Back Again!

Weyeh ... back again! Miss me? Go on, be honest. I know you have been checkin' out every few days to see if there was anything new. Well, to be honest the old Internet has been off for ages. And we have been so busy these last few weeks that I have not been able to phone the phone company every day!

So many things have happened since I blogged way back in Feb 24th! We had the funeral of wee Gio ... such a sad occasion. I had to go to Manila but Mary and Anne made it to the funeral. They said that it was hear breaking to see the wee coffin being carried to the cemetery.

On Sunday 1st Winston & I went down to Manila to pick up a team of 12 people from the AoG Bible School at Mattersey. The team was headed by an amazing guy called Dr. John Andrews who comes from Northern Ireland. He was at Mattersey just before me (way back in teh 80's!) and he pastored a church at the great old age of 19! He is now the Senior Pastor of Rotherham New Life and we know John and his family very well now. He is a fantastic & inspirational speaker and is now Director of Training at Mattersey.

One of the things John has brought to Mattersey is that every student has to do an overseas missions trip every year! Wow! We felt blessed if we went to Scunthorpe for the weekend. How things have changed .... not jealous or anything ... ahem! Anyway, we were so chuffed when John chose to come here! he has been here twice before in 1994 & 1996 and so it was good fro him to see what the Lord has been doing at Sefton with his own eyes.

The team arrived and were ruched from the airport straight up to Santiago. They arrived at 7:30am and took the Cornerstone United service at 9am! In at the deep end! It was all go from there - Feeding Programmes, up river to the villages, preaching at SBTC, cultural challenges, hospital ministry, student ministry, playing with kids in orphanage, taking classes at school, preaching to the parents, jail ministry, Powerhouse Kids ministry, Youth services, preaching in our Cornerstone churches etc. etc. Phew, I am tired just typing out that stuff!


One of the things we did was run a Leadership Conference for 2nights-1 day. John Andrews was the speaker and he was brilliant. The theme was "Servanthood - the Pathway to Greatness." Spot on! I believe so many were touched and challenged by the Lord at our conference.

We took them to Banaue on Sunday afternoon and drove down to Manila on Monday. By the time you read this they should be touching down in the UK. If any of the Mattersey team are reading this ... could a couple of you write a wee 'Guest Blog' so you can share your experiences with us all! Thanks in advance.

The devil loves it when God is moving. He is delighted when people's lives are transformed. He will do anything to encourage and inspire us .... doesn't he? Em, no. I felt last Monday that there was a big discouragement coming and that God was saying, "Don't focus on it, focus on what I am doing." Sure enough, whilst wonderful things were going on during the week, someone walked into my home and stole my Apple Mac laptop. Worst thing was hat I had just bought a 100 pounds new battery for it and had opened the box to check the battery was OK. So I was left with a battery I didn't need and could not return and a laptop I no longer possessed! I decided not to dwell on it ... but now that I have a bit more time I have to say I am a teeny weeny bit 'scunnered' (doric for 'fed-up!)

Never mind, I'm sure the Apostle Paul lost a few laptops on his missionary journeys! And after speaking to Gio's dad again yesterday I realise once again that everything can be replaced in life except life.

Don't focus on temporal things that can be destroyed - or stolen - at any moment. Set your heart on building for eternity and these temporary 'scunners' will mean nothing.

Bless ya ... hope to blog tomorrow. Promise!