UK Adventure Part 2 - England

After a quick tour of Edinburgh we headed South down the M6 ... into the great old country of England. By the way ... Sat Nav us great IF you don't know the way to somewhere! It was going to direct me all the way down to Manchester and cut across a few Motorways to get to Rotherham. On paper, it is quicker ... but have you heard about the traffic jams down that way? No way Mr sat nav - I'm going accross the good old A66 to Scotch Corner. Good job I did - huge tailbacks on M6 that night. Shut the thing down, get out your old AA map and live the adventure!

Got to Rotherham on Tuesday afternoon and my sat nav (now switched back on 'coz they are great for finding addresses!) got me to the front doorstep of George Jack ... my cousin who is now Senior Pastor at Rotherham Pentecostal Church. My three Filipio friends were glad to finally reach their destination! Well, if you haven't spent a few days with the Jack family, you haven't really lived! Jayne's cooking is amazing; the kids are wonderful; George's jokes ... well, to be honest, they are terrible! Only kidding. I stayed there for two nights but the Filipinos stayed there all week ... and loved it. Know what? These pastors were hooked on two things in UK - Tescos and the Wii at George Jack's house! They were acting like crazy men as they played Wii sports into the early hours! Great fun. Excellent family. True friends. On the Wednesday we visited my old haunt - Mattersey Hall (above), where I spent three years at Bible School. What a fantastic place. A bit more spruced up now, I can tell you! Some things were surprisingly the same but some things were refreshingly different. We had a cup of tea in the staff room and I thought to myself, "Last time I sat on this settee, it was to get into big trouble!" How the mighty have fallen.

They now have beautiful clasrooms, a cafe, bookshop and chapel. They have done an amazing job. They have built a huge (and I mean HUGE) conservatory that is joined on to the Dining Room. And the food ... well, it was actually delicious. I kid you not. And it didn't even taste remotely like cardboard. In fact, I felt I was in Ikea!!!! Excuse me for waffling on. Memories.


The main reason I was in UK was to preach at the Missions Conference of Rotherham New Life. We started on Thursday night and the theme was 'To Boldly Go ..." and they asked me to preach about going from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria ... to the ends of the earth. The Rotherham New Life (RNL) church has really majored on Mission- both locally and globally.

The Senior Pastor is an Irishman called John Andrews. He has a doctorate but is young and is an inspirational preacher. He also plays a vital role at Mattersey as well as write books, be part of the AoG National Leadership Team and has a lovely family. Don't know how the guy does it.

Actually, I do. He is so disciplined with his life and doesn't waste words, opportunities or time. If you go to the RNL website, you will hear some of John's teaching ... excellent stuff, highly recommended. John has become a good friend and great encourager in my life.

Anyway, back to our trip. We started on Thursday night. The band was great and many of the songs were new. Sometimes you here new somgs and there is an immediate "Naw" rises up within you! But these new songs really spoke to me. Just before I got up to speak, I got a little bit nervous. I think that the fact I was speaking 9 times over the weekend hit me as I sat in the front row! I felt I was just standing at the bottom of a mountain. But, know what? God spoke to me at that mometnt and said so clearly, "You were born for moments like these." I felt strength. I know the Holy Spirit was there, right beside me. That was all I needed.

Friday morning was for Leaders and I shared about 'Revelations that have Changed My Life". I tried to share the revelations and change of paradigms that the Lord has shown me in the last 8 years. I was completely honest and I felt that many were challenged on that day.

The Lord showed me that on Friday night the Holy Spirit really wanted to move and touch the lives of many people. I didn't know how but the Lord clearly asked me to wait on his intruction. Well, I preached about "Jerusalem, the Place of Power" and at the end I gave an invitation for the Baptism of teh Holy Spirit. Some people came and responded. I felt the enemy laughing and saying, "Not much response eh?" But I kept seeking the Lord and the Holy Spirit began to show me areas of people's lives where He wanted me to challenge and pray for people. Well, the floodgates opened. We prayed for so many people. I felt God gave us many prophetic words. The Holy Spirit was moving and lives were being touched and changed. I think we left the building after 11pm! What a night.

