From Sefton to the World!

In December 2008 I challenged all our churches and Department Leaders to catch up with the rest of the world and start blogging! No excuse now ... we have quite a number of desktops and laptops around Sefton Village!


Well, most of them have accepted the challenge and have taken the first step - getting a blogsite! Most of them have followed (copied!) me and used Blogger.com ... mainly because it is so easy to use ... even for the most computer-challenged pastor!

So, here are their blogsites. I know that some have not even got their first blog in, but I have challenged them to get one in by the end of this week! Why don't you look them up, bookmark them and write a wee comment to encourage them. News from Sefton is coming faster and thicker than ever!

Check these out:

Winston (Youth Director)
Marilyn (Children's Home)
James Bastian (Ramon, St Mateo etc.)
Henry (Feeding Programme)
Danny (Nagassican)
Jun (Powerhouse Kids Club)
Daben (Youth Pastor @ Santiago)
Marlou (Pastor of Santiago)
Matthew Kerr
Joboy (Keyboard player @ Santiago)

There are a few more blogs coming, which I will give you next week.Here is the latest blog from Winston Bao-in - just to give you a flavour! Remember, when you read these folk's blogs, English is their second language - so be kind!

Hello everyone!

I want to share about a friend named George....


George came from a remote village in northern part of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Hes family is poor so they decided to search for greener pasture, and in the process he and his family are scattered. Due to poverty, they had never been to school, so George can't read of write.

He got married and had 3 kids... In the course of time, his wife died while their kids are still small. A relative offered to help him raised the kids, and ask him to send one of his daughter to them in manila. His daughter is 9 years old that time. He send his child in a bus to Manila, and in the process, the daughter was lost. They searched for her, but no where to be found. In just two weeks, he lost his wife and a daughter.......

He got married again for the second time, and God blessed them with 5 children. They are now living in Nagassican, Santiago City, and a faithful member in Cornerstone Church Nagassican. 3 years ago, he was diagnosed with kidney failure, and it is really acute. The doctor sent him home to die, and said hes got only a month to live.

He and his family believed that God will heal him. He only take a medicine when someone give him, for they can't afford to buy.

George is still alive, but he can't work, for he is not yet well. When he gets worse, he said hes medication is prayer. At the moment, he is sick again and he's here in Sefton Village for prayer.

He said hes ready to be with the Lord. Hes prayer request is that the Lord take him very soon to end his suffering, but if God wants to use him for His glory. That he will receive his healing very soon, for him not to be a burden to his family.

Please pray with us, and my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to pray for him and his family.

i Can Only Imagine

By our 'Theatre for Christ' group of young people from Cornerstone Churches, Isabela in the Philippines.

Their first performance!

Drole Scottish Humour

Keith gave me a book to read yesterday and it looks so good ... and very Scottish! It is called "Tom Shields Takes the Fifth" and it is full of stories, funny pictures, anecdotes, fables and hilarious stories. Tom writes a daily column in the Sunday Herald and Daily Record. Looks great!

Here's a wee sample:

"A linguistics class in a University in Ontario, Canada. The Professor tells the class, "In English, a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language in the world in which a double positive can form a negative."

To which a Scots voice replies, "Aye, right."


A Glasgow father was watching over his young daughter's shoulder as she sets up an email account on the family computer. She reaches the point where she has to put in the password and the message on the screen says that it has to have at least four characters.

So, after thinking about it, she types in 'snowwhitebartsimpsonshrekwoodie'.


A woman goes her personal trainer at her gym and asks, "Can you teach me to do the splits?'
The instructor asks, "How flexible are you?"
So the eager learner tells him, "I can't make Tuesdays."


A tale from the European tie penalty shoot out at Celtic Park. As the players line up for the vital kicks, a group of Celtic fans were discussing what to shout at the Valencia players to try and put them off. One said, "We need to shout out the Spanish word for Miss".

Raising his voice he shouted out, "Does anyone know the Spanish for miss?"
From behind, someone shouted, "Senorita".

In a similar vein, a friend of mine - a lady, wife and mother - out of the blue sent me some quotes about wives. She told me to read them but but maybe they should not be put in the blog. I read them ... and decided they would be great for my blog! Just the kinda stuff I like!!

I hope you enjoy them. I must say, at this point, that none of the below apply to my wife Mary. (I better get that off my chest because she told me to write that disclaimer!)

Ok ... here they are!

