Going against the Flow

At the moment, my little girl Lydia is always counting. She is doing maths at school, and every day she asks me to write down sums for her to do - just simple one digit addition and subtractions. She loves it!

Well, it got me thinking of a little test for you to do today, just to find out how you think. I want you to do what I ask you as you scroll down my blog. Don't cheat and go to the end - just do it carefully as you go down from line to line.

Let's make a deal - if you get the correct answer, you have to send this blog to all you friends. Promise??

If you get it wrong I will send you a free "How to Count for Dummies' book from amazon UK! Deal??

Here goes ... you ready? Thinking caps on, as the teachers say here!

OK ...

THINK OF ANY NUMBER BETWEEN 2-9




MULTIPLY THAT NUMBER BY 9




NOW, ADD THE TWO DIGITS OF YOU NUMBER TOGETHER (FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOUR NUMBER IS 34, 3+4=7)




OK, GOT A SINGLE NUMBER NOW?




SUBTRACT 5 FROM YOUR NUMBER





NOW WE CONVERT YOUR NUMBER INTO A LETTER.
A=1, B=2, Z=26 ETC.





THINK OF A COUNTRY BEGINNING WITH THAT LETTER






TAKE THE SECOND LETTER OF THAT COUNTRY AND THINK OF AN ANIMAL BEGINNING WITH THAT LETTER




THINK OF THE COLOUR OF THAT ANIMAL




DO YOU GET ...

A...

A...

A...

A...

Em ....a.....

...A GREY ELEPHANT FROM DENMARK??

Wow! Can you believe that? How did I know? How can I, in the middle of nowhere in the good old Philippines Islands, know what you was going to think? Am I moving in a great prophetic ministry? Do I also know the deep secrets of your heart and ...

Well, no. I don't. (Phew!) It is simple. We are all programmed to think in a certain way. The first part of the puzzle is easy - any number you choose when multiplied by nine will add up to nine (54, 63, 72, 81 etc.) So when you take away 5 everyone should have 4.

Convert to letter D. What other country do you know that starts with D other than Denmark? Usually it is always Denmark. Second letter is E .. what other animal starting with E comes into our mind? And the colour of the elephant - always grey (although many are dark brown!)

So there you have it. We all more or less think the same way. Amazing eh? It doesn't always work - I once did this in Africa and my Pastor friend got a brown Orangutan from the Dominican Republic!! Also right!

We are not called to think the in the same way as the world. As Christians we have to go against the flow. We have to think differently. We have to work things out, know what we believe and live according to the convictions of our heart. It is so easy to compromise and 'think like the world', especially in this crazy age of political correctness. In many ways we have not only lost our voice in society, but we have lost our ability to reason. We need to 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling' and plan our lives according to the will of our Father.

In Romans 12 it says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The Message Version puts it like this:

'So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.'

In every decision, every action and every thought ... may you know in your heart the mind of Christ. Listen to those you love, but fix your eyes upon the Lord and hear clearly His voice. Don't think like everyone else but go against the flow if you have to.

...and by the way, the deal was that those who got it right were going to forward my blog to your friends! Come on, get sending! Let's get the Sefton blog out all around the world!

And to those who didn't get a grey elephant from Denmark, please send you address to me!!!!!

Selahhaha!

Super San Isidro!

Hope you had a good weekend ... I did! I spent most of the weekend ministering at one of our daughter Churches in a place called San Isidro. On Friday night they had a special evening of worship, dance and drama ... a kinda belated Valentines Night as the theme was 'Bileg Ti Ayat Mo' or "The Power of Love'.

We had a great night .. what a scream! Laughter was definitely the order of the day. San Isidro is pastored by a really great guy - Pastor Adonis Manango - and he is assisted by his lovely wife Maribel. They have three beautiful daughters who are all active in the church (see picture above).

I believe that churches have definitive individual personalities. Don't believe me? Check out how the Lord describes the churches in revelation - by their character and individual strengths and weaknesses. And very often you find that the character of a Pastor/Leader has a direct effect on the characteristics of the church. If a Pastor is a quiet, shy type of guy, very often you will find the church is quiet and non-risk taking. If the Leader is an evangelist ... well, you just don't know what's going to happen next! If the Leader is prophetic, very often you will find the church will begin to have a prophetic edge to all areas of ministry, including praise & worship.

