We're home --

but part of our heart is back in Scotland!

As we traveled on our bus back to Bentonville late last night, I asked Dave to get on his iphone (he always has media equipment with him) and let everyone know that we're back in the USA. Although we're all tired, we have a full heart for our Lord and His people in Glasgow! You're very much a part of our minds and hearts. Thank you Scotland friends for already making comments on the blogsite during our travels home and today.

-- DAY 10 --

Waking up on Saturday morning came very, very early. I think that the students (as well as the adults) were a little numb -- definitely not awake. We came together for a quick breakfast at 5 am, took off for the airport at 5:40 and left Scotland soil at 8 am.

Once arriving in London, we made our way to our new flight and took off for Dallas at 10:30 am. All of our flights were wonderful -- hats off to British Airways -- they're the only way to go! After twelve hours of flying, we made our way through baggage claim and then customs and on to our bus headed for Bentonville. We arrived at home around 12:30 am with a smile on our face and blurried eyes, wanting a shower, but with a filled heart for God and a humbled spirit for the joy and pleasure of serving Him by reaching out with His love to the people in Glasgow.

We may have shared His love, but we were given so much more from our new friends from Knightswood Congregational, Knightswood Baptist and Yoker Evangelical. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for giving us such care and support -- the delicious meals, hugs, prayers, and encouragement while we were in your wonderful city truly ministered God's love to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We want to stay in contact with you and know that our prayers will continue as you minister to those students and adults whom we met through all of our concerts and workshops.

Our own Scottish FBC Bentonville member Graham Wills with

Pastors Alan Wells, Alan Gibbons and Gus Macaulay

A special thanks to our Scotland pastors -- Gus Macaulay, Alan Wells and Alan Gibbons. Your prayers over the past two years, hard work in preparation for our trip, gracious hosting for our entire stay in your beautiful city, and daily encouragement and support have been a great blessing to everyone on the trip and the FBC family at home. You'll never know how much you have blessed us -- but God knows!

Speaking of what we did on our trip -- our students were able to touch over 2,000 students, lead over 44 workshops and sing 11 concerts during our time in Scotland. The teenagers didn't stop sharing God's love as we left Scotland, they sang to the hotel staff and in the Dallas airport upon arriving back in the States. Many have lost their voices, but continued to give God glory, honor and praise through all that they had left. Pray for our students as they begin back at school this week.

I'm excited about the opportunity to have our 412 Praise choir lead in worship next Sunday night. Pray that each students gets caught up on rest and their school work as well as back to full voice before next weekend. Pray for them as they share God's love and what He's done during MissionScotland09.

This is probably my last blog writing. Take time over the next week and check out the pictures and the videos from the trip. Thank you friends, once again, for your prayers, support, encouragement and love that you have for our students and for their desire to reach out and touch others with God's love in Word and Song. I appreciate your continued prayers for these students as they reach out to their friends at their school and their community. In the upcoming weeks the students will sing at a few other churches as well as record their first CD project. We'll let you know when it's here.

God bless!

Ken

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Made it!

Hey everyone! Just a quick note from the road, we made it to Dallas! We're now headed north on the coach. We plan on rolling into bentonville around midnight...
Thanks for all your prayers!
Dave

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Finishing the Race. . .

-- DAY 9 --

Our last day in Scotland! Wow, this mission trip has certainly gone by fast. I guess it's because we've been so busy each day, reaching out to as many people as we could during our stay in Glasgow. God has blessed us with the incredible blessing and privilege to sing at 5 schools, share in 44 workshops, and the opportunity to speak personally with over 2000 students.

I want to thank each parent who saw this incredible opportunity for their teenager and allowed me the humble privilege to prepare them and take them on this incredible adventure to serve God over seas in another country. I do not take this lightly, for I too have children and know how precious they are. Thank you for entrusting me -- I am honored to work with this great group of students. All of them, even the ones who were not able to go, are a joy and blessing to me!

I can't thank our three Scotland Pastors enough. Their desire to reach this city with the Gospel has truly inspired all of us. We have been blessed to see their team work in planning and preparing for this youth choir outreach trip and are so grateful to work along side these men of God. Both Pastors Alan Gibbons and Alan Wells have shared that they would love to come to Bentonville and visit us at our church. Please pray with me that the opportunity might be able to happen in the near future -- it would bless them, their congregation and ours as well!

