PowerWeekEnd!

Had a great weekend last week. On Saturday we had Powerhouse United here at the Fire Centre. For those of you who don't know, Cornerstone Church started our Powerhouse ministries in November 2005 when a team from Scotland came out. One of the team members was my brother David who started Powerhouse Ministries in Fraserburgh in 1996. Our Children's Pastor (Alexandro) went to Scotland for 6 weeks in 2005 to study what David was doing there and to be trained.


So on the first Saturday of every month we have Powerhouse United. We bus kids in from all the areas where we are ministering and they have a great time - songs, dances, quizzes, games, stories ... and they get a good snack at the end! They love it. We get between 200-400 kids every month, depending on weather, holidays etc. The team do a great job and I have to thank the Lord for people like David and Gillian Saunders who have done an amazing job training our team and developing the programme. We have over 30 Cornerstone members in our team, and they have learned so much.

On the First Sunday of the month we also have 'Cornerstone United'. We started off with one church in August 2004, but now we have six churches who are at different stages in their development. Maybe in another blog I will let you know all about them. Anyway, on the first Sunday we all meet together. This is a really good day when we can say hello to old friends and meet new ones.

Last Sunday we had around 320 people there. We have a full kids and toddlers programme .. so everyone is catered for. I was so blessed last week when I saw our band - all teenagers (see pic)! All have been trained in the last 2 years from scratch and now they are doing so well. The 'old' worship band (our Pastors!) are now happily redundant ... although I have bought a new guitar and rumours are flying about a return for 'Mark and the Old Guys'!

I preached about 'Don't Let the Devil Steal Your Song' and many responded for prayer. The end of the service was really nice. Brenda Chua is a young lady from our mother church in Cornerstone Singapore and she has been here for 6 months. She has done a great job and we had a wee presentation for her. We had 'words of encouragement' from the various ministries at Sefton, and also many dances and singing items. Really nice. The highlight was a group of parents from the KMGLC who sang a beautiful Christian song - 'Worthy is the Lamb' (above). They had never been to Cornerstone before and we were delighted to see them. A great morning ....

Keep praying for us. Many great things are happening and we ask that you keep our family close to your heart in prayer. Josiah is doing great and loves Pepito so much. They walk around Sefton hand in hand most of the time! Lydia is struggling a wee bit. She spoke fluent Tagalog before but she has not spoken any since she came back. She was very eager to go to school but this week she has shown some reluctance - we think it is because of the language and because she is a bit behind her classmates because of her time in Scotland. Pray for her as she tries to fit back in here. She misses her cousin Bethany so much and she has tasted tow different lives in two very different countries. Very hard, but I am sure she will fit back in.

Can you spot Lydia from her school photo below? I am a mug. I told Mary three years ago that the school photographer did a really bad job and that even I could do much better ... so she told me that from then on I would have to! Nightmare! What they didn't teach you at Bible School!

Pray also for Mary & I. It has also been very difficult for us as there have been hard decisions to make and issues to tackle. There are different pressures here to handle and we would value your prayers. Sorry for the short blog the other day. It was a tough day and I was exhausted. That's about all I could muster!

Keep praying for us and all at Sefton Village. Thousands of lives are being touched weekly .. so be encouraged!

Goodnight ...

Hard

Hard, hard day.

The Comfort of Status Quo

It has been very interesting just to see the changes and listen to the stories of what has been happening at Sefton Village in the last 6 months. It has been quite an adventure for our staff, I can tell you! They have had to make decisions, and stand by them, all by themselves.

I must say, at this point, that it seems as if there have been no major problems at Sefton. I mean, Sefton is still here, no buildings have been burned to the ground, no terrorists have kidnapped anyone and no-one has been injured or killed in the last 6 months. Praise God! In fact, generally we are very happy with the way that we find Sefton Village. The teams have done very well and I think they have grown a lot in the process. We are very proud of them if truth be told.

The Children's Home had a bit of a scare in October, and faced the possibility of closure .. all because of an administrative misunderstanding. But Marilyn and Brenda (a lovely lady from Singapore who has been here to help us) handled the situation with grace and a solution was found. The School has run very smoothly and the teachers have overcome every challenge.

The Bible School has been through the mill a wee bit. I left and Pastor Abe died on the same night. Pastor Angel was left holding the ropes, but I must say that he, along with Pastor James Bastian (our Administrator and temporary Dean) have done an exceptional job. I came home to find a great group of students who have a heart to serve the Lord.

