Cornerstone@5

A few weeks ago we had a tremendous weekend celebrating five years of Cornerstone Churches. We have been amazed at the goodness of the Lord and what He has done since 2004. We invited Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong and his wife Daphne to be our guest speakers - they are the Senior leaders of Cornerstone Singapore. They brought three other team members from Singapore.

What a weekend we had! On Friday we picked up the Team and on Saturday morning we did 'Street Pastors' in Santiago. On Saturday night we had 'Colours of Cornerstone' where every church and department gave a video or PowerPoint of their ministries and then did a song, dance or testimony as well. It was great! The Police sent representatives, as did the Bureau of Jail, politicians and business friends. So much effort had gone into organising the event - especially from Jane Mangadap and her team!

We now have 12 Cornerstone Churches and we are planning to plant 6 more in the next 6 months. Every church wore different colours - what a night!






On Sunday morning we had the Anniversary service and Pastor Yang spoke about being a prophetic church. He prayed for all our leaders and the praise & worship was wonderful - a taste of heaven! At the end of the service so many came forward for prayer and to be touched by the power of the Holy Spirit. Incredible morning!


After the service we had a baptismal service at the Sefton pool. We had four groups of pastors baptising because we had around 60 candidates to be baptised. What a wonderful time. In the evening Pastor Yang and Pastor Daphne spoke to our Cornerstone leaders and then at 730pm other leaders from nearby churches joined us for a leadership seminar.




On Monday we went to the jail and had a great service there. Pastor Yang spoke ... and the fire of God fell!! We baptised 15 new believers after the service.








So we thank God for his faithfulness to Cornerstone in the last 5 years. It's incredible to see what He has done with a group of willing and surrendered leaders. Our theme was taken from 1 Samuel 7:12- "Ebeneezer - God has helped us every step of the way."

And He has. And He is. And He always will.

Selah

Comeback ...

... I am making a comeback in blogworld! It seems that a few folk are missing the blog...

Check it out again next week! This week is unbelievably busy. We are going to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of Cornerstone this weekend and Pastor Yang and his lovely wife Daphne are bringing a small team to speak and share for the occasion. Wow ... should be amazing. Will blog about it soon.

So many things to share ... next week! If you have any comments, pls write below. If you really would like the Sefton blog to continue ... let me know.

Until next week ... blessings upon blessings!

Bye ...

Still in Bonny Scotland ...

Still here ... only just! We have booked our flights 'home' for Monday (30th March) from Aberdeen. So we will have been home for around 6 weeks altogether.

We are sure that we made the right decision and we have been able to spend a lot of time with David & Wilma up in Wick. David had his 3rd chemo last Friday in Inverness and is learning to rest and not push himself too hard between treatments (not easy for us men!) The great news is that he gets his next one in Wick - so no 9 hour round trip by train. This has given him a real boost. But I think the greatest boost is to see Lydia & Josiah with him for a while ... they have been really good children. We were able to celebrate David's 66th Birthday last week (below).


It is always sad to say goodbye but our plan is to come home for itinerary next March, so it won't be long until everyone sees us again! Don't know if this is good or bad!!! We have been able to see almost all of our friends in the last few weeks, even our lovely friends down in the Central Belt.

Also been able to do quite a bit of ministry over here in many churches. I felt that the message God gave me was to 'look up and see the harvest'. I am preaching at New Hope, Peterhead on Sunday morning and I feel it will be a significant day. Pastor Neil Cameron and his team are doing great and I went there last Sunday night ... place was packed. On Sunday night we will be at Fraserburgh Elim but I will pop up to AoG to say goodbye to all our friends there.

I leave you with a new link from one of our churches in the Philippines. It is San Isidro and they have started a new blog. I apologise on behalf of all the other blogs, I don't know what has happened to the Pastors over there! When I get back i will try and inspire them to blog. I think the internet connection has been off for nearly a fortnight, to be fair.

But check this blog by Pastor Alex Ritua regarding San Isidro - it's encouraging! http://www.ccsi-online.blogspot.com

Don't worry ... we are still experiencing Filipino life over here! I can park my car down the harbour and within 5 minutes of saying 'Kumusta' to a Filipino fisherman (there are around 300 here!) there will be a crowd of Filipinos everywhere! Even in Wick, we bumped into a few in Tescos ... and took them out for a coffee (below)


Be blessed. Will blog soon ...

Cornerstone Blogs

Hi folks. Well, this morning I am absolutely shattered! Finished our newsletter at 2am and got up early with two exited kids jumping around shouting, "No school today...no school today!" My goodness! What a way to start a week!

Never mind, shouldn't grumble! Had a great weekend. God is doing brilliant things here. I just wanted you to take note that a few of our leaders also blog. Our youth Pastor Daben has a blog and he mainly shares about the youth. Pastor Marlou, the Pastor of Cornerstone Santiago, also has a blog and I thought I would cut 'n' paste his last blog to give you an idea of his style. Enjoy and look his blog up sometimes. If you know him...leave him a comment. I know he would appreciate it!

Here is life & ministry in the last few weeks from Marlou's perspective:

"I always share to our members here at Cornerstone Church Santiago that these Church is a without wall Church, a Church that will reach those who are ready to be harvested. Our cell group is really growing specially in Schools. In one school alone we have 34 students who are active in attending our cell groups and this morning I and Ptr. Jun are praying for this ministry and God shows us how to reach the students.

