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What a week at Sefton Village! We had Cornerstone United on Sunday and then Tuesday-Thursday we had an AoG Tri-District Conference. I will blog about the conference tomorrow, but first ... Cornerstone United.
The United service is usually on the first Sunday of the month and all our Cornerstone Churches gather together to lift up Jesus. Usually there are around 400-500, sometimes more, sometimes less. But it is a wonderful atmosphere.
I was so blessed and challenged last Sunday. I felt that we should do things a little differently than 'normal'. Instead of a main speaker, I felt that we should invite four of our leaders share what was on their hearts. In between, we would praise, worship and pray. First up were the Powerhouse Dancers ... wee Lydia included! They are a real blessing and they practice so hard. Their song was brilliant -"I have nothing ... If I don't have Jesus." Then a man called Fanto gave his amazing testimony. He was high up in the army but led a terrible life - he was a murderer, womaniser and drunkard. He was put in BJMP. But there, he found Jesus, through the ministry of Pastor August and the Cornerstone Team. Well, what a transformation! He was released a few weeks ago is presently staying in the room of Pastor August! He wasn't to go to Bible School, enter the ministry and devote his life to the Lord. This hard guy has been given a new heart! He has a long way to go and many things to sort out ... but he is well on the way. It's really strange ... young August is his advisor and mentor!
Then Maribel gave a word - she is the wife of Pastor Adonis (above) - and she is one of the most sincere and lovely people you could ever meet. Her message was 'Don't Worry!" and she was excellent.
After some Praise and worship, led by Cristina and the Santiago Team, Pastora Theresa (above) shared. Well, she is one of my heroes ... without even speaking a word! She spoke about 'Overcoming Weakness with Strength' and shared her story. Inspirational and so humble ... her 'pulpit' was a simple chair.
More worship ... and then Pastor Henry spoke. He spoke on "The Power of Having Dream" and showed a PowerPoint on the blessings of the Feeding Programme. He is doing an incredible work. Do you know that in the last two weeks he has had feeding programmes around 8 times! Every time he gets up at 3am to cook all the food! What a heart. We ahve a burden to have the 'Food for Thought' programme running 5 days a week. Henry needs strength!
Last, but not least, was Pastor Danny. He spoke about 'Intimacy with God" and shared some things form his own life and the church at Nagassican. God is doing great things in Nagassican - they have 'Dawn Watch Prayer' every Friday morning at 4am and in the evening they have a night of prayer. No wonder God is doing great things there. Every night the church is being used. They have around 30-40 young people who have given their lives to Christ and are now in the Drama Group led by Danny's wife Jane. Here they are dancing last Sunday!
Pastor Danny sang a song "I was born to love you" and his dream that was that one day his sons would play the music for him to sing a song to the Lord ... and on Sunday it happened. Dreams come true!
I wrapped things up and we had lots of Henry's food to finish up with. I love United. We now have 7 churches - and another two will be planted next month. There is something wonderful when groups of churches join together to worship Jesus, listen to His Word and just to hang out together. Some of our churches are young and only have 30 or 40 people ... but they love coming together to be part of the big picture! Fantastic!Be blessed ... and keep praying for us.
Yup ... that wonderful TV show is here as well!And it is taking the Philippines by storm. Even little Lydia & Josiah are hooked! So on Sunday, our Cornerstone Christmas Party had a DOND feel about it. We had a great crowd there from our Cornerstone Churches and everyone was so excited. There were over 400 adults and 350 kids there and it is good to see everyone mix and mingle so well. It is wonderful for people from our smaller and newer church plants to experience the bigger family and be part of the bigger picture. Our family is growing!Cristina and the worship gang led us praise & worship and we sang a song I haven't heard for ages - 'Great is the Lord'. It was so brill to sing that song again - especially the line "And Lord I want to thank you for the works you've done in our lives'. Brought me back to the youth meetings in Fraserburgh quite a while ago! By the way, it is OK to sing older songs in churches; God doesn't mind as long as the words don't trip off our tongue but resounds from our hearts.
