Christian, so to speak, we still respected the church.

[5:11] And we still, we weren't allowed to have Sunday and things like that. You know, we knew right from, we were taught right from wrong in the home. You know, we really were. So private school was wonderful.

[5:22] And I remember many experiences in church and in Sunday school of the nearness of God. And listening and listening and I often look back to my life and I wonder, I could have been converted then as a child.

[5:37] You know. But when I went to first year and I went to the Nicholson Institute, I turned my back on God. I turned my back on Christian people.

[5:51] I turned my back on going to Sunday school or youth fellowship, whatever it was. From first year onwards, I had no more word of God. And when I turned my back on God, my life went into a mess.

[6:03] Even in secondary school. I remember going through secondary school and my teachers were despairing. They were saying, John Bardo, you've got so much potential, but you're just making a mess of it.

[6:16] And this was in third year, fourth year. No more word of Jesus. No more word of church. Nothing.

[6:27] At the age of 16, I started working on the fishing boats. I was still in fifth year and sixth year in school, but I was actually skiving school to go fishing. Which wasn't a very good move.

[6:39] It wasn't the widest decision of my life, to be honest with you. But I would go fishing. And as a 16-year-old boy going fishing and making quite a lot of money at that age, it wasn't good for me.

[6:52] It wasn't good for me. So from the age of 16, 17, 18, and I'm not going to recall the things we did, the things I did, because it brings no glory to God.

[7:05] Not going to glorify sin. From the age of about 16 to the age of about 30, I was like the prodigal son. For much of that time, I lived out of a bag.

[7:19] In that time, I worked on nearly 20 fishing boats. From Grimsby to Hull, all the way up to Orton, to Harris, to Lewis.

[7:30] I was wandering about like the prodigal son from pier to pier to pier. And I was running away from all my problems. You see, I wasn't the problem. Everything else was the problem for me.

[7:47] That's what I did. I worked on the fishing boats. And I had no word of God, no word of Christ.

[7:58] I didn't even know a Christian anymore. I knew one or two from Babelus. But I was never in Babelus. I was all over the place. And with the life I was leading, working on the boats, I lost a number of friends who were fishermen.

[8:18] Young men, who were fishermen, who were working with me. In the space of about 10 years, I probably lost maybe about five. Some drowned.

[8:32] Some died because of drugs. Some died because of drink. Some died because they smashed their cars. And I remember standing over open graves of my friends.

[8:47] And it didn't touch me. It didn't touch me. That's how spiritually dead I was. I was absolutely spiritually dead.

[9:01] And I was miserable. I was. I was lost. I was miserable. And because of the lifestyle I was leading, many of my friends wouldn't have anything to do with me.

[9:16] Because I was that crazy. Because of the lifestyle. And then I would go somewhere else. Just wandering. From place to place to place to place.

[9:29] And I look back now. And I see. That the Lord was keeping me. And protecting me even then.

[9:42] And I did not know it. I did not know it. I was ignorant of it. I was ignorant of it. I reached the age of 30.

[9:52] I'm 41 now. 11 years ago. 12 years ago. 2005. My dad's here. My dad hadn't seen my dad for months. Probably years. I don't know.

[10:03] I can't remember. And my dad had heard that I was back in Stornoway. I'd been working on an east coast boat somewhere. And I'd come back to Stornoway. And things were bad.

[10:15] And my dad sent one of my friends. One of his friends. Shuggy. Shuggy passed from town. He says, Shuggy, have you seen Jodo? He's about Stornoway somewhere. Go to the pub. See where he is.

[10:26] I don't know where he is. He's sleeping rough somewhere. Go and find him. Shuggy spent, I think, a couple of days, didn't he? Trying to find me. And Shuggy found me. And Shuggy says, you're coming to Harris.

[10:38] Your dad is wanting to see you. He's worried about you. And my mum and barbers was worried about me. But I didn't care. I didn't care. I didn't care whether I lived or died.

[10:52] Shuggy found me. And I said to Shuggy, the only way I'll go to Harris with you is if you buy me a bottle of vodka. Bought me a bottle of vodka.