Today was a full day, beginning with breakfast at 7:15 am. Before leaving our hotel we sang in the lobby to thank our hotel and restaurant staff. (See today's video.) They were very appreciative. In fact, one of our waitstaff began crying because it was so meaningful to her! We left our hotel at 8 am to Knightswood Secondary School (like Bentonville High School). We spent 25 minutes unloading the bus and van of all our gear and then traveled to Knightswood Baptist for a time of worship and participation in the Lord's Supper. At 11 am our students began their times in the classroom and then during the lunch break we did a 30 minute concert in the auditorium.

All of the students at this school take lunch at the same time and were invited to come hear us if they wished. Because of the type of concert being at their lunch break, the Pastors were not expecting many students to attend. However, we don't know God's ways and His ways are not always our ways. He was there with us -- in every classroom question and answer session to our packed lunch concert! Yes, we had the room filled with students who gave up their lunch time to come on their own and sit and hear us. Many stayed afterwards and spoke with our students. This response from the students was not expected by the Pastors and the glory was truly given to God!

After our lunch concert, our students continued on with their classroom share times. I was privileged to go to three of these discussion times and heard our students boldly share their faith and trust in God. They answered many hard questions, like how do you know that God is real and what does God look like. Because our students are so passionate One of the Scotland students even said: "Do you always get emotional when talking about your God?" An incredible day of sharing God's love in Word and Song!

After our evening concert, we had many stand in honor of our youth. (This was a shock to our Pastors because Scottish people are not known for standing ovations, nor getting too emotional.) Many stayed afterwards to talk with our students while we loaded out our equipment. They then stayed to wave our bus off. Many of the students and adults were emotional because of how God worked in and through our students this week. (They weren't the only ones getting emotional, our students were "blubbering" as well.) We truly have met some wonderful Christian friends!

It is my desire that the momentum that the students in 412 Praise have in boldly sharing our faith and loudly and joyfully praising our God will continue once we are home. To this endeavor, I am working on several other opportunities for them to lead worship at other area churches in the near future as well as produce a CD project of our 412 Praise Choir. And of course, they will be involved in our "Celebrate America" program at the end of June. Please continue to pray with me for all of our 412 Praise choir members -- that their growth as a believer will continue and their service to our Savior will never stop!

We head home tomorrow -- with mixed emotions. The students are excited to see their families, but know that they are going to miss these special children, youth and adults here in Glasgow whom they have quickly grown to love. Pray for our safe journey home to our families. We head out of the hotel tomorrow at 5 am and get back to Bentonville at 12 midnight.

I'll make my final blog on Sunday (since we're on the road throughout Saturday). We don't know what will happen to the blog after our journey home. We do know that all of the pictures will be placed on the missionscotland09.org website for future viewing. Our students will be leading worship and presenting their home concert next Sunday night, April 5th at 6 pm. All 60 members of our 412 Praise choir will be leading this service.

Again, I can't thank all of you enough for your continued prayers, support, encouragement and love that you have for our students. It is through your generosity that this trip was possible. I have always felt that my calling was to enable others to use their gifts, abilities and talents for His glory, honor and service. I thank you for allowing me to enable these students to do this "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Good night and God bless!

Ken

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God is Good -- all the time!

A special thanks to our technical crew and musicians for which these concerts would not have happened without the use of their gifts, talents and abilities that they so willingly used for this mission trip. Their sacrifice of vacation time, monies, and time away from family have allowed God to use the concerts in such a mighty way.

Dave heading up the media world and Tim handling the sound board

(while Chad plays the guitar for the trip)

Donna, our keyboard extraordinaire!

Chad kickin it up with the electric and acoustic guitars,

along with some heavy djembe playing

Rick is multi-talented, coming on the trip not to use his incredible voice,

but his musicianship and skill with the bass guitar

-- DAY 8 --

Another busy day here in Glasgow. Our students saw God in so many ways today; not only did the rain stop every time that we were unloading and reloading, but the Holy Spirit was evident through the testimonies of Hannah Johnson and Anna Holland, who shared during tonight's concert. WOW -- what a concert of praise. The students were on FIRE for God and couldn't get enough of praising Him for Who He is and what He has done for them.

Pic during am concert -- lots of children!

