Dear Friends,

As I write this we are entering the break in our first term at the Bible college. That means we are already half way through our first term! And it’s been a fantastic school year so far.

I know we’ve mentioned it before, but this year we have both first and second year students at our Charis Bible College Dumfries campus. The final student numbers have not quite settled themselves out yet. But we’ve already had some additional students enroll. So at this point it looks like we are going to have twice as many students as we had last year. We are very pleased with that growth in student numbers that God has brought to the school!

Friend From Colorado

Just before the school year started we had a brief visit from our friend Marcia Alverson. Marcia is the coordinator of the third year worship school program in Colorado. She was meeting a team of people in England to go with them on a mission trip to Africa.

She asked if she could make a detour up our way to visit us, see Scotland, and see what God is doing at Charis Dumfries. She was only able to be with us for a little over 24 hours but we made the most of it showing her our little corner of the promised land.

Marcia’s visit was extra special because Andrew and Jasmine Sharp who help us with the school here also know her. Their daughter Jessica went through the third year school of worship in Colorado some years back and interned with Marcia. So it was a blessing for them to reconnect with Marcia as well.

New School Year

We had a wonderful opening rally for the first day of our new school year on the 8th of September. John and Susan Donnelly were our keynote speakers. There was an exciting atmosphere in the place as we celebrated the start of our second year of operations.

The increase in students over last year means we need more of pretty much everything including:

• More class lessons to prepare
• More tests to grade
• More chairs and desks
• More communication about student questions and issues
• More administrative effort to keep track of student fees, etc.

We converted part of the room that we use as an office for use as our main second year classroom. In addition we are blessed to also have the use of another room in the building for part of the Saturday, outside our normal space. That allows us to break the second year students into two smaller groups for their practical interactive group teaching time.

Fortunately we are finding we have just exactly the right amount of staff for the additional work load adding the second year program in with the first year program that we did last year. Everyone is very busy on the Saturday when the students are on campus, and we have multiple things going on at the same time.

But no one is overworked. And even though it would be a challenge, it looks like we will still be able to cover things if one of our staff ends up being unavailable on a Saturday for any reason.

The fact that we are effectively maxed out with the staff we have available at this point has us thinking how we are going to do things next year when we add the third year program in too. We are praying for creative God solutions. We know God has an answer to that challenge and will provide it even before we need it. So we are doing our part to be ready to receive His solution.

Visiting Charis Alumni in Scotland

We now have another Charis alumni in Scotland. Sam Entwistle moved from England to attend Charis in Colorado with his mom and dad. After they graduated, the three of them worked as missionaries in Mexico for two years. Lisa and I got to know their family quite well during their time in Colorado.

In Mexico they focused on developing leadership training curriculum so they could help equip pastors and church leaders.

At the end of the summer Sam returned from Mexico and moved to Edinburgh. He will be attending Edinburgh university there for the next few years. Lisa and I were blessed to be able to hop on the train and go to Edinburgh for the day to visit Sam earlier this month.

And we will have the pleasure of reconnecting with Sam’s parents, Michael and Linda, next week at Andrew Wommack’s European Ministers Conference down in Walsall. It’s wonderful to have more of our friends relatively nearby, especially when they are such powerful ministers!

Looking Forward

Next week we head down to England to attend Andrew Wommack’s European Ministers Conference. We are especially looking forward to the conference this year because some of our classmates from Charis Colorado will be there.

Bryan Nutman is flying across from the States. He’s the head of partner and pastoral relations for Andrew Wommack Ministries back in the USA. But more than that, he and his wife Sue are a couple of our best personal friends from school. And Bryan sits on the board of directors for NewCREEations Ministries.

We will also get to see Vesa Seppälä, who is flying in from Finland for the conference. Vesa and his wife Maria graduated with us in Colorado. Now they pastor a church near Helsinki. We are going to be connecting with them next spring when we bring a mission trip of our Dumfries Charis students to Finland.

Next Monday when we are down at the ministry headquarters in England, I have been asked to give a brief presentation to the board of directors for Andrew Wommack Ministries Europe to update them on what God is doing through our Charis campus here in Scotland. If God brings it to your mind, please pray that I have favor with the board during that meeting, and that I effectively communicate all that God is doing through the school here in Dumfries in the very short time I have to speak.

The day after we return from the conference, Lisa and I will be picking my Mom up at the airport. This is her first visit to Europe, so it’s also her first time to Scotland too. Lisa and I are looking forward to her visit.

Student Mission Trip Preparation

A cross cultural mission trip is part of the Charis curriculum for the second year students. This year we have enough students that we will be taking two different groups to two different places in the spring.

As mentioned above, one of those trips will be to Helsinki in Finland. The other trip will be up to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. There we will connect with Donnie Stewart of New Wine Church, the pastor we’ve connected with up there in the Highlands.

Part of the training is teaching the students how to believe God to bring in the finances to pay for their trip. Lisa and I will lead the way by raising the funds for both of us to go on both trips.

We know that God will supply the funds. And we also know that God supplies supernaturally through natural means via people. So if missions is something you have a passion for, please know Lisa and I welcome your support.

Thank you for your prayers, and thank you for your continued support. We are so grateful to be a part of everything God is doing here in Scotland.

Abundant Blessings,

Chris & Lisa Cree

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