So Ptr. Jun and I will meet our key leaders tonight to plan and prepare, because I believe God has a wonderful plan for this. Last overnight prayer meeting God gave me a word about the campus ministry. Wow, I’m really excited about this, so continue to pray for us. I saw the favor of God upon us, one of our cell group at bagong silang is also growing, before our cell leader started a cell group in small room but last week the room is to small for them so they decided to move to a bigger place. And now we have a cell group in community center and many young people are attending in this cell group.

About Youth Ministry, it’s really growing. Before, about 10 to 12 are attending the youth group, but now about 80 to 100 young people are attending our Friday youth service, and thank you elders and deacons of Cornerstone Church Santiago because you really support the Youth Group not only your presence is there but you used your money to extend the Kingdom of God, someday God will reward you.

About feeding program, from June 16 to July 31 we fed around 6,000 kids. Bro. Henry (one of the Elder of the Church) doing well and God is with him. And we want to extend our thanks those who really helping this ministry to reach the poor, especially the UK Team and Cornerstone Church Singapore.

About Hospital Ministry, still doing fine, this morning all the Pastors went to the patients and pray for healing. But I and August went to two rooms and preached the good news, I really enjoy sharing the Word to this people and Praise the Lord they received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Last week the Singaporean team are here, they are a blessings for us. Maureen is our speaker at Cornerstone Santiago especially in youth and Sunday morning service, she really encourage us, especially when she shared about WAITING. It’s true that most of us are impatient, right? That is the reason why, we want fast food, instant noodles, instant healing, and instant partners. But you know there is a blessing in waiting.
Sunday night service is amazing service, we have our own program but Praise the Lord God is in control. The presence of the Lord is very strong, and God gave a Word to Ptr. Mark about “Faith of Children,” and we ask all the kids to come at the front to pray for them and after ward the kids prayed for the adults. When that things happen I remember the book that I read about the French prophet in the year of 1685, ‘ children as young as 3 years old both prophesied and delivered discourses in perfect, fluent French even though this was not their native tongue. On one occasion, a fourteen (14) month old child, who previously had never spoken, suddenly began exhorting “to the works of Repentance” in a childish voice’ PRAISE THE LORD!

About Bible School, I and Pastor Mark teach about Acts of the Holy Spirit and Church History and we really enjoy it. On one occasion, as we teach about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to the Bible school students, suddenly those who are not baptize in the Holy Spirit were filled with the Holy Spirit and we saw the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It’s really amazing and all I can say is GLORY TO GOD!"

www.cornerstonechurchsantiago.blogspot.com

www.ccsgenerations.blogspot.com

Attention!

Doors are opening everywhere for Cornerstone! There are so many people groups that are asking us to come and minister to them ... not in 1's and 2's ... but in hundreds and even thousands!

We have ministered and shared the gospel to over 2000 young people over four Saturdays in October, we have open doors into the hospital and the jail. Henry is still feeding thousands of kids every month and has a real burden to see children transformed by the Lord...

...but one of the surprising things to happen in the last month is that we are beginning to make an impact in the military. Amazing story really! The prophecy of Cindy Jacobs is beginning to be realised in a small way up here in Santiago!

When the church began, one of the first families to accept the Lord was the Singun family. The mum gave her life to Christ followed by the rest of the family. I baptised them all in 2004 including the father, Severo (left). He has been in the army for many years and is now responsible for training new soldiers in a barracks 10 minutes from here.

To be honest, Severo has been a bit in and out of church life because of his postings and moving around. But since he has been based in Echague (the town next to Santiago) the family have become much more regular in their attendance. The Lord has been really challenging and moving in his life and he has developed a real burden for these young soldiers.

A few weeks ago, one of the young soldiers was killed on a motorbike as he made his way back to the barracks. This had a sobering affect on all the young people there. Severo bagan to share the gospel with them and there was a real hunger from them to know more about the Lord. To cut a long story short, for the last 3 weeks we have gone there and picked up 15-20 soldiers every Sunday morning to attend the service at Cornerstone Santiago! Many have given their lives to Christ and Severo is more like a pastor now!

The great thing is that they wanted us to go to their barracks regularly to take a service. So we wrote to the Commanding Officer and so now every Friday at 6:30pm we have one and a half hours to minister to these 122 young soldiers in whatever way we want. Last Friday night was our first service and around 10 leaders went from our Cornerstone Churches. I preached about the prodigal son and even when I was speaking I could see that God was touching many of their lives. They are all 'far from home' and many realised that they needed to come back to the 'fathers house'.

I would like you to pray for on girl in particular. Her name is Lorna de la Cruz (right). I could see while I was preaching that God was really dealing with her. At the end of the service she came and said, "Pastor, I am the prodigal daughter! Every word you said tonight was just for me." She began to tell us some of the terrible things that had happened in her short 19 years. She had been abused in so many ways by her family, her friends and she was broken. On Sunday she came to the service and afterwards Pastor Danny and Pastor Marlou had to cast out demons that were manifesting themselves. She has given her life to the Lord and has started a new life but I feel there are many battles ahead. Please pray for her - and us - as we commit her life to the Lord. The prodigal has come home! She was dead ... but now alive. She was lost .. but now she has been found!

On Sunday over 35 young military came to Cornerstone United and many of them came forward for prayer at the altar call. Tough men and women with tender hearts. This group finishes their training in January and a new group will come in the first part of the year.

Pray for Severo as he seeks to pastor these young soldiers. Pray for the Pastors as we put together a programme to teach them the ways of God. Pray for this batch of soldiers ... that although we only have a few weeks left with them they will all find the lord and that the impact of God in their lives will transform their futures. Pray for us in the future as we seek God for His plans; this is only the beginning!

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 ....