The Village of St Combs

The Laird Charles Gordon around the year 1785 established the village of St Combs. During this time all the Lairds were making improvements to their estates to encourage people to settle and live on their property. The parish owner Mrs Mackenzie of Rathen founded the village of Charleston in 1805. St Combs had two alehouses and Charleston had one, which were frequented by the local fishermen before the temperance movement in the 1840-50s. The Mullwater separated the two villages, which was the boundary of the land. There was some rivalry between the two villages and just as the history of many parts of Scotland with division being imposed on people by the landowner boundaries. St Combs today has a population of 697 people.

Revival

In the 1860's a cooper from Peterhead named James Turner went on a evangelistic mission round the N.E. corner of Scotland. The reason for him being able to leave his trade was the fishing industry was in turmoil. He felt God wanted him to preach along the coastline of the N.E. He spent two weeks in St. Combs where 400 and 500 people gave their lives to Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit was poured out and nearly the whole village got saved. Men and women, boys and girls, whole households came to know Jesus in a real way. People were filled with the joy of the Lord, the alehouses emptied and the Kirk couldn't contain the converts.

Years later a man was retracing the steps of James Turner. He came to St. Combs on a miserable rainy day. Writing in his journal he was thinking there's nothing here, why did you send revival to this place? He felt he heard the Lord say "That is why I sent revival because there is nothing here, but people are praying for the lost, and I will do it again and people from all over the world will come and see what is going on. They will find no famous evangelists or preachers just everyday people with a desire for the lost.". People from other parts of the world have said they believe that the household of salvation is part of what God is going to do in the village. Another American pastor had a picture he believed from God where he saw a costal village with two lights or lighthouses. (This pastor was from Arizona about as far from the sea as you can get). He saw one lights was like a traditional lighthouse and the other was a structure with a light on top, there were one or two villages between the lights but God was going to revisit the place of revival.