Beautiful Singapora ...

Here I am, sitting in front of a spectacular skyline in a hotel on Singapore's Harbour front (see above). Doesn't get much better than this! From our hotel we can see Raffles hotel right in front of us, St Andrews Church just to our right and the busy harbour straight ahead. What a place! We booked the basic room but, wehey, when we arrived at midnight they were all gone. So were the next class .. so here we are in Club Class on the 23rd floor. The unforced rhythms of grace! (I can just here my brother David saying, "Aye, ye always land on yir feet!)

Yesterday was a great day. We only had 4 hours sleep due to our plane leaving late and an eager bunch of Singaporean friends bringing us out for dinner. The favourite phrase in Singapore is "Have you eaten yet?" Now, if you were a born liar you would end up pretty big! Ahem. But we hadn't eaten so they took us to this place called the lagoon, by the beach. It is around 50 eating places in the shape of a square and in the middle there are tables where you can eat. Amazing.

Yesterday we went to Cornerstone Church. We went to the 8:30am service. It was so wonderful for me to see my old friends again. I really love these people ... especially my 'big brother' Pastor Yang and his lovely wife Daphne. There was a visiting pastor called Joel Baker ministering yesterday. He used to be the Director of a Bible School in Singapore but now ministers in Australia. He was superb - "The Love of God". If you can listen to this message from Cornerstone's Website (link on right) you will be blessed.

I was speaking at the Chinese service ... what an experience! Around 250 Chinese folk packed into one of the church's many conference theatres. When they began to worship it was like being in heaven! They sang with such fervour and passion. I did not know a word they were singing ... but I definitely know who they were singing about. I preached about 'Our Meat is on the Street' encouraging them to believe God that they can take His power and presence from the church to the street. So many responded and at the end we prayed for all the sick. They just kept on coming! There was a wonderful sense of God's purpose and presence. The service lasted more the 3 hours ... it felt like a moment.

We rested a bit in the afternoon and then Michael and the gang went out with some Singaporeans for a Hot Pot. I went with Pastor Yang and his family for a Chinese meal ... unbelievable! In the west we judge by quantity but here they judge by quality. Every mouthful was delicious. Anyway, let's move on ....!

Tomorrow I am going for the Cornerstone Pastors Retreat in Singapore. This is a wonderful time of sharing, reporting about what is happening, praying for each other and inspiring each other in our vision. Michael, Alison and Jemma Rose will stay in Singapore until we fly back to Philippines on Friday.

By the way, Jemma Rose gets a special Ritchie prize for 'Church Attender of the Year'. She went to the 1st service form 8:30-10:30, straight to the Chinese service until 1:00 and then from the Youth service from 1-3:30pm. Incredible ... in church for 7 hours straight! Well done Jemma ... I'll be telling Steve Ritchie about your great feat! He He

The people from Cornerstone Singapore are the nicest people I have ever met, bar none. They are so kind and the way they show hospitality is beautiful. They have such servant hearts and we are trying to do things' the Cornerstone way' in Santiago also. Bible calls it 'going the extra mile.' Teach me Lord.

Just found out that Heidi Baker is coming to Cornerstone in January. We heard her speak here last April and that was an amazing experience. She is coming in the second week of January 2008 ... if you fancy a great wee trip just after New Year to somewhere different why don't you plan to come to Singapore for a week. Your soul, body and spirit will be truly uplifted as you see Singapore, experience Cornerstone and hear Heidi. Selah.

Will blog soon. Here are a few wee updates before I go:

Margarita - she is slowly improving. Hope to get out of hospital today.
Mona Lisa - Praise God, she is starting to eat regularly... and he hair IS growing!
Mary & kids - pray for them as when i am away the enemy always tries to do something that will discourage them. Pray for angels to watch over Sefton Village.
Students - we also had 2 students in hospital last weekend. One is discharged now but Gawina is still there. Pray that she will be discharged today.

Be blessed and have a great week ....

Pray for Our Little Ones

Hi folks. Well, I thought it was too good to be true. Our Internet was off for almost a month and we had it back for a whole 6 days! But on Saturday night it was cut off and it hasn't returned. I am back in Manila in an Internet cafe trying to write this very important blog in an environment of very loud heavy music! Aaagghh .. I admit it .... I'm getting old! Please forgive me for any spiling mistakes or bad grandma.

I have some urgent requests for you to pray about ... all concerning kids. Over the last three weeks so many of the kids at Sefton have been so sick. Many in the nursery had severe diarrhea, sickness and fever. Josiah and Jonathan's son Daniel ended up in hospital as well as Karis, a daughter of one of our staff. Then two of our teachers' kids ended up in hospital. So much to take at one time.