[11:02] I went to Harris. I would have gone to the moon. Came to Harris. And my dad did so much for me. I am so grateful to my father for all that he did for me.

[11:17] Never once did my dad or my mum disown me. They should act. But they didn't. Came down and said, right, Jodo, you're going to have to get your life in order.

[11:28] You're going to end up dead. You're going to kill yourself. So my father got me a job down in Stockinish. I had worked down in Stockinish before.

[11:39] I met a number of years before with Callum. Callum was a drug squad, ex-drug squad police officer who bought a fishing boat.

[11:49] And he had never been fishing before. And he needed somebody who knew how he was fishing. So I went to Callum and I thought, this isn't going to work. This ain't going to work. And I'll tell you something.

[12:02] I've never had a better boss. We got on so well. And for about two, maybe three years, some of you's nervous. Some of you's normally nervous. I managed to stay out of the pub.

[12:14] I managed to stay away from bad things. I got myself a wee house and scalping for a wee while. And I looked, it was nice. I secluded myself away and I hid myself away. But I was lonely. I was miserable.

[12:25] But I was determined. I'm not going to clean myself up. I'm going to be a new man, I thought. I'm going to do this myself. So for a couple of years, I managed to stay relatively sober.

[12:41] But then one time, 2004, I think it was, I ended up back in the same shape I was before. And I was drinking.

[12:52] And it was around about the time of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. I remember that. 2004. Tsunami happened. It was at Boxing Day. Also, does anyone remember?

[13:04] It was at Boxing Day. Well, I was in that much of a mess. I didn't know about the tsunami until halfway through January. I tried to clean myself up.

[13:14] It didn't work. It didn't work. I couldn't do it. I'd lost my job. I had never been sacked before in my life. I'd been a proud fisherman and that wasn't good.

[13:25] I used to walk before I was sacked. Such was the pride of my heart. I was sacked. Calum couldn't put up with me any longer. I wasn't there.

[13:36] And when I was there, I was taking fits on the boat. And he was having to take me in to the doctor. And it was a mess. And I was like, what am I going to do now? What am I going to do now?

[13:49] So I was thinking of packing a bag and heading back off to England. Back down to Grimsby or Hull or anywhere but here. And I'll just leave my problems in Tarbert and I'll sort myself out down there.

[14:06] And Lord had other ideas. I was living with my dad. We were living in Akron's flat. And I remember I was about three weeks kind of sober.

[14:20] And I remember about two or three months before that, I used to read a lot when I was in a good shape. I used to be a reader. And I remember I had read everything on my bookshelf.

[14:31] And I remember thinking to myself, do I have a Bible? Because there was always Bibles in the home. There was always. And I went through my bookshelf and I didn't have a Bible.

[14:42] And I thought, no, that's not very good. Because I was just wanting to read it because I had read everything else. But I couldn't find a Bible. No more word of it. Never thought about it.

[14:53] Got sacked. And then. And I remember I was about two weeks sober. It was May. May 2005. May 2005. I had a wee bit of money left over.

[15:07] I kind of sobered up. And I was like, right, I'm going to do this. I remember I had gone up to Barnes to see my mum. My mum was worried about me as well.

[15:18] And I came back to Harris. It was the day of the Scottish Cup final. Celtic against Dundee United. That's how I remember. 2005. I came back down.

[15:31] I'm still not feeling right. I wasn't feeling right. And I came back to town. I met my dad down the Westloch. And my dad says, go home and watch the football. Take your mind off things.

[15:41] Go and watch the Cup final. And I went to watch the Cup final. And I was watching the first half. And I was thinking I wasn't feeling right.

[15:53] There was something wrong. Well, by halftime, I was on my knees. Sweating. And by halftime, I was on my knees crying out to God.

[16:03] Lord, God, if you were there, help me. If you were there, please help me. Please, please help me. And my dad came in and saw me asking. Crying out on my knees.

[16:16] And I did not know what was happening to me. I know now it was conviction of sin. Intense. It was on my knees. And I knew that I had no hope.

[16:27] I knew that if I had died there and then, I would have gone to hell. I knew that. I was afraid. I don't know how long I was on my knees for. Two hours, was it?

