June News Letter . . . GOING TO SCOTLAND!!

Taste And See that God is Good . .

Dear family and friends,

Dave, Erin and Jayelle have some exciting news! Dave has been accepted as a postgraduate student by the University of Edinburgh. He was accepted into a one year Ph.D. preparatory program in historical theology that starts this September. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and another step towards being God’s hands and feet on a college campus as a professor and pastor.







In Scotland Dave wants to study John Cotton, a 17th century Puritan minister, who was a central figure in a conflict between two competing approaches to Christian spirituality. One group of Puritan ministers preached a “duty-driven” spirituality and Cotton along with other ministers preached a “desire-driven” spirituality with an emphasis of God’s love. Cotton’s theological emphasis and insights concerning God’s faithfulness and unfailing love can teach us important lessons on how to engage a church that finds its self in a similar spiritual competition.




A little background on the University of Edinburgh might be appropriate at this point. It is located in the heart of Edinburgh on a hill accompanied with the Castle of Edinburgh. Theology has been taught since its founding by King James I of England in 1583. It is considered Scotland’s premier research university and is ranked with leading universities like Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of London. Its library has the largest theological collection in Britain and like the Library of Congress it is a national deposit library receiving every book published in the UK. We can’t believe Dave has the chance to attend such a prestigious school and we can’t wait to live in a place with so much history to explore!








We are also super excited about an offer that Dave received recently to be a staff member of UCCF (www.uccf.org.uk). UCCF is the UK version of InterVarsity that has the mission reaching college students for Christ. Dave would be mentoring undergraduate and graduate students and have teaching opportunities throughout the U.K. While UCCF is also a dream come true it is a nonpaid position, therefore we are going through the process of joining Student Ministries Inc. SMI allows students to be active in ministry while attending school and raise tax deductible funds for living expenses (www.studentminitriesinc.org). Upon completion of the final interview with SMI, we will contact all you in couple weeks to ask if you would be willing to be a part of our team in this incredible endeavor. Love, The Searights