Cornerstone Church, well this is an interesting one. When I left we had a definite vision from the Lord and we were heading a certain direction. There were some key things that the Lord had shown us and, even though it was 'out of our box' and slightly different to most churches around here, we believed that this was the way forward. I left the team with clear directions and instructions, both for the church's vision and for their own personal development.

The comfort of safeness. What dangerous few words. If you take an elastic band and stretch it, you will find that it's length and capacity is much greater. But if you release the tension or just let go, it will become just an ordinary small elastic band. That's what's happened at Cornerstone. The team have gone into maintenance mode and have embraced safety. It is far easier and, to be honest, many many churches are in maintenance mode or walking in safety; very few are really stretched and walking in a consistent and revelatory vision.

I went to church on Sunday morning. On first glance, it looks great for a 2 year old church. Good number of people there (around 150-180 between both services), good praise and worship - our young people now play every instrument and all of our original musicians have trained someone to take their place - the message was good. But I knew, deep in my heart, that things are not where they should be.

So, when I talked to the leaders at our meeting yesterday, they shared with me that it was much easier for them to maintain the church until 'Pastor Mark' comes back. Everything is still going on - the feeding programmes, the Powerhouse, Jail ministries, Youth, Mens/Womens Ministry etc., but the fresh vision stopped when I left. They wanted to put the church in the freezer until I returned. But you cannot freeze something that is alive and growing!

So now we seek the Lord for what He wants again. I think the Team have learned many things in the last few days. We prayed together and cried together yesterday. We will continue to build a Church for the Lord's glory.

How about you, how about your church. In the UK, many homes undergo safety checks. Many computer have virus safety checks. We have car safety checks. If we did a safety check on your church, how would it fare? Here are some of the questions we could ask:

1. What is the vision of your church? Is it written down, communicated and prayed about?

2. When is the last time God asked you to do something new ... and you did it?

3. Do you have a book or list of prophetic words or vision that the Lord has shown you?

4. Is your church an exciting place to be, where you don't know what is going to happen .. or is it programmed and 'same old same old'

5. When is the last time you tried .. and failed?

6. Are you walking in a progressive vision or walking in the comfort of safety?

Same in our personal lives. Twelve men saw Jesus on the water; only one went and did something that seemed impossible. Eleven men kept themselves dry; one almost drowned. Eleven men believed with their head; one trusted with his heart. Eleven men saw Jesus; one man believed in Him. Eleven men thought and remained; one thought and walked. Eleven men saw a miracle; one man experiences a miracle. Eleven men congratulated themselves on a logical and ordinary decision to the call; one man encouraged himself to walk towards an extra-ordinary calling. Eleven men watched; one man walked.

Living by faith is so easy to say but unbelievably hard to do. I know very few who truly live by faith. We all have our safety nets and excuses. Me included. But God is looking for those who will seek Him, receive a vision and dream from him and run with it. People who will be stretched. Who will leave the safety of the boat and what they have experienced.

In truth, I am not too discouraged about the church. In some ways I expected it to have changed. We are not where we should be, but we are not as bad as we could be, but by God's grace and strength, we will go where we are called to be. What we have to do now is repair the sails, encourage the crew and re-navigate our position. We will sail away from the comfort of safety into the depths of new adventure.

Don't live in the shallow comfort of safety. You will never change your world. Walk a life of living in the depths of faith, live a life of unfurling vision ... and you, and your church, will see great things.

Selah...

You Are Welcome!

Welcome. What a lovely warm word. There is no better feeling than to be in someones house or someones company .. and feel truly and warmly welcome. Guess what? The Filipinos are the absolute best.

I feel sad for the Filipinos in some senses; take sports. They are non-football playing (can you believe that?), they are not very involved in the world's major sports - rugby, American football, baseball etc. - and, although they are unbelievably skillful at basketball, their height is never going to make them world beaters. In recent Olympics, their ambition is to win a medal. They have only won 3 bronze and 2 silver since 1936 ... the last medal being way back in 1996!

But, if there was an award for being the most welcoming nation, the Philippines would win by a long way. My goodness, they could not have made us more welcome if they tried.