Holy Roar ensemble praising the Lord

Even through the hoarseness, they gave Him their all.

"Let Everything that has breathe praise the Lord!"

We started out early, once again, and reached Bankhead Primary school at 8:30 am, ready to unload and begin a busy day of workshops in the morning, along with a concert, then lunch and more afternoon workshops.

The students were amazing -- getting very comfortable

speaking in front of people of all ages.

STOMP -- girls w/hands and feet

-- guys with poles and sticks

After our last workshop we headed back to the hotel for an hour to rest a bit and get changed for our evening concert. We had dinner at Knightswood Congregational. The ladies of the church were wonderful hostesses and ministered to our students with love!

___________________________

I can't believe that tomorrow is our last day here in Glasgow. In fact, our last day in Scotland! What a extraordinary trip we have had. God has truly used our young people in life-changing ways. They have so many stories to tell, so many memories to last for a life time.

A special thanks to all of you who have helped make this trip possible. So many of you have made an impact on the students who have participated in Mission Scotland09. Thank you for your financial and prayer support, encouragement, food preparation, driving time to and from our rehearsals, goodie bags for our bus trip and during our time in Scotland and so much more. You'll never know the impact that your contribution to these students have had on them as well as the folks they have ministered to here in Glasgow.

Tonight, after arriving back from our evening concert, we spent sometime in the hotel conference room sharing stories of what people have shared with our students. After 30 minutes of sharing, one of our students began sharing how this trip has impacted him. An hour later, we still had students sharing how they have been blessed by these all of the children and adults they have met as well as their own peers in this youth choir.

__________________________

I truly hope that this blog and our missionscotland09 website have been a blessing to each of you reading it each day. It was my hope from the beginning that you could be a part of our entire trip through the daily pictures and video. Only a few more days and we'll be signing off.

Tomorrow, our last day in Glasgow, is a BIG day. We'll be leaving the hotel at 8 am, loading all of our equipment in the High School (they call it Secondary School), up two flights of stairs -- all in 30 minutes. Once the equipment is in the building we will be heading off to Knightswood Baptist Church where we will be participating in the Lord's Supper with Pastor Gus. After our time together there, we will be going back to the High School to begin our workshops, set up equipment, have lunch, do our concert and then participate in more workshops--all before 3 pm. Please pray for our students as they share their faith with fellow students their ages. They are excited, and yet a bit anxious.

I have been told by one of the Pastor's that Friday evening's concert will be the largest attended during the week -- packing out the large auditorium at the High School. Pray for our students voices and their energy -- pray that God will use them mightily and that they will run the race with endurance to the end! I can't wait to tell you what happens!!!

Proclaiming the Good News,

Ken

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Energized to serve!

-- DAY 7 --

It's the middle of our week, and our students are energized -- catching up on some of their sleep last night! The students are looking forward to a little relaxation and sight-seeing today. But before we took off for Scotland adventures, we were privileged to share in Word and Song with the children at Blairdardie Primary School.

Here's Jenny with the School Head Master

We left the hotel at 8 am and by the time we arrived at the school, we had 55 minutes before our morning concert. Yikes is right, but I knew that when we all pulled together we would accomplish much and in shorter time. I was right! We finished the set up and sound check in 45 minutes. Incredible, right? Not really -- with our students and adults! Everyone knew what to do and did it carefully and quickly with a great attitude and big smile on their faces! It has been great to see our teenagers work together with a cooperative attitude and sweet spirit.

The guys on the trip have especially been hard workers on the set up and tear down and the girls, for the most part, just try to stay out of their way. (I do have our senior girls and a few others responsible for some of the prep and tear down.)

The children loved the concert and enjoyed meeting our students in their workshops following the concert.

Our teenagers were divided up into two's for each classroom share time. Before their share time each person pulled their weight and tore down. (We actually spent more time setting up and tearing down than we did during the concert today!) During their class time we finished up the loading and were ready with their sack lunches once they were finished.

Once we left our school we headed off to see more of Scotland.

We arrived in Stirling and first visited the William Wallace Monument.

We climbed a steep hill on a windy path and then went up 240+

stairs on a windy one person staircase.

Once up on top we had 70 mile an hour winds --

the teenagers loved getting up there -- great views!

After our time at the monument we took off for Stirling Castle.

We took great pictures outside of the castle and then took our time

checking out every part of this incredible place.

