Ritchie, Mark ... 37 Not Out!

Today, I celebrated my 37th year on planet earth! A long time ago, Mrs Mary Ritchie gave birth to a wee 6lb bundle (no jokes please). Birthday celebrations have come and gone - parties, fancy dress nights, Indian meals, Chinese Meals etc. etc. The Special Birthdays have fond memories - 10th, 16th, 21st, 30th ... but the rest are just a blend of food, friends, family & even more food!

But here in the Philippines, birthdays are BIG occasions. In fact, to us Brits, most celebrations here seem 'over the top'- Wedding Anniversaries, Engagement Anniversaries, Death Anniversaries, birthdays etc. They are really big on 'Dedications' - I have dedicated a horse, cars, houses, shops, tricycles, bikes, musical instruments - anything that moves can be dedicated! They even asked me to pray at the 'celebration' of a wife that separated from her husband one year before!! I think the reason for the OTT attitude here in the Philippines is because they have no social life as we know it. So any excuse to meet together is warmly embraced.

So ... here is my extra special 37th Birthday report from yesterday! To be honest, the day before was a terrible day. Things were going well until Vivien's bag was stolen from right under our noses in McDonalds. Couldn't believe it. We have been here 6 years with not even a peso being stolen, and poor Vivien lost all her money, bank cards, phone - everything. We all had a sickening and angry feeling in our stomachs. Guess what - one of the customers 'knew' who stole the money! So me, Vivien, Jonathan and Pastor James -along with the security guard from McDonalds! - staked out her house. So exciting. But ... it turned out to be the wrong house. The person who lived there was the principal of the local school and a well respected man!! OOopps.

All this detective work was far more exciting than planning all the stuff for church (joke), so I was up until all hours doing powerpoints etc. etc. So, at 4:45 AM, I could not believe it when Mary woke me up to say that there were heaps of people outside singing. It was some of the church folk (see above). They came, sang, prayed for me - and even had prepared breakfast! What a bunch. Sorry if I look a bit disheveled ... all that detective staking out is very emotional!!

At 7:30am I headed off to one of our churches - Cornerstone San Isidro. We had a wonderful time there. I preached about "The Church God will Bless" and many responded. At the end of the service they made a delicious merienda (snack) - rice cake, ube cake, pansit and tambo-tambong. MMMmmmm....

After that it was back to Santiago for the 2nd service at Cornerstone. I dedicated a beautiful baby boy called Kurt Iverson Bartido. The mother, Ivy, is a mum from our school - so Mary was so delighted that they see Cornerstone as their own church now. After the service ... another merienda! They gave balloons and made me blow out a cake with 37 candles. Took me forever! We all went to the home of baby Kurt for ... you guessed it .. more food! We rolled out of the house and into the car!

We had a wee dip in the small pool with Lydia, Josiah and all the Children's Home kids and in the evening we went out for dinner. What a day! It's so hard being so handsome, so popular and so humble!!!

Today, it's all over. No more hugs, kisses, congratulations or shoot outs. Normal food; normal routine; normal problems. But, hey ... now I'm 37! It feels completely different from 36 and I can't wait for 3 years time when I can really begin my life! They all say that life begins at 40 - I will let you know when I get there!


By the way, Happy Birthday to my brother Paul - 35 today. If anyone in the Fraserburgh area wants to go to his house at 4:45am and wake him up with extra loud singing, that would give me a TRULY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!