Anyway, Pastor Adonis is one of the funniest guys I know. Yet he has such a Pastor's heart. He loves people and he loves the Lord. He has been the Chaplain in our KMGLC School since last June and is doing a fantastic ministry there. But the people in his church are like him ... friendly, fun-loving but absolutely passionate for the Lord! What a night we had on Friday. Suppose you had to be there! I preached about 'True Love' and at the end there was a tremendous move of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Marlou had a prophetic word of how the Lord wants to 'heal families', and it was spot on. So many hearts and lives were touched by His presence.

On Sunday, I was back in San Isidro for their morning service. The building is rented ($5 per month!) and is very basic. But the presence of God is there. I tell you. The people are so lovely .. the first thing that happened to me was that Pastor Adonis' little girl Alieza and her wee friend ran to me with a bunch of flowers in their hands! So lovely. A group of young girls aged 14-16 led us right into the throne of God. Again, we really felt the presence of the Lord and at the end of the service so many were kneeling and weeping before the Lord.

Sn Isidro will see God's glory. Pastor Adonis and his family are sowing their lives into that place, and I am just honoured to be part of what God is doing.

More tomorrow ...

King Congee

At Cornerstone Church here in Santiago we run a weekly feeding progamme. The Leader of this ministry is a guy called Henry Rustia. What a burden and vision he has! His story is pretty special and I want to share it with you today.

Henry has not had it easy in his life. He married quite young and started a family. His wife went to work abroad and unfortunately, his wife left him a number of years ago .. she took two children to Canada and he was left here to bring up the other three. Not easy.

His eldest son Miko started coming to our basketball team, run by Pastor Winston. He gave his life to the Lord and he brought his two sisters to church. Henry was the next 'target' and he was soon making his way to Cornerstone Church. After a month or so, Henry gave his life to the Lord. I challenged him about baptism, but he said that he was old and that he 'didn't really need to do that. I challenge him again about serving the Lord an obeying the Lord's plan for his life. He agreed to be baptised.

You have to understand that Henry was a very quiet and dignified sorta guy. Very smart, handsome and unassuming. When he entered the pool, I knew that God was up to something! Henry was shaking with excitement and I felt the power of God right over him. When he came up out of the water he gave a massive shout (and I mean loud!) "Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! Glory to God!" We could hardly get him out of the pool! I knew that this was a defining moment in Henry's life.

Next morning, he was at our 5am prayer meeting. The Lord gave him a vision of Henry feeding children on the streets of Santiago. The Lord said to him, "I have saved you and called you for a purpose ... Feed my lambs." Henry (remember he was quite a new Christian) came to my house that morning and shared the vision. He said, "It is high time that Cornerstone had a feeding program!" (we were only about 4 months old!) I asked him to make a proposal and next morning again he was at my door with a list of what equipment we needed to buy, how we would do things and the places we would target. God had given him the name of the ministry - 'Food for Thought'. Amazing! A team from Scotland gave money to buy the pots, pans and bowls .. and we were off!

On the first Sunday we fed around 600 people outside the church after our Sunday service. You should have seen it ... the place was like a Piccadilly circus. In the next few months we went to Schools, the cemetery, the jails etc... armed with a lot of food and even more love.

We call Henry 'King Congee'. Congee is Henry's trademark meal - rice, chicken, vegetables, egg and meat all cooked together. Delicious. It takes his 5 hours to prepare and cook the food for a feeding programme.

It hasn't always been easy over the last year. Henry was involved in a court case and had to spend a few nights in the local jail. Long story .. no time. My brother in law Bruce was here in Santiago and we went with him to jail. I looked at the cramped cell and the eyes of the 18 men inside (murderers, rapists, thieves & small time criminals) and said, "Henry, you gonna be OK?" He assured us that God was with him.

Next day Bruce and I went to the jail - a bit like going to find out how Daniel fared after his night with the lions! To our amazement, the whole atmosphere of the jail had changed. Henry (or Pastor Henry as he was now called!) had led at least two of the men to Christ and had befriended them all. He requested Bibles for all the men AND officers .. which we brought on our next visit. By our third visit, Henry had organised a 'Cell Christmas Service' and there was testimonies and songs from the inmates! We bought them all a MacDonalds and they were all so happy. That's Henry!

He was only in jail for a few days and since then he has been busy with 'Food for Thought'. We decided to concentrate on the Primary Schools in Santiago. In 2006, Henry and his small team have given food to 10,000 kids. Imagine. This week we served 600+ kids in a poor school in Mabini. the kids were asked to bring their best plates, but many only brought pot noodle plastic cups. But to see the joy on these kids faces and to hear them say "Thank you" is beautiful.

Pray for Henry and his team. Pray for health, strength and support. We can feed 700 kids with only 20 pounds! Can you believe that?