Saturday was a family day and RNL had a full kids programme for the children. RNL are so organized and they really looked after us in so many ways. Their kindness and hospitality was exceptional. They had invited Dave Russon (the Directior of AoG UK World Ministries) and his wife Madeline to attend. I also shared a room with my good friend Andrew David from Torquay ... what an experience, what a guy! Brilliant. I gave the vision of Sefton Village and got Kirsty Allen from Fraserburgh to share about the Children's Home as well as the four Filipinos to share about the different ministries of Sefton. I think everyone was glad to hear some other people's voices!

In the afternoon I shared all about Short Term Mission Teams. At night I preached about the cost of serving Christ - What do you do when your world falls apart? (Acts 8) Another really good night.

Sunday was another wonderful day. Preached in the two services about Walking by Faith. Really felt the people were listening and were being challenged. Some places are hard to minister in, but RNL is great because the people are so hungry and so 'into' missions. Ended the day at George's church at Station Road. Our Filipino Pastors were ministering there and I wanted to say goodbye to the Jack family and my Aunty Helen and Uncle George (below). I was so blessed to see them come and support me over the weekend ... teh extra 400 miles!

Didn't sleep that night! Drove through the night to Manchester Airport. August and I had a nightmare time at the Airport, but that's another blog! In the end, I was so glad to get out of the country!!

But we had a great time. People were so good to us. Everywhere. I felt that our minisry was so well recieved and that people are really behind us here at Sefton Village. I know we are not alone.

A special thanks to John Andrews, his lovely wife Dawn and their family. Thanks also to Steve and Hannah Prosser from RNL for looking after us so well. Big thanks to the Mattersey Team who came on Mission to Sefton in March - so many of them came to the Conference. Big thanks to a special family in Scotland who did more than anyone will know to make ourt trip possible. You know who you are and we are so grateful. Biggest thanks to my mum and dad ... mum for coming out here to help in so many ways. To my dad for meing a mum to these Filipinos when mum was not there! Good job dad! We never starved and our clothes were always clean(ish)!

Feel like I have just made an album and an writing all the credits ... so I'll stop here!

Uk trip - fantastic. If we met you, ate with you, or if you blessed us in any way .... we love you for that.

Until next time ...

Back Again!

Weyeh ... back again! Miss me? Go on, be honest. I know you have been checkin' out every few days to see if there was anything new. Well, to be honest the old Internet has been off for ages. And we have been so busy these last few weeks that I have not been able to phone the phone company every day!

So many things have happened since I blogged way back in Feb 24th! We had the funeral of wee Gio ... such a sad occasion. I had to go to Manila but Mary and Anne made it to the funeral. They said that it was hear breaking to see the wee coffin being carried to the cemetery.

On Sunday 1st Winston & I went down to Manila to pick up a team of 12 people from the AoG Bible School at Mattersey. The team was headed by an amazing guy called Dr. John Andrews who comes from Northern Ireland. He was at Mattersey just before me (way back in teh 80's!) and he pastored a church at the great old age of 19! He is now the Senior Pastor of Rotherham New Life and we know John and his family very well now. He is a fantastic & inspirational speaker and is now Director of Training at Mattersey.

One of the things John has brought to Mattersey is that every student has to do an overseas missions trip every year! Wow! We felt blessed if we went to Scunthorpe for the weekend. How things have changed .... not jealous or anything ... ahem! Anyway, we were so chuffed when John chose to come here! he has been here twice before in 1994 & 1996 and so it was good fro him to see what the Lord has been doing at Sefton with his own eyes.

The team arrived and were ruched from the airport straight up to Santiago. They arrived at 7:30am and took the Cornerstone United service at 9am! In at the deep end! It was all go from there - Feeding Programmes, up river to the villages, preaching at SBTC, cultural challenges, hospital ministry, student ministry, playing with kids in orphanage, taking classes at school, preaching to the parents, jail ministry, Powerhouse Kids ministry, Youth services, preaching in our Cornerstone churches etc. etc. Phew, I am tired just typing out that stuff!


One of the things we did was run a Leadership Conference for 2nights-1 day. John Andrews was the speaker and he was brilliant. The theme was "Servanthood - the Pathway to Greatness." Spot on! I believe so many were touched and challenged by the Lord at our conference.