We arrived in Manila last Tuesday night. We spent a couple of days getting our visas organised and buying 'pasalubong' (gifts to Filipino friends after a long journey). This is a normal part of Filipino life .. so we had to buy around 110 gifts for all our staff and kid at Sefton Village. And you thought Christmas shopping was hard!
On Saturday, we picked up our car from the garage and headed up north. Winston was with us and the first thing we encountered was a massive traffic jam on EDSA, the busiest road in the Philippines! One hour! Murder. Never mind, we were soon on our way again.

We travelled up and arrived in Santiago at 4pm. When we turned into Sefton Village, we could not believe it. There were around 100 staff and friends there to welcome us .. with a big 'Welcome Home' banner at the centre of them. they sang songs, gave 'words of encouragement', hugged and kissed us and the tears were flowing. What a welcome! They made a special 'merienda' for us ... Josiah's favourite - Congee! It was great to catch up with everyone and see how much the children had grown!.

Just when we thought it was all over, we discovered that the Women's Ministries in Cornerstone Church had cooked a meal for us and all Sefton staff. Again, it was our favourite stuff - sweet & sour pork, chicken curry. They are stars!

On Sunday we went to Cornerstone Church, and again was given a lovely welcome. Today, we were invited by three different groups of parents from the school to come and have a 'Welcome Merienda' with them. So we went there at 9am, 1pm and 3pm and met three different groups of parents. They sang to us, welcomed us and they had cooked lovely food .. again!

The kids are so happy about going 'home' again. Lydia was off to school this morning ... beaming from ear to ear. Josiah is constantly surrounded by his two big bros - Abe's sons Angel & Renz. The pictures tell their story.

Tomorrow, we have another 'Welcome Home' party at the Bible School. Can you believe it? These Filipinos might not be the sportiest folk on this world ... but they have to be the nicest, kindest, most hospitable, caring and lovely people God has ever placed on this earth.

Don't believe me? Come on over ...

You are, and will be, made very welcome!

A Week from Now...

... me and Mary will be sitting in a British Airways 747 en-route to Hong Kong. Our two little darlings will be fast asleep and will proceed to sleep the remainder of the flight. Daddy will assure the air hostess that both children, even though they are fast asleep, definitely absolutely want their meals!!

That's the theory anyway. As we all know ... the best laid plans o' mice and men go aft aglay! Can't believe it! Where on earth has 6 months gone? I know it is very corny to write this (have you noticed that every Newsletter written by anybody in the whole wide world always starts with this question), but it is true. A lot has happened in the last 6 months - good, bad and ugly. My observations and thoughts will be written at a further date. Just to keep you up to speed, here is what has been happening with me & us:

* Great Christmas with Mary's family in Aberdeen. Great food, lots of fun and lots of presents!

* Boxing Day - brilliant! Saw the Dons play unbelievable football against Killie at Pittodrie. Best I've seen them for years. Huge pleasure of going with Bruce and Mary's dad david ... first time he'd been there for 12 years. The Dons put on a show for him and won 3-1.

* Sunday 31st - we all drove down to (know where that is?) where Mary had a reunion with her 3 best friends that she studied with at Glasgow Uni way back in the good old days. They are all married, have kids and you could imagine the amount of talking 4 Speech & Language Therapists do to catch up on 6 years of news!! Aaaaagghh! Actually, it was a great day, but my ears have still not recovered.

* Spent Hogmanay at Fraserburgh AoG followed by going to the Elim church. Great to spend a special time with special people.

* New Year at my mum & dad's. Again, the food was out of this world. MMmmm. Great to spend time with my brothers et al.

* Busy 1st weekend of the year. Went through to Peterhead Baptist church for a 'Buttery Morning" For all the uneducated folk reading this blog, a buttery can be called "a roll, a scone and a multitude of other names, but basically it is a dod o'fat mixed with flour. Fattening but delicious. The lovely ladies at PBC have been knitting like mad and have also been collecting clothes and donations for Sefton Village. We gave 3 short presentations in the main hall while everyone else enjoyed their butteries. Good idea.

* At night, I had the honour of preaching at Teen Challenge Sunnybrae's Graduation Night at Aberdeen AoG. What a night! From the very 1st song we could feel the presence of God. Nikki Gardiner sang beautifully and the two guys who were graduating testified. Amazing. God alone can truly transform lives. I spoke about David's Mighty Men and really felt the presence of God with me as I spoke. Thank you Lord.

* On Sunday evening I had the pleasure of preaching at the Elim Church in Fraserburgh. I really felt the Lord prompting me to speak about how God Uses Broken People. A real breakthrough at the end of the meeting. Beautiful.