The world is changed by people with a heaven-birthed burden and who have unquenchable passion to finish the work; ordinary people who are convinced of a Godly revelation.

Selah...

So-lovely Selina!

My goodness ... I have soooooooo much to blog about this week! So many things are happening around me that I can hardly keep track. For my own information, as well as yours, I intend to blog about the following in the next week or so:

Josiah
Selina's arm
Feeding Programme
Ray Calusay (Phil. AoG General Superintendent)
Faithfulness of God
Cornerstone Singapore
Cornerstone Testimonies
Sefton Prayer Requests
Jail Ministry

Let's start with the first two items! Josiah has been through the mill in the last week and has lost quite a bit of weight. He has had LBM for over a week and a bad cough since Friday. He has had absolutely no appetite since last Friday and even his favorite foods have been given the heave-ho. But ... praise God the high fevers have more or less gone. He has shown improvements since yesterday and we are just believing that he has turned the corner now. He ate a little today. Auntie Vivien from Aberdeen sent him some Maltesers .. and he soon began to scoff them! He has eaten some other things since then. Thanks Viv ... but where were my sweeties?

Thanks for your prayers. Pray that he resumes a good healthy(ish!) diet. Let's believe that he makes a complete recovery in the next few days. His mum certainly hopes so as he has been more clingy than sticky cellophane!

We have our AoG Director Mike Dixon with us at the moment. He is here in a flying visit and he has brought along Dave Fabby, who is the worship leader at their church in Chester. It has been great to show them around the various ministries here at Sefton.

We went to see Selina and her family today. I tell you, my heart was broken. We arrived to find that this little family lived in a 'home' of corrugated iron and some wooden structures. They had no electricity, as they had no money to pay the bill. Their floor was just the dirt and gravel underneath us.

In this miserable existence lived a truly lovely family and a beautiful little 6 year old girl. He face was radiant an she was so happy that 'Sefton' had come to her place. To see her arm was quite shocking. She was badly burned but had never even seen a doctor, as her family had no money. Her mum earns a few Pesos washing clothes and her dad can only find farm labouring jobs at harvest time. Some of Selina's arm had healed, but as you can see the top part is badly infected. Also, she cannot fully extend her arm because the skin has fused together and is very painful when she stretches.

Praise God ... tomorrow we are taking her to the local hospital to see a Doctor and a surgeon who are friends of mine. We will see what they say and recommend and take it from there. I prayed today for a complete healing and that she will grow up to have full use of her arm. Can you believe with me?

Want to hear something even sadder? I asked the mum if she had a picture of Sylvester - their son who died. They said that the typhoon came in November and their whole house was swept away. They lost everything .. including all the pictures of their family that they possessed. Even at the funeral they had no pictures of their son to put on the coffin. All they had was a tiny photo that someone had given them last week (see below). This was a photo that had been cut and was in itself poor quality. But it is all they have. Imagine. To them, it was priceless.

So we will help this family all we can. They are the poorest family in the area that they live. All the families around them have cement houses, but theirs is very small and in bad shape. But it is their home. I am committed to help them and lift them up. If only we could refer them to 'Extreme Homes' ... the amazing USA TV programme that transforms the home of unfortunate people!!! But maybe God is challenging us to do something ourselves.

Many people have texted me and emailed me because they want to help this family. If you do, just send your gift to our agents (Norman & Gillian Reid, 'Hazelbank', Marjoribanks Street, Bathgate, Eh48 1QH) and make sure you write a wee note saying 'for Selina'. Cheques made out to 'Assemblies of God'. I promise that every penny will go to helping this family in their hour of need and will make a little girl very happy.

And tonight, if you have your own kids, get out your photo album and have another look through the memories of years. Cherish these pictures more than gold and remember precious but forgotten moments. And again ... be very thankful.

Finally, in the words of Jesus ...

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me...I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward." (Mark 9)

Pray for Our Wee Man

Had a really good weekend. Went down to Bagabag (only 1 hr from here) to stay overnight at the SIL base (used to be called Wycliffe). Mary went on a Women's retreat in Banaue and so I drove down so that Mary could leave from Bagabad early next morning. We stayed in the guesthouse there and met some old friends.

Sometimes the enemy attacks come suddenly. On Friday night wee Josiah started coughing and it turned into a terrible croupy (is that a word??) cough where he struggled to get breath. He also took a very high fever. He had LBM (Diarrhea) for a few days, but this was out of the blue.

