Singapore

Well, we are back home now in the good old Philippines. We really enjoyed our trip to Singapore and we were so blessed. It is more than going to a regular Conference; it is a complete experience. Our group of 17 Filipinos were so encouraged by all that happened in these short 6 days.

Winston and four others went ahead on the Saturday because from Sunday-Tuesday Cornerstone run an amazing Youth Conference called "IGNITE" and the theme this year was ‘Relentless’. There were over 1500 young people registered from 30 churches and 24 nations. They had two powerful American as guest speakers and they were sharp. The praise and worship was LOUD but beautiful and to see the sincerity and passion of these young people is awe inspiring.

The rest of us came on Wednesday to attend the Zion Conference. The main speaker is an Englishman called Dr. Brian Bailey and he is the president of Zion Ministries based in Waverly, New York. He is a man who really has encounters with angels and with the Lord and he shared many prophetic insights. The theme this year was ‘God’s Mighty Army’. The Praise & Worship is excellent and you could feel the passion of the people as we sang. So many lovely new songs. The seminars were excellent – I attended the seminars by Pastor Yang entitled ‘The Impact of Church on Society’ and he was red hot! He was so excited and his enthusiasm was tangible. I really enjoyed what he had to say.

Keith, Anne and myself stayed with a host family from the church – Irene, Lynn, Ashley and Jason Ong. They could not do enough for us and waned to give us British breakfasts every morning! Not complaining. Bring it on. Actually, food is a major thing in Singapore. Their favourite phrase is ‘Have you eaten yet?” When you get asked that around 20 times a day you know you are in the right place! We ate Indian curry, Malaysian Prata, Chinese steam boat, English breakfast, Thai chicken and on the last night I went out with pastor Yang for an American steak… I feel as though I have international intestines!

There were over 1000 delegates at the Conference – over 450 from overseas - including 350 Filipinos! Everywhere I went I heard tagalog and saw a Filipino smile. On the Sunday I had the honour of preaching in the 3^rd service at Cornerstone. It was mainly young people who attend and everything is run by the youth department (called Generations) – the worship, PA, IT, video, offering etc. The youth Pastor is an amazing guy called Daniel Chua (left) – a young man with a dream and passion to see Singaporean young people touch the world. The service was great and I preached about David’s Mighty Men. Man, you should have seen the response at the end. Wall to wall young people crying out to God and weeping at the altar. We made white flags that symbolized ‘surrender’ and as they began to wave them and salute to the Lord the power of God hit them and many dropped to their knees in surrender.

Wow.

Check out all the preaching, downloads, podcasts and info on the excellent Cornerstone website ... there is a link just to the right of this blog!

We came back knowing we had an ultra busy week ahead of us. But we were refreshed, envisioned and empowered. I recommend that if anyone has a bit of time and a bit of money, they should start saving now for the conferences next year. Maybe we will have a ‘Fire Conference’ here at Sefton straight after Singapore. Interested? Let’s pray about it.

Bring on March 2008…