* I had to drive down to Central Belt on Tuesday to tie some things up. Met up with my bro David, Gavin, Kenny & Ben to watch Aberdeen v Hibs at Pittodrie. Not so good, but very enjoyable.

* This last weekend we have had the David family with us - Andrew, Rachel and wee Hannah. Had a great time. Took them around Moray Firth on Friday (they LOVED Gamrie - especially my Aunty Helen's homemade soup!!) and on Saturday all of us headed down to Edinburgh. Our main purpose was to say goodbye to the folk in Whitburn. Had a great Sunday - lovely lunch at Norman & Gillian (our agents). After 15 months of trying .. I bought a new guitar! It is a beautiful Takamine and I love it. Amazingly, I bought it for less than half price. You wouldn't believe what happened ...


* This week has been so busy. We have taken all our stuff out of the house we were staying in, packed everything away to either Fraserburgh, Philippines or Wick. Mary has washed, ironed, packed, cleaned the whole week. Finally, we finished everything yesterday. It is so complicated to live in UK - BT, Electricity, Gas, Sky, Child Benefit etc. etc.

* We left Fraserburgh at 7pm last night and, to be honest, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Mary drove from Fochabers to Inverness, bless her. After my 20 minute snore I was fine again. Arrived in Wick just after 11pm - not bad. David & Wilma were waiting and were delighted to see the kids (who had slept all the way!) However, it wasn't until after 2am that we managed to get them asleep (the kids, not the grandparents!)

So here we are. Enjoying Wick again. Can you believe it ... Wick has a massive Tescos!!!!!! What is going on? Has Tescos got a mandate to rule the world? Wick? Anyway, it is a fantastic boost to the town. We will go back to Fraserburgh on Saturday, I am preaching at Fraserburgh AoG on Sunday morning and then hearing my close friend Ben preach at the Elim Church Sunday night.

Then, next day, we will be sitting in the plane.

One week from now ...

Christmas Thoughts

We wish you a merry Christmas...
We wish you a merry Christmas...
We wish you a merry Christmas...
... and a Happy New Year!

Yup, tis the season to be jolly and all that! Today is Christmas Eve and we cannot believe that tomorrow we will be opening all our presents on a lovely Christmas Day. Seems like yesterday we were arriving at Aberdeen Airport and only a few days since we were celebrating Christmas 2005 in Santiago. Must be getting extremely old extremely fast!

Must say a couple of things here:

1. I have been totally gobsmacked that the whole of UK celebrates Christmas and yet hardly give a thought to what the implications really are. Here in UK, everyone is totally against the mad PC people who want to take Christ out of Christmas. But, in my humble opinion, it wouldn't matter to the majority of people in this country if it was only a "winter holiday". Because, to most of these people, Christmas is merely a time to drink, party, listen to corny music, kiss, decorate the Christmas tree, let the kids meet Santa, overspend and overeat. There are some positives - some go to church and most spend time with family. But often the church has no reality and offers no hope. They go, sing a few carols, eat a few mince pies and go home. Tragic.

Tragic because, if people truly believe in the Christmas story (and most do), then there are MASSIVE implications and consequences.

If this baby was the Messiah, then He must be the Saviour.
A Saviour must save us from something.
He can save us ... from sin, death and hell.
He lived, died and rose again, conquering all the above.
Through Jesus, we can go to heaven forever.
But ... there is a also definitely a hell. No in between. No second way.

I fail to believe why multitudes believe very definitely the baby of Christmas. They believe the claims of the Bible about who Jesus is. Yet, they reject Him as a Saviour. They all love to talk about heaven, but cannot possibly believe in the finality of hell. They believe Jesus is the Son of God, but they declare that all roads lead to heaven. They believe that God is love, yet cannot believe that He is also a righteous judge.

What a mixed up country we live in. What must God think? How the Lord's heart must be broken. We have lost the real meaning of Christmas - Jesus arrived to save us. Simple yet life changing.

My goodness, I started writing this blog in good heart and with great joy, but now I feel a bit flat! I think we, as Christians, must really re-evaluate what Christmas really should mean and be. What about you .. what do you think? Am I a grumpy so-and-so or am I making sense? Go on, surprise yourself ... write a comment below!