[16:37] An hour. I can't. I can't remember. My dad was saying I was that bad, I was banging my head against the wall. At six or seven o'clock at night, I remember becoming calm.

[16:53] And I remember thinking to myself, what on earth was all around it? And I asked my dad. And my dad says, do you know what you were doing? And I says, I don't know. You were crying out to God.

[17:04] I thought I was losing my mind. I thought I was going insane. That's what I thought. And I was saying to my dad, will you take me to hospital? I need to go to hospital. I just want an injection to go to sleep.

[17:16] I can't do this anymore. I didn't care. My mother died. I didn't care. I was sitting there. And we were watching telly. It was my dad making something to eat.

[17:27] And I couldn't eat it. I drank a pint of milk. I remember drinking milk. I was thirsty. I was covered in sweat. I didn't know what was happening to me. I was afraid. I was confused. I was...

[17:38] I just didn't know. And we were watching Test the Nation. A program called Test the Nation. And we both said... I wasn't watching. I was just staring ahead.

[17:49] And my dad says to me about 10 o'clock. He says, right, Jodo, go to bed. Because I was just sleeping when I was there. Just sleeping in. It didn't matter. Go to bed. Go to bed. Go and get a good night's sleep.

[18:00] And feel better in the morning. It was a Saturday night. Saturday night. And I remember sitting there. And I was about to put the telly off. My dad went to bed. And in an instant.

[18:13] In one moment. My life changed. I was sitting there. And this presence. This presence came into the room that I cannot describe. And from being down like that.

[18:27] I was up that ground. And I knew. That this was the Lord striving with me. I knew. I didn't have to ask. Didn't have to ask.

[18:39] And for the next three or four hours. And I'm not going to go into details here. For the next three or four hours. I met the Lord. And the Lord was dealing with me.

[18:53] God was speaking to me. God reminded me. The prayer of the prayers of Mrs. McCormick. I was sitting on the edge of my bed.

[19:05] And Mrs. McCormick. As if she was right in front of me. Standing there like that. And then I realised. What she was doing. The Lord showed me.

[19:16] That this woman had been praying. Praying. For me. For my brothers. For all of the kids. And I remember. Sitting on the edge of my bed.

[19:29] And I remember. The Lord saying to me. Do you realise now. What Jesus has done for you. Do you realise now. Say thank you to Jesus. Say thank you to Jesus.

[19:42] And I was sitting on the edge of my bed. I was in my pants. I was just going to bed. I was sitting there. And I was saying. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.

[20:20] I was told to pray. Pray for your family. Because in the very presence. Of almighty God. And he taught me to pray that night.

[20:34] For my loved ones. I remember even standing. Needing the toilet. I didn't want to go to the toilet. Because the Lord would go.

[20:46] I knew I needed the toilet. And I said. Please can I go to the toilet. I will go to the toilet now. That's the truth. I didn't want the Lord to go. I didn't want him to go. And I was exhausted.

[20:56] But I. I'm not going to go into details about it. But I was told what to do with my life. That night. I was told everything.

[21:07] That I had to give up that night. The Lord didn't have to see. And I remember the Lord showing me. Not telling me.

[21:18] But showing me. I saw. I saw a poop. In front of me. The only time I had ever gone to church. Was for funerals. And the odd wedding. If anyone would invite me. You know.

[21:30] I saw. I saw this poop. And I saw a collar. A ministerial collar. Hovering over. And I thought. I was wondering. What are you trying to tell me? You know. Go to church.

[21:41] I knew. That I was going to go to church. The next day. I thought. That's what the Lord was telling me. But knowing. Something else. He was telling me. And I was told.

[21:52] Basically. That I was going to ministry. The night I was converted. And I said. No chance. No chance. I'm going to do that. I don't have the qualifications for that.

[22:03] That was my excuse. Because you need higher. Don't you. To do a degree. And the Lord reminded me. Of a time. When I was 18. When I gave up fishing.

[22:15] And I kind of managed. To get my life together. And I went. Back to school. I repeated my sixth year. Because I had spent. Fifth and sixth year at sea. And I went back. And I actually worked. At school. And I came out of.