And this week has been just as bad. Please pray for the following:


* Mona Lisa - not a pretty picture!

Mary had a very hard day on Tuesday. A mum was brought by the Social Work Department with her two young kids. The mum was mentally unstable and was a manic depressive. She had 6 kids but was not capable of looking after them. When it came time for her to leave she went hysterical and almost broke the little girls arm.

Mona Lisa is a beautiful girl but her mother has tried to cut her her and made a terrible mess. Little Mona Lisa has been on a very poor diet and when Marilyn went to see the home last week her mum was feeding her sand. Hard to believe, but true.

She is VERY malnourished and does not have the will to eat. She is a lovely girl with a beautiful personality. We need her to start eating to have a chance. Please pray.

* Margarita - Dengue fever

Margarita is our oldest child in the Children's Home and she is never ill. But this week she has had high fevers as well as other flu like symptoms. She started having nose bleeds... and we began to worry. Our worst fears were realised when we took her to hospital. She has dengue .. worse than malaria and very serious.

She is in hospital now but her blood platelet levels are dropping. We need you to pray that the Lord would touch her body and that this dengue would disappear.

* July - the rice sack kid!

On Tuesday night I got a call from a member in Nagassican that there was a 4 day old baby there that was almost dead and was convulsing. Pastor Danny ruched there and brought this baby boy to hospital ... all the family had to wrap him in was a rice sack (see picture above). Story is this. This baby was born and the mum could not produce milk. They are very poor, so they went to the little store and bought some packets of Coffee Mate. Yup, that's right. So for four days this baby had water and coffee mate. He dehydrated and almost died.

Thank the Lord we got him to hospital in time. Pastor Danny said that they should name him ... so they called him July! Strange but very Filipino.

PLEASE pray for all these kids and also that all these bouts of illness would go. Pray for our protection. Even for us as a family the last thing we want is for our two kids to catch dengue as it is very serious for western kids if they catch it.

Thanks for standing with us. I am going to Singapore for a conference on Saturday so please pray for Mary and the staff as they minister at Sefton Village.

Be blessed .. and stay healthy!

PS - Thanks to the 35 folk who have signed our guetbook ... but what about the rest of you?? Come on .. it will only take a minute! Thanks ....

Tabitha

Hi stranger! My fault ... not yours! I just want to thank everyone who prayed for Josiah. He was discharged from hospital on Saturday morning and since then his eating has improved, he is gaining strength ... and he certainly has his singing/shouting voice back again! He is a real character ... a wee comedian!

Been down in Manila and the Scottish Team are well and truly home now. We had a great couple of weeks and my two kids loved having other Scottish kids around. We had a really good programme organised for them - a mixture of ministry time, kids time and learning time. I will write a blog with a report on all the great things that happened.

In the meantime, I want to totally inspire and encourage you by an amazing story that happened here this week. As you know, one of our ministries at Cornerstone Church is our Hospital Ministry every Wednesday morning. I asked the Lord, "If you came to Santiago, where would you go?" I felt in my spirit that He would go to the place where there is the most helplessness and need ... the local Government hospital. A terrible place. Every time we go there, desperation hits us in the face.

For example, the lady at the bottom of this blog was in a desperate situation. She had to have a cesarean as there were complications with her twin babies. She had the operation and the kids were healthy. She, however, was not. She had an infection that was so severe she was at the point of death. Listen to this .. when we talked to her she told us that she had to sell one of her twins just to pay the medicine to keep her alive. Tragic. This week, Pastor Danny said that she was not there. We don't know if she is even still alive.

I have been challenging the leaders, and myself, not to pray 'safe' prayers - "Lord, I pray that by this time next week he'll be out of this hospital" or "Lord guide the hands of the surgeons" or "may she wake up tomorrow feeling better". Know what I mean. We are excellent at safety. Keep our pride and dignity at all costs.

But ...we need the Peter & John anointing - right here, right now. In the Name of Jesus ... walk, be healed, blind eyes open, asthma be gone, high blood pressure become normal, heart disease flee etc. I have been challenging the leaders to ask "How do you feel, what is happening" after they pray. These people literally need a miracle now. Some of them are teetering at the edge of life and death ...

There was a little boy called Joshua, only 8 years old from Santiago City. He cut his thumb on a piece of rusty iron and it became infected. In the UK, tetanus jab, no problem. In the Philippines ... life threatening. His thumb became black and septicemia began to run through his body. Two weeks ago Pastor Danny, Pastor Winston along with David & Grace Strachan from Peterhead prayed with the boy and his family. David left a card with a verse on it to encourage them.


Last weekend, wee Joshua's conditioned worsened and his family was called to the hospital. They watched helplessly as the poison took the last breath from the little boy ... he died. The Doctor pronounced him dead and the family were distraught.