2. I must say how great it is to be a dad this Christmas. Like I said in my last blog, Lydia is at a wonderful age now where she is saying some really funny (and profound!) things. She is priceless. Josiah just goes with the flow and seems to be happy wherever he is.

It is great for us to be near our families this Christmas. We will be in Aberdeen tomorrow and boxing day. Mary's brother Bruce and his lovely wife Alison live there and Mary's mum & dad are down from Wick. Should be great. After all I have said above, I love the way that we can take a break from our hectic lives and spend quality time with our friends and family.

I leave you with a few photos I have taken over the last few weeks. They are of special places and special people. Enjoy Christmas and look after yourself. Many blessings ... I will blog soon!

Sure Dad?

Well, I am back in NE Scotland and getting ready to settle down for Christmas. Had a great time in Shetland and I had to spend a couple of days in the Central Belt this week. I have a "To Do" list about as long as roll of toilet roll, but it is time to spend time with Mary & the kids. This is just a wee short blog ... with a Christmas flavour!


A few nights ago I was telling the kids the story of Jesus when he went up the mountain and met Moses & Elijah. I know it's not Christmassy (is that really a word?), but Lydia always goes to the Index page of her children's Bible and 'chooses' the page number she feels we should go to. Prophetic at 4 years old LOL! Anyway explaining the word 'transfiguration' to a 4 & 2 year old was pretty interesting. I asked wee Lydia, "Do you know who Moses is?" I expected a "Dunno dad" but to my utter astonishment she replied, "Yup, he is the wee boy who was put in a basket and put in the river."

"Obviously having a daddy who is in charge of a Bible School is rubbing of on this wee beautiful girl," thought I proudly. I gave her a great big congratulations hug. Then I added, "How about Elijah, what did he do?", expecting a story of fire from heaven etc. "He was a lovely man" she said with great conviction, "He was the very nice man who picked Moses out of the river and looked after him!" My confidence was now wobbling.

"And what about Jesus, Lydia, what does He do?" She immediately replied, "He makes people better when they are sick, he does good things and he died for us (by this point I was wonderfully amazed that her Christology was so accurate and that she was doctrinally sound) ... and sure dad, every Christmas he goes on a sledge and gives all the good kids a wee present. I'm getting a Barbie from Jesus, sure dad?"

A Peerie Blog!

I'm sitting here eating my toast, overlooking a magnificent view of Lerwick Harbour up here in the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland. Maybe some of you think that I should get a job with "Wish you were Here" .. and maybe some of you are right! Ghana - Amsterdam - Central Scotland - Lerwick ... all in a few weeks.

But it is great to be able to go to places and tell people about the Lord and to share the vision of Sefton Village. So many people have been touched, inspired and challenged by our presentation and we are blessed to meet people who are regularly praying for us and who support us in so many ways. I am here in Lerwick for a double purpose. I am here with Keith Pointon, our former agent who was 'ambushed' (his words!) by the Lord and called to China for 2 years! We have great news -Keith and his lovely wife Anne are coming to Sefton Village for 2 years to help us with the ministry there. They will fly out in March and they have already been to Sefton many times. They will be such a blessing and support to us. We cried out to the Lord for help ... and he answered!

But ... it does not stop there. The Lord also called a lovely couple from Lerwick to come and help us in Sefton. Matthew is a local Shetlander and Claire comes from Northern Island. They have a beautiful wee girl called Madeline and they are expecting their second child. Claire is a Teacher and Matthew is a Civil Engineer, and so there is so many things for them to do at Sefton Village. They have been interviewed by AoG World Ministries and we are hoping that they will come and join us in the middle of 2007. Exciting eh?

So we are here to speak to the Leaders of their home church - Emmanuel Lerwick. The church really wants to be a good responsible sending church and so we are able to give them some ideas of how they can get behind Matthew and Claire. Tonight, they church have invited leaders from churches from here in Lerwick to come for a meal and then afterwards there is a service for everyone where we will share the vision of Sefton Village. Praise the Lord!

Well, this is our last week of itinerary! I arrive home on Friday and on Sunday we are at 2 local NE churches ... so no driving! I am really looking forward to going to our last church on the itinerary - Braehead Church in Gardenstown. My uncles and aunties have been in this church for many years and they are so involved in the ministry of Sefton Village. They have even made the long trip to Santiago! They run 'Soup and Sweets' once a month and very often the Children's Home at Sefton Village are the benefactors of all their hard work! By the way, you have never lived until you have tasted the soup and deserts from Braehead Gamrie! They travel from all around to taste a taste of heaven!!!!