[22:27] School with three highers. You know. What three highers. Do you need to do. Divinity. Geography. Maybe. English. And history. The very three highers.

[22:40] I needed to get into. Study theology. God's hand. That was about. Three or four hours. And I remember. Actually being told. To go and speak to my dad.

[22:51] Go and speak to your dad. Ask him about it. He'll tell you. And I remember. Walking down. To my dad's bed. We were knocking on the door. And going in. And my dad was with my daily record.

[23:04] And he looked up. And I was told what to say. Do you remember what I said? Dad. God tells me. To tell you. That I'm speaking to him.

[23:15] And everything in the Bible. Is to tell you. And I was told to leave. I was getting tired.

[23:26] It was about two. Three o'clock in the morning. And I remember lying in bed. And I remember the last thing I said to the Lord. A lot more. I said that. But I'm not going to go into details. And the last thing I said was. Lord.

[23:36] Don't let me sleep in for church. Okay. So I fell asleep. And I had the most beautiful sleep I had ever had. And I woke up the next morning. A beautiful May Sunday morning.

[23:48] The sun was just beaming in. And I woke up. And I thought to myself. Wow. What a dream that was. And then it dawned on me. That wasn't a dream.

[24:01] That was not a dream. And then I remembered church. And then I realized. I don't have any clothes for church. All my clothes were lying all over the place dirty. And I was lying in bed.

[24:12] And my wardrobe door was open. And the only thing that was clean was my suit. You know. I used to only care if I wore a suit. It was to a funeral or to court. You know.

[24:23] And there it was. The doors were open. I opened my eyes. And I went to church. I don't have any clothes. And there was my suit in front of me. So I put on my clothes. And I went in. And I said to my dad.

[24:35] My dad was waiting for me. He was just looking at me. Kind of funny. You know. And I says. Dad. I'm going to church. And he says. No you're not. And I says. Yes I am. He says. No you're not.

[24:45] He says. Church is already here. I said. Oh man. It was at 12 o'clock. It used to go down. It was 11. I thought it was 12. Because badness was 12 for years. I thought only church in the world went to the 12.

[24:58] I was 11. It was about 11. Five past 11. And put on my clothes. And I danced along that street. I danced to that church. I was having a new creation. Walking down there.

[25:08] And I was going. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. And I remember walking down the car park toward the church. And I was starting to get nervous. I don't know any of these people. I wouldn't know any Christians.

[25:19] It's terrible. I don't know any of them. I don't know any of them. And I was walking down. I was getting nervous. And I said. Lord make this easy for me. Walking down. And there was a man.

[25:31] Standing at the door. Collecting the money. And collecting his duties at the door. And he saw me walking down the car park. And he had the most beautiful smile across his face that I have ever seen.

[25:45] Angus Alec was standing there. I said. The Lord placed him there. Waiting for me to come down there that day. And Angus Alec took my hand. He passed me a Bible.

[25:56] And he passed me a hymn book. And he guided me in. With my family. My new family into church. And he guided me in. He opened the door. It's not right Angus Alec. And we went in.

[26:08] And he showed me to a seat. And I was saying. Lord please make this easy for me. Here's the local drunk coming to church. Lord make it easy. Everyone's head was down in prayer. I can't remember which one of the elders.

[26:19] One of the elders was praying. I can't remember. And I thought. Thank you Lord. And I thought. When this prayer finishes. And everyone lifts their heads. Everyone's going to look at me.

[26:31] Nobody's back in an island. Apart from Mr. Norman McKeever. In the comfort. And I'll give you the text. What he had. What he had for me.

[26:41] I think it was this text. I'm thinking it was. This is what he had. It was Ephesians chapter 4. And from there she's 17 down to 24.

[26:53] I won't read it all. But I'll read from 21 onwards. Assuming that you have heard about him. And were taught in him. As the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self.

[27:04] Which belongs to your former manner of life. And is corrupt through deceitful desires. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. And to put on your new self. Created after the likeness of God.

[27:16] In true righteousness and holiness. God had given me a new self. Put on your new self. I was a new creation. I knew it.

[27:27] I knew it. And Norman preached the gospel after me. To me. And he never took his eyes off me. For one moment. Honestly. Honestly. I said. I'm not the only one in this church.