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than
to let him keep her.
Sacha Guitry

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy.
If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.
Dumas

I had some words with my wife; and she had some paragraphs with me.
Anonymous

'Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.'
Henny Youngman

'I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.'
Sam Kinison

'There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage.'
James Holt McGavran

'I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me and the second one didn't.'
Patrick Murray

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
Nash

The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once...
Anonymous

You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.
Henny Youngman

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.
Milton Berle

A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: 'Wife wanted'. Next day he received a hundred letters.
They all said the same thing: 'You can have mine.'
Anonymous

First Guy (proudly): 'My wife's an angel!'
Second Guy: 'You're lucky, mine's still alive.'
Anonymous

Theatre for Christ

Wow ... what a weekend! On Saturday morning I preached at the Cornerstone Men's Fellowship and I was so blessed with the great turn out. I talked about the story of Lot - "A Half Hearted Man and a Broken Hearted God." The need for no compromise!

On Saturday night, the very first production of 'Theatre for Christ' took place. My very first Premier! Theatre for Christ is the vision God gave to Jane Mangadap (above) - the lovely wife of Pastor Danny. When they were young they started a few Christian Theatre/Drama clubs in the Catholic church - and they are still going after 20 years! Jane is an amazing lady - I think she can literally do anything ... drama, singing, I.T stuff, art, video, Admin, writing etc. etc. - and she is such a blessing to the whole Cornerstone family. She is the Director for the Communications Dept. at Cornerstone.



She felt the Lord placing on her heart the need for a dance/drama group in Nagassican Church. Nagassican is a place that is really scorned by everyone in Santiago but God has promised us that he will make it a Place of Honour! And in the church many young people have been giving their lives to Christ. Many come from broken families and difficult situations. Many have not finished their schooling. But God is using these young people is wonderful ways. They have become intercessors and God is showing them - even the children - many visions and words. But that's another blog ...


Jane felt that she should open the 'Theatre for Christ '(TFC) to other Cornerstone Churches. So she ended up with 49 young people from 4 churches. Jane got a vision for doing a production about the story of the Bible - from Genesis to the resurrection. She put it all together - script and all - and called the young people to rehearse. They met every Thursday night and from 8-5 every Saturday from mid-December. A big commitment ... but it really paid off!


We found a sponsor from UK to buy all the materials for the backdrops, costumes, T-shirts, food for rehearsal days - a huge thank you (you know who you are!) Finally, January 31st came! To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect. But when I got there I could see that A LOT of effort had gone into this production by Jane & her amazing team.

They started. The young people were human trees ... then came Adam & Eve .. well, you know the story! The music was great and Pastor August did great voice-overs. Then we were taken to the 21st century to the effects of sin - drug problems, gambling, prostitution, murder etc. Then, out came the devil - Pastor August - and his two demons. They started throwing the people into hell (red lights and all!). They started running into the congregation to try and throw some of the spectators - frightening! My kids are convinced that Uncle Winston really is the devil (and I am having a hard time convincing them he is not)!


Then Pastor James Aquino came and spoke for 5 minutes about "There is No Hope." Really really powerful. Next scene was the birth of Jesus and the dancers danced to 'Joy to the World.' Probably the most powerful time for me was when they sang "I could only Imagine' and they portrayed the healing ministry of the Lord. Then they acted out the crucifixion to 'Above All' - so powerful.


Curtain down ... Pastor Winston came on and spoke about "There is Hope ... the Cross" He showed a 5 minute video. Again, really hard hitting. Part 3 was about the resurrection ... joy! All the young people danced and it was exciting to see them all dance together at the same time. Pastor Marlou finished things off with a challenge - "Your Commitment to Christ"


Then they had 'Curtain Call' and all the young people from the different churches did their own dance. There was such unity amongst these kids! They all gathered in front of the video screen and watched the credits and they even had a section of 'Bloopers' ... so funny.


I cannot describe the joy and emotion I felt that night. As a Pastor, I just stand back an watch in wonder as the Lord takes ordinary lives to do extra-ordinary things. It is on nights like these that I really think, "It's all worth it!'


These 49 kids - so many from broken homes and difficult lives - so professional, humble and disciplined. So happy. Full of joy. Hearts of gold. The main purpose of TFC is to 'Bring Christ to the Streets' and they have plans to do a lot of street work, evangelism and schools ministry. Right now, almost every school is open to Cornerstone - even the 4 High School are asking for us to come and minister to the kids. We are entering a season of harvest ... an these young people are key.


Enjoy the photos. They are good ... but you had to be there! Pray for Jane and her team. Pray for these young people. Pray for the ministry of TFC.