Mary felt that she could not go, but I knew that this was an attack of the enemy to stop her from going and being encouraged. We prayed for Josiah, committed him to the Lord and waved goodbye to mummy. GULP! I was all on my own.

I stopped by a Doctor friend in Santiago and he gave a quick check and said that Josiah was fine. He was fevered quite badly but I trusted the Doctor. The youth groups from the Cornerstone churches had a inter-church celebration at the Fire Centre and I was meant to be the speaker, but I had to step aside and keep my eye on Josiah.

Through the night Josiah had a high fever and coughed a lot, though not as bad as the previous night. I rubbed him down and eventually he slept at 2am. Phew. We had to rise early as I was speaking at our first service at Cornerstone Santiago - the Tagalog service. Miraculously, we arrived at 7:40 .. kids on tow! We had a really good service and we felt the presence of the Lord. Two of our members gave quite amazing testimonies .. I will share them soon so you can also be encouraged.

The English Service at 10am was also very good. Pastor Winston was the speaker and I was so challenged. What an amazing word he brought. He spoke about being Privileged in order to find Purpose. He was truly anointed. I am working on finding a way where I can record things to put on my blog. Any tecky people out there with any answers?



Went to MacDonalds for lunch (as usual!) and it is so funny because every week we find missionaries from SIL there. It's like getting our weekly fix of western junk! We take around 15 of our staff, so it's like a Christian meeting point. At last, at 5pm Mary arrived home. She is brave - she travelled an almost two hours in her friends van, then took a local bus (pigs on the roof etc!) and finally caught a tricycle to Sefton. What a woman! She had a great weekend and was really encouraged.

But through the night Josiah still had a fever .. three days now. So we took him to see the Doctor this afternoon, and he diagnosed an infection. We were a bit upset. For 7 months Josiah has been great, especially in Scotland. He put on weight and really developed in so many ways. In the last week he hasn't eaten much and has lost more than a kilo. He is still coughing and has on and off fever. he just doesn't look himself and is so tired.


Anyway, the Doctor prescribed six, yes 6, medicines. There they are in the above beautiful, yet depressing picture. Please pray for Josiah. Pray that he makes a good and fast recovery. Pray for Mary. She has been so much in the first 2 years of Josiah's life with illness and she is so anxious that it's starting all over again. She is worried that wee Josiah somehow cannot cope with this tropical climate, as none of the kids in the Home is sick and Lydia is fighting fit. Our Kids' health is always a weak point where the enemy seems to try and bring us down. We know that Josiah is now over his TB and that this is not life threatening. But sometimes these small battles seem huge so far from home, especially for a mum. Stand with us for Josiah, please.

Tonight, I read out God's Word from Psalm 37 (selected verses):

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.

The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever.

In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously; those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off.

If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.

For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.

LORD, WE TRUST YOUR WORD.

The Power of the Cross

I had a Bible School board meeting on Friday and I was speaking to the teaching staff, as a whole, for the first time since I arrived back in the Philippines. There was so much to review, plan & discuss (especially in the light that they never had one meeting when I was home!!). I was aware that this was a very important meeting and that important decisions had to be made. But the Lord laid on my heart the following passage to read and encourage them with:

1 Corinthians 2
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Some points to ponder:

1. Eloquence/Wisdom v Jesus and the Cross

Eloquence and superior wisdom are high on the agenda of men in the 'How to be truly impressive' stakes. Eloquence tickles the ear while superior knowledge impresses the mind. Yet Paul knew that none of these apparent strengths or giftings could change lives or bring God's Kingdom to people. Amazingly, Paul could have used either of these to impress people, but he wanted, more than anything else, for God to get all the glory and honour.

The only 2 things that Paul preached, discussed and taught was Jesus and the Cross. Paul, a man who knew Jewish and Christian theology just as well as any other man of his generation, chose to lay all other doctrine aside and preach Jesus. What would our churches be like if we concentrated our messages on 'Jesus' and 'The Cross'? As I watch Christian TV, what I find is cheap grace. Basically, "do what you want, it's OK, you will be forgiven." "You need to be completely healthy and have a lotta wealth to be blessed." "Name it ... claim it"

I hear a lot of 'what's in it for me' messages, but not so much about sacrifice. Or repentance. Or cost. Or tears. Or valleys. Seems like the cross is too difficult to preach. Too heavy. Doesn't tickle the ears and makes us a little uncomfortable.

There is only one way to heaven.. Jesus. And the way He made that possible was through the Cross. To the world, the cross is ugly and shameful. But to us, it is a place of victory and a monument of grace and total surrender.