Once on the road again, the students and adults couldn't wait any longer and had to all visit a Scotland "Wal-Mart" (better known as "Asda"). After we finally got everyone out of the store, we headed to the local Mall for all the shoppers on the bus. (We also ate dinner at the mall.) Yes, change of plans, we decided not to go back to Xscape, but to the Mall instead.

Back at the hotel by 8:15 pm tonight. WOW -- what a day. They students got a little free time before heading to the rooms for some shut-eye. A great day had by all!

Thank you for your continued prayers and comments on the blog. We spent time on the bus this morning reading the last two days worth. There were lots of laugher, oohs, and ah's. Thanks for your support.

Tomorrow we get back to our busy schedule including: morning workshops and concert, afternoon workshops and evening concert. Talk to you tomorrow!

Group picture at Sterling Castle

Seeing God's work all around us,

Ken

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!

WOW -- I can't believe that I have a 15 year old!

-- DAY 6 --

Another wonderful day in Scotland! We started out early again this morning, arriving at our 2nd school at 8:30 am. We spent the next hour greetings folks at the school, preparing for our morning concert, and working out all the final plans with our afternoon workshops. Set up time is getting quicker each day! Everyone pitches in and gets all of the equipment inside and then knows what they have to do to get us ready.

A special thanks to Dave Roberts, Chad Plummer and Tim Sorey for making every concert go smoothly. Robert has been doing a great job taking pictures throughout the day and Dave and Jerry have been getting great footage for our daily videos.

A special thanks to all of the adults who gave of their time, talents and treasures to be a part of this exciting mission trip. All of our adults have been working hard to encourage and uplift our students at the same time taking care of our student's needs. These needs have included: sore throats, coughs, wake-up calls, laundry 2x, hugs, prayers, getting our students from point A to B to C, and much, much more! These are the unsung heroes to which this trip so far could not have so successful! We all thank you!!!

Once we were ready -- we sang our first concert of the day. The students were once again enthralled with our teenagers. They enjoyed their singing, sharing, and especially our "STOMP" song.

Here's Whitney giving us some extra "umphf" to one of the songs!

After our concert, we worked with our children's choir who sang with us this tonight. They were very excited about the opportunity to sing with us during the concert. They were not as prepared as the choir yesterday, but quickly learned their part in the song. (During the concert tonight, they were great!)

Once our rehearsal was over, we ate a wonderful lunch provided by the school. WOW -- both our schools have been so supportive of us. They have been gracious hosts and both provided us with a coffee/tea/scone/breakfast bread reception in the morning and a delicious lunch in the teacher's lounge. (In fact, many of the teachers came back each evening and brought others with them to our concert!)

After lunch our students spent the afternoon doing workshops with each class for two primary schools. Our teenagers have really loved the time with the children. They have done a great job sharing about themselves, answering questions from the students and teaching and playing games with each class. The teachers really appreciated all the care, concern and love that our teenagers showed to their children!

By 3:00 pm, they had a well-deserved break. We made it back to the hotel by 3:30 pm and had an hour to have a quick cat-nap and get ready for dinner and the evening concert. Two churches hosted our evening meals. One church had members host 1/2 of our students in their homes and the other church hosted us at the church. You'll never guess what we had at the church tonight -- FISH AND CHIPS!....It was delicious!

Another incredible worship experience tonight. The children and adults filled the auditorium and were gracious in their reception of us. Our students, once again, gave their ALL in praise and worship to our Lord.

They sang passionately and showed their love of our Lord in Word and Song. Natalie Gautier gave her testimony tonight and did a great job. Last night Carly Sorey and Jacob Stewart shared and presented the Gospel so courageously and confidently.

One of the Pastor's tonight told us that the concerts have been incredible. The amount of folks that have come to see us have been more in our two days than a week for their last group two year's ago. Praise the Lord, He is good! Our advance preparation with posters, flyers, and the opportunity to have their children sing with us paid off!

We appreciate your prayers and encouraging words on the blog. Our students are enjoying hearing them as we make our way to the schools in the morning.

_____________________________

-- A QUICK REMINDER --

You can see all of the day's pictures on the blog. Just go to the top right and click on any of the pages that you wish to see under the Mission Scotland Pictures header.

Note: Dave post's the day's video, but it doesn't show up until the next evening on the website, so go back to the day before and see each video.

