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...
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...
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