Itinerary is never easy and it has been such a busy time. It seems we have never stopped packing and unpacking and we have done over 12000 miles on the road. It has been especialy hard for Mary and I don't know many women who has done what she has had to do. But we are looking forward to having a wee break before we go back.

So, wherever you are, take time to thanks the Lord for all His blessings of 2006. I will get back to you ASAP ... but from where, who knows!!!!

H.O.L.L.A.N.D.

Hello again! This is Mark Ritchie, international traveler and jetsetter. I arrived home from Ghana on Saturday morning, was picked up at the airport by Mary et al, went to a missions banquet on Saturday night in the Central Belt, we spoke at Harvest Church in Hamilton on Sunday morning, zoomed up north to speak at new Hope Peterhead at night and collapsed into bed in Fraserburgh in the evening!!!

Great to be home though! We had an amazing time in Ghana ... fantastic. In the next couple of weeks my intention is to write blogs on:

1. Ghana
2. Philippines - Sefton Village
3. Itinerary
4. Our kids
5. Anything else that enters ma heed!

Listen to this ... I am in Amsterdam, Holland right now. I came home and realised that Mary & I needed to leave the UK for at least two days before we go back to the Philippines, and we planned to go next week. But other things came in and so it only left this week to go. Went online, realised that we could only fly from Aberdeen to Dublin or Amsterdam ... so here we are! The real reason is that we are home for 184 days on itinerary, and if we are home for more than 182 days we have to pay a whole years tax. So here we are, tax exiles! That's our excuse and we are sticking to it!

My mum & dad are looking after the kids, so it is a wonderful break for us. First time we have been away on our own since our honeymoon! Can you believe that!

Gotta go now ... clogs to try on, tulips to pick and windmills to see. Hard life!

Will blog again soon ....

Good Morning Africa!

Yes ....... we have arrived in Ghana! What a place. I have missed it so much. We had good flights and arrived safely. Had great opportunities to share Jesus in the airports and in the sky!

Walked off the plane in Accra ... and melted! But what a place! Met Wes outside along with janet Wheeler who is a missionary here. She really looked after us.

Yesterday we drove to Kumasi ... the heavenly city. We met my good friends Paul and Gladys Manso when we went to their church last night. Wow.

It is 7am and now Wes and I are going to do a devotion at the Elemtary school and George and Kenny have gone to a Secondary school. Later I will speak to the local pastors. Then we will go to the villages for a couple of days. Gotta preach 3 times on Sunday morning!

Don't worry about us, we are being well looked after. God is with us. I will update with pics soon.

Gotta go........ medasi pa!

New Friends, New Faces, New Stories, New Places

/>

The last few weeks have been like a daydream. They have passed so quickly, yet we have packed so much in. We left for Rotherham on Saturday 14th October and stayed with my cousin George Jack and family. What a joy to stay with them! They are such a blessing and they love the Lord an each other so much.

I was particularly inspired by their lovely daughter Emma. She is an incredible witness for the Lord at her school and she has entered herself into the "X-Factor" competition at her high school. Check this out ... every song she has sung has been a Christian song. She is now in the final next week. Watch this space for a great Scottish girl doing great things in Yorkshire!

We ministered in our friend Jim McGlade's church on Sunday morning and then went to George's church at Station Road in Rotherham in the evening. There was a great response in both services to the challenge of a surrendered life to God.

It was great to spend some time with George, his family and his young people during the week. Mum & dad came down to join us on the Wednesday and we spent a lovely few days in York & Leeds. What a beautiful wee place York is!


We went to Rotherham New Life on Sunday 22nd October. They had two services .. so it was an extremely early start to get there on time! But we had two brilliant services there. My friend John Andrews has done a magnificent job making RNL a "local church with a global vision."

We travelled down to Bristol in the afternoon and next morning we travelled down to the "Inspiration 4 Mission" Conference in Torquay. It was great to have mum & dad there with us, but there was a full kids programme at every meeting ... so in the end they really enjoyed all the ministry!

...and the ministry was amazing! Andrew & Rachel David - the Leaders of World Christian Ministries - are an amazing couple and great friends. The Conference was excellent - the food, the accommodation, the hotel, the worship ... but especially the preaching. The main speaker was Dr. John Andrews along with an amazing man of God from India called David Prakasaam. I was also one of the speakers ... although I preferred to be a listener! I recommend anyone to book up now for next years conference ... you will not be disappointed.

