Dear Friends,

Can you believe September is upon us already? Lisa and I were traveling much of July. And now this August newsletter has become our September newsletter. We are in the final preparations for the start of our brand new school year at Charis here in Scotland.

But before get to what is happening right now, let me share some of the highlights of our summer.

Summer Highlights

As with years past, Lisa and I needed to make a trip back to the USA during the summer. Each year we have both ministry and personal things to attend to. And our trip back to the States this year had plenty of both.

Lisa figured it out after we returned to Scotland that we slept in 9 different beds in the just over five weeks we were there. Fortunately we were able to stay in one place for the first three and a half weeks. But that meant the second half of our trip was a bit of a whirlwind.

Here are just some of the things we accomplished during our time in the States this summer:

• We held our annual board meeting for NewCREEations Ministries
• We attended the annual meeting of all Charis Directors in Colorado
• We attended the Sowers Seminar conference with Andrew Wommack
• We spoke at Charis Family Church in Woodland Park, Colorado
• We spoke at River Rock Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado
• We hosted a BBQ social event for NewCREEations ministry partners in Colorado
• We attended our nephew’s wedding in Wisconsin
• We visited my mom in Virginia

Then on top of all that we were able to connect and spend time with many friends and partners of the ministry. After we returned home to Scotland, people wanted to know about our “holiday” in the USA. With all the meetings, ministry, and general work we did, it wasn’t much of a holiday for us. Frankly, both Lisa and I were exhausted when we finally made it back home to Scotland. But we were able to accomplish a great deal during that trip.

About a week after we got back home to Scotland we headed up to the very North of Scotland…

Trip to Isle of Lewis

If you remember, in the spring we traveled to various places in the Highlands. We made arrangements to return with Andrew and Jasmine, two of our Charis staff members, to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis this summer.

This trip was a very powerful time for all four of us. We drove up through the Highlands to Ullapool. There we drove our car onto a ferry for the crossing to the Isle of Lewis.

In Stornoway we connected with Pastors Donnie & Catriona Stewart of New Wine Church. They are wonderful folks who have lived on Lewis their entire lives and have been ministering there for about 30 years. Their church has a strong passion for the things of God and the four of us sensed a connection with them and with the island.

We attended a prayer meeting with several folks from the church on Friday evening. On Sunday Pastor Donnie welcomed us into their church. The messages that I presented in the morning, and Andrew presented in the evening were very well received.

All in all it was such a valuable trip that we are looking to take a team of students from the Bible college back up there in the spring!

Charis Day

After we returned from Lewis we focused our attention on Charis Day. We host Charis day in the summer, primarily as an outreach to attract new first year students for September enrollment. The event is built around a live stream web cast from the main Charis location in Colorado. There Andrew Wommack speaks, along with other members of the Colorado staff.

With the time difference between Scotland and Colorado, the live stream started at 5 PM our time on the Saturday. Because it’s a bit of an awkward time, we decided as a team in Dumfries to make a day of it.

So we combined the idea of an outreach to new students with a summer reunion with our existing students. Moving forward we intend to also include alumni too. We had praise and worship, live teaching, student testimonies, and fellowship time. We also catered in a light lunch for the guests.

For us it was a very successful event. We added six new first year students from the day. That is a significant portion of the first year applications we have for the upcoming school year. God is good!

New School Year

We are finalizing our preparations for the new school year. Our students start back this week already, on Saturday, September 8th. This year we will be adding in a second year program on top of everything we did last year with the first year program.

That means our work load will increase accordingly, especially because we will not be adding any additional staff this year. That means more live teaching, multiple class rooms, and different things happening in different parts of the building at the same time.

But growth is good. At this point we have 29 total students committed to the school year. That’s not quite double the 16 we promoted from first year last year. As a team, we are still believing we will see at least 35 total students enrolled this year. Because so many students tend to make the commitment to enroll at the last minute, it is still very possible we will see that many.

Please join us in prayer that people will respond to the call of God on their lives and come to Bible college in Dumfries.

Prayers and Support

Lisa and I are thankful that you have made the time to open this newsletter and have read down this far. We are grateful for your continued support, whether it’s financial or in prayer.

And that is something you can be praying for when God brings us to your mind. Lisa and I are standing in faith that the monthly financial partnership to NewCREEations will continue to increase. There are several things that God has shown us which will help advance the assignment He has given us, but the funding is not there to move forward in those areas yet.

Please prayerfully consider partnering with us as the Lord leads. There is much work to be done in Scotland and we are excited to be part of it.

Abundant Blessings,

Chris & Lisa Cree

To Partner you may click the blue button below to give securely online. Or you may mail a check to the address below.

Online:

Mail:

NewCREEations Ministries
120 N. Elm St
Wooland Park, CO 80863

P.S. Are you subscribed to our Daily Reflections email devotional yet? If not, why not give it a try! You can click here to be automatically added to the distribution. There’s no risk. If you decide it’s not for you, simply change your subscription settings, no worries.

We regularly get positive feedback from our devotional subscribers. For example, here’s what Timothy K. emailed to me this past week about the Daily Reflections:

“Thank you so much! These devotions are helping me to grow, and opening my spiritual eyes to see GOD's love for me.”