Last Saturday I was welcomed to the Presbytery of Ardrossan. Around fifty people gathered for a meal and I had an opportunity to speak with the Presbytery about the challenges facing the Church today.

One of our greatest comforts is to believe that our Lord still journey's with the Church. So often I encounter church members who seem to have forgotten that the Holy Spirit is part of the guarantee that we are no alone. When you hear them talk they do so with fear and trepidation. I refuse to believe that God has abandoned his people.

It is the Holy Spirit who sustains our faith and directs our thinking and actions. There is a wonderful response in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. In the liturgy the congregation pray "Do not take your Holy Spirit from us." Such a response implies that we could not go on unless The Lord's presence is known to us. How often is this sentiment highlighted in the Psalms. We know we depend on the sustaining power of God's presence. Psalm 139 draws our attention to this truth. 

When troubles come and they will, we believe we do not face these situations on our own. Jesus promised his disciples that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. This means that we require to be attentive to the things of the Spirit. What I mean is that we need to understand that the Holy Spirit continually seeks to focus our attention on the things that matter not only as we spend time in prayer but through the people and the situation in which we find ourselves.

Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching at St Columba's Church in Kilbirnie. We received a warm welcome from Fiona Ross who has been the minister in this parish for nearly 10 years. I was able to present a long service certificate to a lady who had served the congregation for over fifty years through her ministry of floral arrangements.

Later in the evening I was a guest of Rev Kenneth Elliott, who is the anchor presenter for a weekly Christian music programme on Radio Westsound. Early today I visited the 3TFM Community Radio Station to give an interview to Rev Alex Noble who has his own weekly show called the " Holy Half Hour. Both Alex and Kenneth are ministers in the Presbytery and both see this opportunity to engage with broadcasting as an extension of their ministries to the wider community.

We  then visited the local food bank which is co-ordinated by the Church of the Nazarene in Ardrossan. It was heartening to hear how the churches are working together in this programme.

What really interested me was the amazing work they are developing around a community garden. Ronald Gilchrist  of Greenway Consulting is an interesting thinker who is developing an alternative strategy to help communities take responsibility for their own food production. His plan centres around producing healthy soil which is not contaminated by chemicals and pesticides thus helping local communities become sustainable through growing their own nutritious food. This is a worthwhile programme and one which I would certainly recommend others to take time and study.

The day concluded with a visit to the James MacFarlane School. We were welcomed by the head teacher Alison Clark and introduced to 24 wonderful young people who are receiving an education in spite of the many hurdles they have to face due to their complex additional support needs. We came away inspired by the quality of the staff and the enthusiasm of the young people for their school. It was good to also meet the chaplains Sandy and Tanya who are also contributing to the spiritual ethos of the school. In all we had an interesting day which highlights the varied work that is supported and developed within so many of our parishes here in Scotland. Tomorrow we will be visiting the the Isle of Cumbrae. I'm sure it's going to be once again a completely different experience.