For me, the Holy Spirit has really been challenging me to preach about the cross. Next month at Cornerstone Santiago, the messages are all about Jesus and the Cross. I have found that whenever I have preached about the Cross, something happens in the spiritual dimension. The strongholds of the enemy are challenged. The devil doesn't mind non-threatening-powerless-theological sermonettes; but he has absolutely no defence against the cross.

2. Humility v Pride

The true marks of an Apostle, or any man of God, is humility. Paul, the GREAT man of God, came to these Corinthians with weakness, fear and trembling. We are taught to be strong, be confident. But Paul took the attitude of a servant. He didn't overpower them with his intellect. He didn't 'lord it over them' by dictating his achievements. He became weak that they would find true strength. He came in fear, so they could embrace true love. He came in trembling so they could stand strong. What a challenge for us.

3.Persuasive Words v Demonstration of Spirit's Power

Paul let his God do the talking. He did not come with persuasive words, but a 'demonstration of the Spirit's power.' He went to the public places and called the sick. He laid hands upon them in the name of the Lord and people were healed and set free. After this, he preached Jesus and the Cross. These new believers became the nucleus of a new church.

Light a fire, and all will come and watch it burn. My prayer for my life is that I will see a demonstration of the Spirit's power. Not only in the church, but on the streets. Miracles, signs, wonders, deliverances and healings. One miracle can change a family or even a city!

Let me ask you 2 questions:

1. When is the last time that the Lord used YOU to demonstrate His power? When last were you used to heal? When were you the vessel use by the Lord to do a mighty miracle?

2. When last did you see a demonstration of the Spirit's power with your own eyes?

We say, "That kinda stuffs not for me. That's for the 'super evangelists' and Pastors." Really? And what kinda Bible are you reading? My Bible says, "And these signs SHALL ACCOMPANY ALL WHO BELIEVE ..."(Mk 16:17) Are you a believer? Then, according to God's own Word, the power and authority of heaven belongs to you! Your hands hold the keys to people being set free.

We dwell in safety in churches today. Both here and in the west. Very few are going beyond the boundaries of their four walls and even fewer are seeing miracles on the streets. We prefer persuasive words. Much more comfortable but completely unbiblical and definitely not the heart of God.

4. Men's wisdom v God's power

This is the battle that we face every day and in every church in the world. Man's wisdom is impressive. Did you know that 97% of all that we have known or discovered has been found in the last twenty years? And that what we know now will only a fraction of what we know in ten years time.

When I was a kid, I could not believe it when we got a remote control TV. Blew my mind. I remember watching Dallas and JR used a HUGE cordless phone and my granny said. "that will never happen here!" We can send men to walk on the moon, and PC's that we use now in our homes are more powerful than the NASA computers that got them there in '69!

But man's wisdom is nothing compared to the wisdom of God. Proverbs 3 is still our benchmark. Trust God - don't lean on our own understanding. But yes ... we do. When we face a trial, a hurdle, a problem- whatever you want to call it - we first try and work it out with our noddle. Think tanks are all the rage. Bouncing a few ideas against each other is very popular. But what we really need is to seek the face of the Lord. Rely on His revelation. Depend upon His word. To experience His power and to be lead by His Spirit. Could write much more, but enough said.

A few verses later, Paul writes:

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

Know today that God has great things prepared for those who love Him! Great plans. Wonderful dreams. Life changing moments. I always hear sermons about v9 - "we cannot see, we cannot hear and we cannot imagine ..."

But that is not what Paul says in v10! He has revealed it to us, by His Spirit. How wonderful and utterly amazing. We can know the plans of God by being close to the Lord and being full of His Holy Spirit. I know that I am not in the Philippines today by chance or by human decision; I am here because I heard the one that called me.

And for you? Embrace Jesus, live under the cross, walk in humility, burn with His fire, believe for His miracles .. and don't live in the strength of your own wisdom.

Selah ...

The Contagious Laughing Baby

Just had to post this on my blog today! So funny. Josiah sounded just like this when he was a little baby.

Double click ... and enjoy!!

Coffees & Creams!

Just a wee but enjoyable blog today! A really funny saying that they have here can be heard when one of our kids is playing with their Filipino friends. People always say, "Coffee & Cream' ... referring to their complexion and colouring. I always think it is a hilarious way of putting it and not in the slightest bit racist!

So I thought I would put in a couple of 'Coffee & Cream" snapshots and also a few pictures of the Sefton kids & babies (for all you ladies out there!)

Enjoy these cheeky faces ...