God bless you all -- we miss you and are thankful to each of you for your prayers and support!

With all that is in me -- Praise the Lord!

Ken

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Knightswood Primary - Saved by the Bell!

-Day 5-

Our morning started out with breakfast at the hotel, and then off to our first school visit - Knightswood Primary! All of our kids were dressed in their khaki pants and black 412 Praise shirts - so we could easily spot them amongst the other children at the school! Some of the children were waiting for us in the Assembly Hall when we drove up to the school- smiling, anxious faces! Sooo cute! Our youth were excited to start the day and their interaction with the children!

Our youth were split into 6 groups and they went into various classrooms to meet with the Primary students. Three groups shared for 30 minutes while the rest of us set up the Assembly Hall for the concert. Then the groups transitioned and so on and so on...

While in the classrooms our youth shared about themselves and then allowed for a question-answer time. And then the games began.....craziness and fun!!!! We played "Drop the Handkerchief" and "Duck, Duck, Goose" and sang "Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" - a great time was had by all!!!

Being a teacher myself, I was able to visit with a few of the staff and share about my experiences in the education field and told them that I could relate about having special guests in the school and the heightened state of energy! But they were happy to have a little "break" and let us share with their students!

The lunch was provided by the staff of the school and they served us "buffet/pot-luck" style in a couple of the classrooms and the teachers lounge! You can not believe the amount of food that was on those tables! And such interesting choices! I have tried so many new things - and you will be happy to know that your kids are trying new things as well! Just be ready to be asked to look up recipes for "Millionaire's Shortbread" and "Caribbean Chicken" and one of my favs - yummy - shortbread! We are so thankful for the teachers and staff of Knightswood Primary for sacrificing their time and preparing our lunch - it was greatly appreciated and soooo delicious!

Our concert at the school took place right after lunch and they packed about 500 kids in the Assembly Hall to participate! Our youth performed beautifully and the student/teacher audience was very receptive!

We continued our classroom visits in the afternoon and then we went back to the hotel for a quick change into our formals! Now by this time you would think that we would have had enough to eat, but we set off for Yoker Evangelical Church for dinner! Wow! The church members provided us with a spread like you would not believe!!!

We had lasagna and pizza, all sorts of interesting salads and breads and desserts...ooooo....the desserts! I had a "tablet" tonight for my dessert - let me explain...it's pretty much sugar and butter formed into a little cube or "tablet" - yummers! It just melts in your mouth and "sticks to the thighs!" Ugh!

The dinner was LOVELY (my new Scotland word!) We just thank the ladies (and gents) of Yoker Evangelical sooo much for their sacrifice of time and energy in preparation of a wonderful meal!

Off to the evening concert! After we filled our bellies - we spent some time on the bus in preparation for our evening concert - our opportunity to share with the students of Knightswood Primary and their community! Our prayer was for open hearts in the audience and that we would share the love we have for the Lord in the words we sang, the smiles on our faces and in our worship! I am so proud of the HONEST worship that these youth lay out on the stage when they sing these songs! Wow! You would be so proud of the way that they sound but more so in the expressions and the genuine heart they have for the Lord and for His people! What an evening! Thank you Pastor Guss for sharing this evening - "we all have a God shaped hole, a void, that only He can fill!" What a great message for a lost world!

The evening ended with "tear down" - everyone pitched in and we took down the stage, instruments, screen, projector, risers, etc. in what just might be...record time - a whopping 30 minutes! Unbelievable! Thank you Lord! A 20 minute bus ride home and off to bed!!!

This day was a wonderful introduction to our school projects! We look forward to the next four days as we will continue to minister to the students and community here in Glasgow, Scotland!

We ask for prayers for continued health and safety and energy! I think the youth realized just how tiring this week is going to be! They expend a BUNCH of energy in the classrooms with the students - sharing and loving on them! But the Lord is sooo good and faithful - I know He will provide all that we need!

In His Love - "from way across the pond" -

Jenny Blue-Sorey

Read More 18 comments | Posted by FBCBentonville

412 Praise

1 Timothy 4:12

Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Mission Scotland 09 Blog

Made it!

Finishing the Race. . .

God is Good -- all the time!

Energized to serve!

Knightswood Primary - Saved by the Bell!

412 Praise

1 Timothy 4:12

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