Lydia and Josiah loved being at the Conference as they met new friends! John's kids are lovely, and their eldest daughter Elaina took Lydia under her wing the whole week. She is Lydia's new big sister! Andrew's wee girl Hannah was also a new pal for Lydia. Little Josiah just was friends with everyone!


We drove from Torquay to Bolton on the Friday (8 and a half hours in terrible traffic!!!) and we met our lovely friends Andrew and Sue Stokes .. with their three beautiful daughters. My dad, me and Andrew even managed to get tickets for Bolton v Man Utd ... and that is a story in itself! We saw Rooney score an exquisite hatrick!

We went to the Bolton Bridge Church in Sunday and could not believe the work that has been done there. They have turned the church into an 800 seater building and it is the most amazing church building I have been in here in the UK. It was great to see Pastor Ian Watson again. He really encouraged us when we first came home in our difficult moments.

We had a bit of a technical problem which meant we could not show our Powerpoint presentation ... and that threw us a bit (especially Mary, who carried on amazingly), but it was good to see people respond top what we had to share from the Lord.

We arrived home at 1am totally exhausted. Last week, Mary's mum & dad came to stay with us. We had a great time and the kids we so happy to see them.. October was definetely a "Grandparents" month for our kids! On Thursday we had a visit from Dave & Madeline Russon. dave is the incoming Director of AoG World Ministries, so it was good to catch up with them.

Last weekend I went down South again ... but that is for another blog! On Monday I am going to Ghana for a 12 day ministry trip. Tell you about that later!

So much to share and so little time for my little fingers to type! Gotta go to bed now. More soon. Goodnight!

Still Alive...

...and kicking!

Sorry, we have been down in England over the last couple of weeks and we have had little or no internet access. We are all well, and I am sitting here in a Travel Lodge checking my 89 unread emails and writing a long lost blog!

We have had a great time in England - so much to write about. But that will wait for another night! Gotta go now and sleep. Had a tough day driving today - around 8 hrs from Torquay to Bolton. Should have taken 4 but roads chocca blocca! Aaaaggh.

I will publish a few new blogs next week - promise!

Until then ...ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................

p.s. - this was written on Saturday but I was so tired and slow writing the blog that I did not have enough time on my Internet Card to publish it! UPDATE - we are back in Scotland now. Will do a catch-up blog tomorrow....

Welcome to the Weekend!

Hi there folks. Welcome to the weekend! Today, Mary & I are heading down south again to minister at a couple of churches - Dalkeith in the morning and Coatbridge in the evening. We are leaving the kids behind this weekend as last weekend was a quite hard for them. We got home around 3am after a four and a half hour journey through thick fog! So they are staying with my mum & dad... and we are kids-free!

We will be staying with our good friends Keith & Anne Pointon. Today, there is a big women's event in Musselburgh (always dangerous!!!!!) The AoG women's dept are having a special day with guest speakers from England. Mary is looking forward to meeting up with old friends again, but I am not looking forward to my make up session - JOKE!

The picture below is of my great friend David Thomsom from Edinburgh leading worship ... with our Godson Luke playing the bongo drums! Really blessed me to see david be a great example to his son AND trusting and training Luke to play with him. What an example!

Will blog again at beginning of week with news about the weekend. We also have exciting news to share with you. Until then ... have a great weekend.

Improving Your Serve

Hi there, Mark here! Still alive and kicking.

We are all well and have just returned from 9 days away down south. We squeezed in a lovely 5-day family holiday with the Ritchie Clan in a beautiful place called Crieff in Perthshire. Loved it.

I will write a catch up blog tomorrow with all our news and let you know what's been happening over in the Philippines. In the meantime, here are a few latest photos and a wee article I wrote for the upcoming Solid Rock Prayer Calendar here in Fraserburgh. Enjoy and be challenged ....

IMPROVING YOUR SERVE

Andy Murray – a great Scottish tennis player and future Wimbledon Champion (by faith) – was recently interviewed after the US open. He said that he was happy with his progress but that he needed to improve his serve. This little phrase got me thinking and I began to think of ways in which I could improve my serve – not on the tennis court(!) but in my life.