Five minutes after he died something amazing happened. Joshua's grandmother began to hold this boy in her hands and began to cry out to the Lord. She said that she began to 'pray the same prayers as the Cornerstone people'. She rebuked the sickness and cried out "God, if you are there ... have mercy on this boy and hear my cries."

Whenever she prayed this prayer, Joshua's eyes opened. He was back! Over the next few days the poison in his body began to disappear and last Wednesday his grandmother was waiting to tell our pastors the amazing story. Look at the picture at the start of this blog. His thumb is completely healed! No puss. No black poison. Our God is a healing God. Hallelujah! The book of Acts is still being written ....

Well, that's OK in the Philippines... but it wouldn't really happen in the West. Really? Who prayed? Who had the faith? Who believed against the odds? An old grandmother in the depths of despair. She wasn't a member of a Pentecostal Church. She wasn't in a cell group. She isn't even an evangelical. But she thought ... only Jesus can hear me.

In Scotland, England, Ireland & Wales .. in the USA or Australia ... wherever you may be, God is searching for those whose hearts are fully committed to Him .. so he may strengthen them. Why don't you ask the Lord, "Lord, if you came to my town ... where would you go?" or "lord, can you use me?"

It will open your eyes and change your life. In the meantime, there are people in hospital right now who need the same miracle as Joshua; they need love' ... they need to know someone cares. The church MUST break out of her four comfortable walls and begin to walk the streets. For there you will find needs you never knew ... and at the point of need you will find a saviour waiting for His people to speak faith into the most helpless of situations.

Got a cup of water? An old jacket? An extra meal? A bit of time? A letter of encouragement? An shoulder to lean on? A prayer of faith? (Please read Matthew 25:34-46)

Go ... the world is waiting for you. If you won't go ... what will happen to the Joshuas of your generation? Miracles are waiting for you ... only believe.

Selah

"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42

Pray for the Wee Man...

Wehey! After 3 weeks we have Internet! Back in action now.

This is just a tiny blog to say that we are fine ... well, almost all of us. Little Josiah has not been so well these last 3 weeks. He had bad diarrhea in the last fortnight and we couldn't get the back of it. We think now it was because of a change of water at the school.

On Wednesday he started to be sick as well and on Thursday he was getting worse. We went to the Doctor who said that wee Josiah was really dehydrated and he was admitted to hospital.

Even after 2 hours of the dextrose drip he made a bit of a recovery and was getting back to his normal self. Yesterday he continued to recover and today he came home. Sorry for not getting the prayer request to you all but we were out of time, out of energy and out of Internet!

We are just hopping in the car now to go to Manila. We have had a great time with the Scottish Team and I will update you soon. So many great things are happening here. Storms and battles are to be expected.

Better go ... pray for us - especially wee Josiah and his exhausted mummy!

Thanks ...

The Farmer Who Sowed Sorrow...

There was a man - probably a farmer - who decided one day to prune his coconut tree. He took out his very sharp sabre and began to cut the leaves of his tree. He wasn't an evil man and indeed, he had no intentions of causing great sorrow and heartache to an un-named Scottish missionary. But then he made a mistake. Misjudging his aim in a moment of folly - hey, maybe the sun was in his eyes? - he took a swipe at his branch but instead cut a wire that was hanging close by. He thought nothing of it.

But my friends ... that wire was an important wire. It was the wire that connected this poor missionary to the rest of the world. It was the wire that brought me my beloved broadband and my life outside Sefton Village. To this farmer, it was only a wire, but to me it was a lifeline! And that was 13 days ago! The phone company said that my line was a 'very very long line' and that they would have to order new wire from Manila. So here I am, phone-less, wire-less and internet-less. Woe is me! He He.

But, then I had an idea. I have a new mobile phone on my contract and it is a beauty! A Nokia N95. Amazing. When I loaded the software there was an icon that said 'use my phone as a modem'. Mmm ... can this wee phone really link me to the world again? It did! It is not so fast as broadband, and it is more expensive, but it works! And the very fact you are reading this proves it.

These last two weeks have been very busy but so amazing. We had a team from Cornerstone here for a week and we had an excellent week. On the day they dropped them off we picked up the Scottish Team from Manila and they are here now. they are doing great and we are enjoying their company. So much to share - the funny, the challenging, the good, the bad, the ugly ... but I will wait and see if we can get our broadband back in the next day or two!

If you ever come to Santiago and you see a farmer-looking guy who has an embarrassed look on his face ... he's the one!

Blog soon .... promise!

p.s. - thanks to all who have written in our guestbook. If you have not ... please please do. We would love to know who you are and where you come from!