[27:37] Come on. So. I didn't know any of it. And I don't want to go on too long. I know. Everyone needs to get home. But. I remember leaving the church.

[27:49] I remember leaving the church. And Norman shaking my hand. And I didn't have a Bible at home. I knew that I didn't have a Bible. So I stole a Bible from the church. I don't know if I ever put it back like this. I stole a Bible.

[28:00] I stole it. I took it home. And I remember the Lord distinctly telling me. The night before. When you read the Bible. Start at Matthew. Meet the Lord Jesus at Matthew. So I went home. And I started reading Matthew.

[28:11] And the words just came alive. I was like. Whoa. This is fantastic. I was devouring this. I think I read the New Testament in one afternoon. I'm reading it. I'm reading it. I'm reading it.

[28:23] And I remember phoning. I said. I'll have to phone people and tell them. So I phoned my mother. And I said. Mom. You'll never guess who I met last night. And she started racking off. I looked at names. And I says. No.

[28:34] I met God. I met God. Now I was not the kind of person. I don't think anyway. Who would phone somebody on a Sunday afternoon. And say. I met with God. I didn't talk about God.

[28:45] I didn't talk about any of these things. I phoned my friends. I phoned my brother. And I says. I met with God. And from that day on. What can I say?

[29:01] Christ changed me. Christ changed me. Carried on working and tired about everything. I was telling everyone about it.

[29:12] I think it was. It was a big thing. Wasn't it? It was tea doing. Going to church. You know. So. That day. That day on the Sunday. I went to. And this book killer was saying.

[29:24] Come. We've got a fellowship on. Wasn't it? We've got a fellowship on. And I thought. Alright. Yeah. Come along. Because it was Gallic at that. That's a fellowship afterwards. Yeah. Okay. I went down. And. At the fellowship. People started asking me.

[29:36] Why. You know. What's taking me here. You know. And. I started telling them. Everything that had happened to me. The night before. And they were looking at me. As if I was mad. Because. I actually thought. That the way.

[29:46] Everyone comes to Christ. Was in the way. That. I was brought to Christ. And then I realised. No. No. Because I was asking them.

[29:58] I would ask Angus. I would ask Angus. Tell me your story. Tell me your story. You know. You know. Not everyone. As James said. Is converted. Overnight. Not everyone.

[30:12] Is converted. Overnight. That's the way. The Lord dealt with me. For whatever reason. I don't know why. I was told. To tell my story. But.

[30:23] It was all about Christ. I never told anyone. About the ministry. Apart from my dad. And one or two people. But a year or two afterwards. And Norman. Angus Alec knew.

[30:34] I never told him. But he knew somebody. Angus Alec knew. So I went to tell Norman. And I started studying. I met Dawn. And my wife. My beautiful wife. About a year or two later.

[30:47] And I. I never. I didn't know Dawn. Dawn was from Storway. And I had never met her before. Apparently. Because I didn't kind of hang around. In her circles. She had been a Christian. Pretty much all her life.

[30:58] You know. She was too sensible. For me to go anywhere near. You know. She wouldn't go anywhere near me. You know. So I met Dawn. And I realized. She said to me. Oh. We've met before.

[31:09] And I said. No we haven't. We've met before. We sat together. On a plane. When we were both. On climbing seven. And heading for the faith mission camp. And I went.

[31:20] Oh yeah. And you've been following me. I might have ever said. And she remembers. Like whoa. And I says. Whoa. I had met my wife. Years and years and years before.

[31:32] You know. And I remember. Going out to that faith mission camp. And I remember. The presence of Christ there. As they were teaching us. You know. And I was thinking. Why didn't I. Commit my life to Christ then.

[31:45] You know. But that wasn't God's plan. And then we went. Don and I. Went off. I went off to. In my house. To do. Study theology. For the first year.

[31:57] First year I did. Out in HTC. And then. I came back. To do a little bit of fishing. Just to fund me. Through college. And. You know. And. And since the day I was converted.

[32:09] It's not been easy. We're two beautiful kids. The Lord has blessed us with. Daniel and Darlene. You know. And. The Lord has been good to us.

