All Dressed Up ...NOT!

Last Friday the SBTC students had their Christmas Party. They were all challenged to come 'dolled up' and looking bad! Well, they succeeded ... on both counts!

Check the girls out ... don't they look lovely? MMmmmmm.... Funny thing was that they decided (in true Filipino fashion) to have a time of worship before the party started. So you could imagine these lot with hands in the air, singing & praying away .. looking like this! Good job the Lord looks at our hearts!

The students are doing well and are home for their Christmas break. Please pray that they have a good time with their families and that they enjoy being back in their home churches. Pray also for their finances. Very few of them have been able to pay their fees and this has caused us big headaches inn the last few weeks. Our power was cut off for 5 days because we had no money to pay the bill. Really, really hard. Praise God, the District stepped in and paid the bill but the financial struggle still goes on. Their whole fees for the year - board, lodgings, notes, teaching and three good meals a day comes to around 175 pounds!!!!!! But they struggle so much to find it.

Next year is the 10th Anniversary of Sefton Bible Training Centre. Over 200 people have been trained for the ministry since we began and the hand of the Lord is upon us. We had a Board (not B-O-R-E-D) meting today and we planned next years events by faith. The greatest days are ahead of us!

Have great weekend. Hope you've bought all your Christmas presents by now. The shops in UK will be chocca blocka this weekend .. now hat's something I definitely don't miss! But here it does not feel like Christmas ... yes, there are Christmas trees and tinsel up in our house but the 30 degree heat makes it all seem a bit unreal. In fact, in our Cornerstone leaders meeting on Tuesday I announced that we would tackle a particular agenda "in next Tuesday's meeting" to which they all shook their heads and said "Christmas Day!"

We are really looking forward to having our great friend Catherine Young here for Christmas. She is here for a whole week... a miracle if you know Catherine's travel schedule! We are also having friends who are SIL missionaries from Northern Ireland here for boxing day ... so it should be a lot of fun for us ex-pats!

By the way, if you double click the FLIKR photo badge on the right, you will be able to see a lot of our Sefton Village photos. I have downloaded a lot recently so have a wee look!

Take care and take time for your family this Christmas...

... and be thankful you won't meet this lot in your travels!