We had a drama from the youth entitled 'Real Me' and then all our Pastors sang a song as the people came and gave their offerings (miracle that they gave anything really!!)Then we had Deal or No Deal ... and what a show it was! Jimmar (the computer guy who is just absolutely ablaze for the Lord) designed a Cornerstone DOND computer program - graphics, music, bankers offer ... the lot! It was amazing. We randomly picked someone out of the audience and Winston was our host. He had trained the Cornerstone DOND girls (see them below) how to do their dance and it looked so professional with their cardboard suitcases and Christmas hats.
Well, the congregation loved it! They really got involved and made some racket! The first lady won P750. I was the 'banker' and also the one who donated the prizes. So I didn't lose too much. Top prize was P3000 so I couldn't complain.
After a worship song (had to re-focus quickly!!!) I preached about 'Deal or No Deal. There are many times in the Bible when people were faced with DOND situations ... and how they responded changed their lives, their destiny and even the future of their nation. I pointed our some areas that I really feel God is challenging us at Cornerstone for 2008:Compassion
CompromisePrayerCommitmentTemptationFinances
Anointing
ReputationAfter every point I gave a 'Cornerstone Challenge for 2008' and simply said "Deal ... or no deal?"
Many responded to the challenge. I told the people that they didn't need to come out to the front but before I could even get the words out of my mouth three guys came rushing out and started weeping and crying out to the Lord at the altar. Many responded for salvation. A great sense of God's presence AND purpose.We all ate lunch together by church groups. Good old Henry had cooked 350 meals for the kids and 100 meals for the Young Soldiers and visitors. What a guy. What a day!
In the afternoon we had many games and songs. We did DOND again ... and this time the person randomly chosen by Mary was Severo (the officer from a few blogs ago). Guess what? He won the top prize ... P3000. A paradox moment for me ... I was delighted for Severo, but sorry for myself!!!! Joke. It was worth every Peso just to see all our Cornerstone family so happy, excited and animated as they urged Severo to say "No Deal!' It worked. You can see the incredible moment on our YouTube site.I went to bed a happy - if poorer - man. It is great, as a leader, to go bed on a Sunday night knowing that the people whom you lead have been blessed, challenged, encouraged ... and are happy!
Hope to catch up with more blogs over the weekend. If I blog, will you email your friends, leaders and family and ask them to check out our Sefton blog?
Deal ... or no deal?
What a week at Sefton Village! We had Cornerstone United on Sunday and then Tuesday-Thursday we had an AoG Tri-District Conference. I will blog about the conference tomorrow, but first ... Cornerstone United.
I was so blessed and challenged last Sunday. I felt that we should do things a little differently than 'normal'. Instead of a main speaker, I felt that we should invite four of our leaders share what was on their hearts. In between, we would praise, worship and pray. First up were the Powerhouse Dancers ... wee Lydia included! They are a real blessing and they practice so hard. Their song was brilliant -"I have nothing ... If I don't have Jesus." 
After some Praise and worship, led by Cristina and the Santiago Team, Pastora Theresa (above) shared. Well, she is one of my heroes ... without even speaking a word! She spoke about 'Overcoming Weakness with Strength' and shared her story. Inspirational and so humble ... her 'pulpit' was a simple chair.
More worship ... and then Pastor Henry spoke. He spoke on "The Power of Having Dream" and showed a PowerPoint on the blessings of the Feeding Programme. He is doing an incredible work. Do you know that in the last two weeks he has had feeding programmes around 8 times! Every time he gets up at 3am to cook all the food! What a heart. We ahve a burden to have the 'Food for Thought' programme running 5 days a week. Henry needs strength!
Pastor Danny sang a song "I was born to love you" and his dream that was that one day his sons would play the music for him to sing a song to the Lord ... and on Sunday it happened. Dreams come true!
I wrapped things up and we had lots of Henry's food to finish up with. I love United. We now have 7 churches - and another two will be planted next month. There is something wonderful when groups of churches join together to worship Jesus, listen to His Word and just to hang out together. Some of our churches are young and only have 30 or 40 people ... but they love coming together to be part of the big picture! Fantastic!