[32:21] But. It's been tough as well. You know. It's been hard. There's a spell there. And the kids were a wee bit younger. When they were unwell. They were taking epileptic fits. And we were back and forth.

[32:32] In York Hill for about two years. In epilepsy. And we were praying about this. And praying about this. We were thinking. We're going to grow up. And we're not going to be well. We were taking so many seizures.

[32:42] All the time. But then. We were praying about it. And the seizures disappeared. And God willing. Praise God. But God willing. We will stay away. Life hasn't been easy.

[32:53] I took eight years. To do an honors degree. Now that's a record. Isn't it? You know. Eight years. It's eight. They did good. And I'll tell you.

[33:04] There's many times. I thought. Oh Lord. I can't do this. I can't. This is too hard. This is too hard. I was taking a year out. I'm going fishing. And then going back to college. A year out. And then for my honors year.

[33:15] I got a job in Shobos Mill. And I did it then. And then. I was in the high church. And of course. There's the spirit. And all the rest of it. And I was invited into the APC. I had a couple of friends in the APC.

[33:26] And they invited me to join. Will you go down to Dundee and preach? This was a couple of years ago. The Dole. The minister's wanting a holiday. And I says. Yeah. We'll go down and have a holiday. So I joined the APC.

[33:37] I was invited in. And I joined. And they called us to Dundee. Which was a great honor. To go down there. It's different. It's hard. It's a hard ministry. But I covet your prayers.

[33:48] I really do. I covet your prayers. We're trying to reach out to Muslims down there. In Dundee. It's very difficult to get a Dundonian to go to church. But at an international cafe sometimes we have 30 Muslims coming through the doors on a Tuesday morning.

[34:05] We are teaching in English. But we're also giving them the gospel. In a subtle way. And they keep coming back. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

[34:16] I want to thank you. For welcoming both myself and Dawn and the kids here this weekend. It's been a real honor and a privilege. And I implore you once again.

[34:31] If anyone is without Christ here tonight. Put your trust and faith in it. Don't be such a fool as I was.

[34:43] I was a fool for you. Tell me my back. Tell me my back. But the Christian life as we know is not an easy life. It's not easy.

[34:55] The Lord has not promised us a walk in the path. He will test us. He will put us through trials. But he will never leave us nor forsake us. That's the promise. The promise.

[35:07] And we lay hold of that promise. And I rejoice when I come back to Stornoway. And when I come back to Harrison. And I see some of the people I used to hang around with.

[35:19] Coming to faith and being converted. And down in Dundee I hear of other people coming to faith. And being converted from Stornoway. And I rejoice. The spirit of God is moving. The spirit of God is moving.

[35:31] We must continue to pray. That more people that we love around us will come to faith in Jesus. It's not about me.

[35:43] It's not about ourselves. It's all about Christ. And Christ alone. And it's so true. And as we looked at Gethsemane. And we saw tonight the anguish that we went through to purchase our redemption.

[35:58] And as we heard from James this morning. The cross which the world thinks of as falling here. And as a shameful thing. It's actually a victorious thing. It's a victorious thing.

[36:11] And every time a sinner comes to faith. It's a victorious thing. God's kingdom is being extended. Are you going to enter in? Thank you.

[36:29] Lord it's been such an honour and a privilege for us to be here this weekend. Lord it's all about Jesus. Lord he is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

[36:44] The one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. And Father we thank you for all that he has done for us.

[36:54] Gracious Lord greater love has no man than this. And he lay down his life for his friends. Gracious Lord we pray that you would continue to strive with us.

[37:08] And that you would bless us and help us. And Lord I pray for this congregation. And that you would continue Lord. And would you I pray for David and Mary and the family.

[37:19] Would you continue to grant them Lord. That zeal and hunger to preach the gospel. And to continue to pray. And Lord would you move in this community.

[37:32] We pray for the community in Scarpy as well. What a wonderful heritage we have Lord. And we pray for up in Stornoway too. Lord all the churches up there as well.

[37:44] Father would you just help us in every way. We are weak and fragile and frail. But Lord you are God. And you are God with us.

[37:57] Lord cleanse us and wash us anew. And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.