LYDIA & RENZ ABBY


PEPITO & JOSIAH (inseperable friends!)

PASTOR JAMES BASTIAN & SHEKINA


DANIEL & GRACE BATAYAN

MARC DAVID JAVIER

(Marlou & Cristina's new arrival)

GWYNETH & JAMES AQUINO

Dedicated and Submerged!

G'day folks! Trust you had a good weekend and that all is well. We had a great Saturday. By the way, someone told me that I use the word 'great' far too many times. So I apologise for anyone of the same opinion ... but if you were here on Saturday you would say it was great too!

In the morning I had the honour of dedicating a lovely wee boy called James. He is the son of one of our Pastors - James Aquino. James and his lovely wife Florence have a little 3 year old daughter called Gwyneth (James liked the name of Miss Paltrow after watching one of her movies!!! I asked him of it was not her looks he was taken to .. but he assures me it was only the name he liked!), and the Lord has blessed them with a son. James jr. was one year old on Saturday, so it was a double celebration. I spoke about four James' that made a difference - James the Disciple (Friend of Jesus), James the Brother of Jesus (Pastor & Writer), King James (who authorised the Word of God to be available in English) and James Gilmour.

Does anyone know about Mr Gilmour? Respond below and be 'Ritchie's Scholar of the Year'...

I prayed the young James would grow to be a man who finds the Lord as his closest friend, a man who would bring the Lord to many people's lives, would be a man of God's Word and would be a man that would have a passion for souls. I think it is lovely when parents recognise that the Lord has blessed them with a child and they want to dedicate him/her back to God.

In the Philippines you choose 'Ninangs (female) and Ninongs (male)' who are Godparents to the child. They promise to support, pray for and take interest in the child and to be there in good times and bad. They are expected to give gifts at Christmas & Birthdays.

In the afternoon I had the blessing of baptising 21 new believers from our Cornerstone Churches. It was a GREAT occasion. They were so happy! It was a scorching day and I must admit that it is the first time I have baptised anyone with a baseball hat! Wonder of John had one of them??

Each person being baptised was given a verse of encouragement from the Bible, was prayed for and after baptism we sang their chosen song as they left the pool. Merienda (snacks) was provided for all. The moment we said 'Amen' at the closing prayer, about 30 kids jumped in! Very un-religious but absolutely wonderful.

At night, tired but happy, I watched the Scottish Rugby Team wallop (slight exaggeration) the Welsh. Aberdeen won, Man Utd won and I went to sleep one happy camper!

GREAT!

Face to Face with Utter Hopelesness

Living in the Philippines brings you face to face with stark paradoxes every day. You just never know what you are going to find out, who you are going to meet or what is going to happen. Trying to live by a schedule is great on paper but useless in practice. One minute you could be speaking to an ultra-rich (even by western standards) businessman leaning over his Pajero, and the next minute you are talking to the ultra-poor garbage man who still manages a smile.

I know that this is seemingly the same in the UK - rich and poor do live alongside each other. But here, if you take a walk down the main street in Santiago you will see such conflicting standards of living that you would wonder if these people dwelt on the same planet. The poor here are very poor; no dole outs, no safety nets, no free NHS, no job seekers allowance and certainly no government benefits. It's who you know that matters here, and if you don't know anyone in high places, you will find it so hard.

Sometimes, we can become immune to hopelessness and the pain and poverty can so easily be overlooked and ignored. But sometimes, the truth runs deep.

Take this week. Pastor Winston texted me to say that one of the kids who regularly attends our Powerhouse Kids Club had been run over by a bus. Winston went there and found out that this boy - his name is Sylvester - had tragically died. It was the Mayor of Santiago's birthday and she stated that all schools could be closed for the day (oh the joys of being a school kid in the Philippines! Any excuse is a good excuse for the teacher taking a day off!) Sylvester didn't believe that the school was closed and jumped on his bike to find out. he went to school and no-one was there. He was so excited that he peddled back on to the road without looking ... and a bus hit him and his bike. he went hurting through the air and landed very badly. His back was broken and he died on the spot. Tragic.


Winston got there and could not believe the poverty this poor family were living in. They lived in a squatters house made of pieces of wood and some corrugated iron for a roof. They had no work, no income. They were grief stricken and were hoping for a good future for their son.

Winston asked, "Where is your daughter Selina? She used to come to Powerhouse but we haven't seen her for a couple of months." They called for their little girl to come out of her room, and whet Winston saw made him almost cry. This little girl's arm was totally burned. A pot of boiling water had toppled over her weeks before, but because of their poverty, they could not even go to see a Doctor. Such a beautiful face; such terrible scars.



