To the glorious drone of the bagpipes being expertly played by a master piper, one hundred pilgrims—home educators and special guests from across the United States—entered our banquet hall in Edinburgh, Scotland to inaugurate the 2008 Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour.

We are so grateful to the Lord for this special opportunity to study the lives of great Reformers, and to delve deeply into the rich the history of a country which, more than any other modern nation, was responsible for the theological foundations of American independence. The Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour has been years in the making. It was a much anticipated event limited to under one hundred guests, and which filled up in approximately 70 hours of the formal announcement of the details.

For our opening banquet, guests were treated to really superior service and Scottish cuisine provided by our gracious hosts. The international wait staff provided the finest service and customer care I can remember experiencing.

Each guest was presented with a songbook containing hymns and songs of Scotland to be sung throughout the trip. Noted Scottish and Celtic balladeer, Mr. Charlie Zahm, will be traveling with us to each location and leading us in the historic songs from Scotland’s past. Even after a long journey to Edinburgh, Charlie was in prime form for this evening’s opening banquet.

Many of our guests are from Scottish and Scotch-Irish descent, and some, like historian Bill Potter, are direct descendants of the martyrs who died for “Christ’s Crown and Covenant” during the killing times.

Honor and I especially enjoyed listening to Charlie sing the Vision Forum Ministries theme song “Be Thou My Vision.”

To fire the opening salvo of the 2008 Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour, I presented a message entitled “Christianity and Great Britain: A 2000 Year Perspective in One Hour.” The message covered the history of the Church in the British Isles beginning with the coming of the Roman Empire, through Columba, to the Scottish Reformation, to the Scottish Enlightenment and beyond.

We are deeply honored to be joined by Dr. Joe Morecraft and his wonderful wife Becky. Joe is one of America’s leading experts on Reformation Church history. This will be his second trip to Scotland in 35 years.