The Bible says in Psalm 100:2 - “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Let’s break this up …

“SERVE” – not a popular word these days. In fact, loathed. In this age of living within your rights, social inclusion, doing what I want-where I want-when I want, suing and counter suing … serve or serving is almost an alien concept. In fact, we love to be served – whether it is in airplanes, restaurants, spas or in business. Nice feeling. Great to have people running after you and your needs. But …

… this is fact the exact opposite of what God admires, His Word expects and His Son demonstrated. Jesus, The Son of God, Creator and beloved of all heaven came to this sin-stained and evil-driven world not to have people run after him and grant his every request, but to actually pour his life into serving and transforming ordinary people’s lives. Often, not the wealthy or those who could afford it, but the desperate, poor and ‘no-hope’ sorta people. Amazing. Don’t believe me? “For Jesus did not come into this world to be served but to serve …” Mk 10:45

THE LORD – we are not serving a church or a person, but when we do ANYTHING as a Christian, we do it directly to the Lord. He is the one we love, follow and serve. To be honest - when we hoover the floor in the church, or pick up someone for church or teach in Sunday School or wash dishes at the tea after church – we can do it for different motives. Very often we feel as if no-one really appreciates what we do or encourages us to keep going. The church is full of hurt and burned out people who have been disappointed by leaders who never really appreciated them. Servers who have lost the will to serve.

Hold on a minute, there is hope. Change your way of thinking. Listen, you are NOT serving a church, but a Saviour who gave absolutely everything for you. He sees; he knows; He is aware; He appreciates you; He in encouraged by you; He loves you. A man of God I know called Brian Bailey was taken into heaven by an angel in a vision. In heaven he noticed that absolutely everything that someone did on earth was rewarded by the Lord – a smile, work, a small word of encouragement, a pat on the back – everything that a Christian did was rewarded. So you see, you are not serving people, but serving a King. The Apostles, these amazing man in the NT who did incredible things, always called themselves “slaves of Christ” or “Servants of the Lord”.

WITH GLADNESS – it is not enough to be a server; we have to have the right attitude whilst serving. We can serve with great ability, but if there is not a smile on our face then we will burn out and quit. I am so fed up of lifeless, sad and miserable Christians. We have been saved from an eternity of indescribable pain and misery in a place called hell. Not only that, someone has died for us and exchanged His life and rewards so that we can live the fullest and best life that anyone can ever ask for. His mercy has saved us from what we deserve and His grace gives us what we don’t deserve. I mean, does it really get any better than that? Tell me what religion or sect or pill or philosophy can give you that kind of offer! None.

We should be glad. We should be full of joy, happiness, excitement and we should always have room for a smile. God is not only interested in our service, but the way in which we serve. Jonah was a great preacher but as miserable as a rainy Monday. God spared Nineveh but also had a hard job changing the mood of a depressed prophet!

Just after we went to the Philippines in 2000, an American missionary couple called Martin & Gracia Burnham were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in the south. Sadly, the military could have captured them in the first week but the terrorists were allowed to walk out of a surrounded hospital and escape into the forest for a large sum of money. The Burnhams saw the terrorists behead another American in front of their eyes. They ended up running around the forests of Mindanao for a whole year, in chains. They had malaria many times and were very sick. They lost their shoes and were bare footed for months. They endured so much hardship – spiritual, physical and emotional turmoil.

In May 2001, one year after being kidnapped, Gracia told her husband that she was feeling absolutely rock bottom. She felt no-one cared and had lost confidence in the Philippines, America and even the Lord. Martin rebuked her and read Psalm 100 – “We must serve the Lord with Gladness Gracia, no matter what we feel like or what might happen.” These were his last words. A minute later the army surrounded and bullets began to fly. Martin was hit in the chest and died immediately. He died serving with joy.

How about you? Right now, take a piece of paper. Come on, really challenge yourself. Draw 2 lines to make it 3 columns. Column One – “What the Lord has done for me” Write down everything that your servant king has done for you. Column 2 – “What I have ever done for the Lord” Column 3 – What I am doing now for the Lord”

Examine your results. Are you serving the Lord with gladness? Or have you lost the lifestyle of a servant? Do you enjoy serving the Lord, or are you living in disappointment? Now is the time to challenge your life and attitude. Time to change. Time to stand up and shake yourself. Time to serve again. And when you do, do it with a smile on your face.

And just like Andy Murray - when he wins his 1st Wimbledon and receives his reward from his queen – one day we will stand before our King and receive our reward! All because … we improved our serve.

Selah.