So at one side of the shack their son lay in a casket. On the other was their little girl with a badly affected arm. What a tragic situation Winston found himself in. And yet, this is exactly where God wants us to be. Burden carriers. Difference makers. Available shoulder-to-cry-on people. Fellow weepers. Hand holders. Generous givers. Tear catchers.

We are going to try and help this family in whatever way we can. We will take Selina to the Doctors and take care of her infected arm. We will surround them with prayer and trust that our prayers lead them to the Father - the source of all they need.

I feel that I just finished writing a great encouraging blog yesterday. The blog before was a hard one. And here we are again today .. a sad one! This is life in the Philippines.

I don't write about this family to make you feel bad. But I pray that you will feel something. Even if you feel just blessed that you don't face hopelessness and helplessness every day, that is a positive thing.

If you have friends or family that can pray, then please send them this email address so they can see the pictures and pray for this family.

The world is full of hopelessness - whether it be in a shanty house here in the Philippines or in a bungalow in Scotland. One of the greatest challenges we have ... is to bring HOPE to a dying world.

PowerWeekEnd!

Had a great weekend last week. On Saturday we had Powerhouse United here at the Fire Centre. For those of you who don't know, Cornerstone Church started our Powerhouse ministries in November 2005 when a team from Scotland came out. One of the team members was my brother David who started Powerhouse Ministries in Fraserburgh in 1996. Our Children's Pastor (Alexandro) went to Scotland for 6 weeks in 2005 to study what David was doing there and to be trained.


So on the first Saturday of every month we have Powerhouse United. We bus kids in from all the areas where we are ministering and they have a great time - songs, dances, quizzes, games, stories ... and they get a good snack at the end! They love it. We get between 200-400 kids every month, depending on weather, holidays etc. The team do a great job and I have to thank the Lord for people like David and Gillian Saunders who have done an amazing job training our team and developing the programme. We have over 30 Cornerstone members in our team, and they have learned so much.

On the First Sunday of the month we also have 'Cornerstone United'. We started off with one church in August 2004, but now we have six churches who are at different stages in their development. Maybe in another blog I will let you know all about them. Anyway, on the first Sunday we all meet together. This is a really good day when we can say hello to old friends and meet new ones.

Last Sunday we had around 320 people there. We have a full kids and toddlers programme .. so everyone is catered for. I was so blessed last week when I saw our band - all teenagers (see pic)! All have been trained in the last 2 years from scratch and now they are doing so well. The 'old' worship band (our Pastors!) are now happily redundant ... although I have bought a new guitar and rumours are flying about a return for 'Mark and the Old Guys'!

I preached about 'Don't Let the Devil Steal Your Song' and many responded for prayer. The end of the service was really nice. Brenda Chua is a young lady from our mother church in Cornerstone Singapore and she has been here for 6 months. She has done a great job and we had a wee presentation for her. We had 'words of encouragement' from the various ministries at Sefton, and also many dances and singing items. Really nice. The highlight was a group of parents from the KMGLC who sang a beautiful Christian song - 'Worthy is the Lamb' (above). They had never been to Cornerstone before and we were delighted to see them. A great morning ....

Keep praying for us. Many great things are happening and we ask that you keep our family close to your heart in prayer. Josiah is doing great and loves Pepito so much. They walk around Sefton hand in hand most of the time! Lydia is struggling a wee bit. She spoke fluent Tagalog before but she has not spoken any since she came back. She was very eager to go to school but this week she has shown some reluctance - we think it is because of the language and because she is a bit behind her classmates because of her time in Scotland. Pray for her as she tries to fit back in here. She misses her cousin Bethany so much and she has tasted tow different lives in two very different countries. Very hard, but I am sure she will fit back in.

Can you spot Lydia from her school photo below? I am a mug. I told Mary three years ago that the school photographer did a really bad job and that even I could do much better ... so she told me that from then on I would have to! Nightmare! What they didn't teach you at Bible School!

Pray also for Mary & I. It has also been very difficult for us as there have been hard decisions to make and issues to tackle. There are different pressures here to handle and we would value your prayers. Sorry for the short blog the other day. It was a tough day and I was exhausted. That's about all I could muster!

Keep praying for us and all at Sefton Village. Thousands of lives are being touched weekly .. so be encouraged!

Goodnight ...

Hard

Hard, hard day.

The Comfort of Status Quo

It has been very interesting just to see the changes and listen to the stories of what has been happening at Sefton Village in the last 6 months. It has been quite an adventure for our staff, I can tell you! They have had to make decisions, and stand by them, all by themselves.

I must say, at this point, that it seems as if there have been no major problems at Sefton. I mean, Sefton is still here, no buildings have been burned to the ground, no terrorists have kidnapped anyone and no-one has been injured or killed in the last 6 months. Praise God! In fact, generally we are very happy with the way that we find Sefton Village. The teams have done very well and I think they have grown a lot in the process. We are very proud of them if truth be told.

The Children's Home had a bit of a scare in October, and faced the possibility of closure .. all because of an administrative misunderstanding. But Marilyn and Brenda (a lovely lady from Singapore who has been here to help us) handled the situation with grace and a solution was found. The School has run very smoothly and the teachers have overcome every challenge.

The Bible School has been through the mill a wee bit. I left and Pastor Abe died on the same night. Pastor Angel was left holding the ropes, but I must say that he, along with Pastor James Bastian (our Administrator and temporary Dean) have done an exceptional job. I came home to find a great group of students who have a heart to serve the Lord.

Cornerstone Church, well this is an interesting one. When I left we had a definite vision from the Lord and we were heading a certain direction. There were some key things that the Lord had shown us and, even though it was 'out of our box' and slightly different to most churches around here, we believed that this was the way forward. I left the team with clear directions and instructions, both for the church's vision and for their own personal development.

The comfort of safeness. What dangerous few words. If you take an elastic band and stretch it, you will find that it's length and capacity is much greater. But if you release the tension or just let go, it will become just an ordinary small elastic band. That's what's happened at Cornerstone. The team have gone into maintenance mode and have embraced safety. It is far easier and, to be honest, many many churches are in maintenance mode or walking in safety; very few are really stretched and walking in a consistent and revelatory vision.

I went to church on Sunday morning. On first glance, it looks great for a 2 year old church. Good number of people there (around 150-180 between both services), good praise and worship - our young people now play every instrument and all of our original musicians have trained someone to take their place - the message was good. But I knew, deep in my heart, that things are not where they should be.

So, when I talked to the leaders at our meeting yesterday, they shared with me that it was much easier for them to maintain the church until 'Pastor Mark' comes back. Everything is still going on - the feeding programmes, the Powerhouse, Jail ministries, Youth, Mens/Womens Ministry etc., but the fresh vision stopped when I left. They wanted to put the church in the freezer until I returned. But you cannot freeze something that is alive and growing!

So now we seek the Lord for what He wants again. I think the Team have learned many things in the last few days. We prayed together and cried together yesterday. We will continue to build a Church for the Lord's glory.

How about you, how about your church. In the UK, many homes undergo safety checks. Many computer have virus safety checks. We have car safety checks. If we did a safety check on your church, how would it fare? Here are some of the questions we could ask:

1. What is the vision of your church? Is it written down, communicated and prayed about?

2. When is the last time God asked you to do something new ... and you did it?

3. Do you have a book or list of prophetic words or vision that the Lord has shown you?

4. Is your church an exciting place to be, where you don't know what is going to happen .. or is it programmed and 'same old same old'

5. When is the last time you tried .. and failed?

6. Are you walking in a progressive vision or walking in the comfort of safety?

Same in our personal lives. Twelve men saw Jesus on the water; only one went and did something that seemed impossible. Eleven men kept themselves dry; one almost drowned. Eleven men believed with their head; one trusted with his heart. Eleven men saw Jesus; one man believed in Him. Eleven men thought and remained; one thought and walked. Eleven men saw a miracle; one man experiences a miracle. Eleven men congratulated themselves on a logical and ordinary decision to the call; one man encouraged himself to walk towards an extra-ordinary calling. Eleven men watched; one man walked.

Living by faith is so easy to say but unbelievably hard to do. I know very few who truly live by faith. We all have our safety nets and excuses. Me included. But God is looking for those who will seek Him, receive a vision and dream from him and run with it. People who will be stretched. Who will leave the safety of the boat and what they have experienced.

In truth, I am not too discouraged about the church. In some ways I expected it to have changed. We are not where we should be, but we are not as bad as we could be, but by God's grace and strength, we will go where we are called to be. What we have to do now is repair the sails, encourage the crew and re-navigate our position. We will sail away from the comfort of safety into the depths of new adventure.

Don't live in the shallow comfort of safety. You will never change your world. Walk a life of living in the depths of faith, live a life of unfurling vision ... and you, and your church, will see great things.

Selah...