We took them to Banaue on Sunday afternoon and drove down to Manila on Monday. By the time you read this they should be touching down in the UK. If any of the Mattersey team are reading this ... could a couple of you write a wee 'Guest Blog' so you can share your experiences with us all! Thanks in advance.

The devil loves it when God is moving. He is delighted when people's lives are transformed. He will do anything to encourage and inspire us .... doesn't he? Em, no. I felt last Monday that there was a big discouragement coming and that God was saying, "Don't focus on it, focus on what I am doing." Sure enough, whilst wonderful things were going on during the week, someone walked into my home and stole my Apple Mac laptop. Worst thing was hat I had just bought a 100 pounds new battery for it and had opened the box to check the battery was OK. So I was left with a battery I didn't need and could not return and a laptop I no longer possessed! I decided not to dwell on it ... but now that I have a bit more time I have to say I am a teeny weeny bit 'scunnered' (doric for 'fed-up!)

Never mind, I'm sure the Apostle Paul lost a few laptops on his missionary journeys! And after speaking to Gio's dad again yesterday I realise once again that everything can be replaced in life except life.

Don't focus on temporal things that can be destroyed - or stolen - at any moment. Set your heart on building for eternity and these temporary 'scunners' will mean nothing.

Bless ya ... hope to blog tomorrow. Promise!

Emily

At the weekend I was talking to Pastor Winston and he had been really challenged by the story of a little girl who turned up at his house last week. I asked him to write his thoughts down ... so here they are:

"A little girl came to our house one morning and asked, “uncle do you have some plastic?” When I looked I saw this brown headed, dirty looking girl with a big sack on her back with some plastic things and plastic bottles she had pick up on the street. I said I don’t have, then she said “can I help you clean your sewer drain for 20 pesos (20p)” and I said “yes”, and she join me cleaning. My wife prepared some food for us since it was merienda (snack) time and I thought I’d ask some information about her. And I listened to this little girl tell the story of her life.

Her name is Emily Gutierrez (pic above). She started by saying her foot was so sore with athletes foot that she had because every time the rain come, their floor is all wet. Their roof is an old tent. Water is all over. Then she described about their little house and that there are 8 of them living there. Her mother got married and they gave birth to 2 girls, and Emily is the eldest. Her father was killed when she’s only 4 years old, someone hit her father with a hammer that causes the immediate death. After a few months, her mother married another guy. During the 6 years of marriage, they were able to produce 3 kids, then the husband was drowned in the river a kilometer away from their house, and so she became widow for the second time.

Again after a few months, the mother got married to a widower and they had a boy who is only 7 months old at the moment. Now the husband is accused of theft and is presently in prison here in Santiago City Jail. So Emily had 5 brothers and sisters plus two orphan girls who stays with them in this tiny house - plus her mom.

I ask her “how do you survive?” She smiled and said, "sometimes we eat 3 times a day, sometimes just once. Me and my other two sister, will walk daily in the streets of this compound to look for plastic and any rubbish from people here that we can sell in the junk shop. We have an average of P30 daily and we use to buy rice for our food the next day. We don’t go to school for we have no money, I only finished Grade 1. I can’t read nor write. Our mother stays at home to look after our smaller brothers and sisters.

My tears are falling as I listen to her story, and I said can I visit your house now? And she said yes. On our way to their house I bought some potatoes, eggs, fish, and rice to bring to her family who are waiting for Emily to bring food for them. I told her, “tell your mother to mix the potato and the egg for your lunch.”

She smiled at me and said “can we fry the eggs?” and I said yes. She look at me and said “I don’t think so - we never fry eggs we only boil them.” Then I realized that they don’t buy cooking oil so they have never had a fried egg before. It’s a bit funny, but it really mattered to Emily. And when she ate a fried egg for the 1^st time, it brought a big smile in her face.

That afternoon, I asked some of our Cornerstone Pastors to join me to visit this family. So we went there and prayed for the people there, for many are sick. At the moment, we are trying to figure out how can we help this family and all the people who live in this squatter area. Please join us to pray for this community and the family of Emily. Thank you, Winston."

...seems a million miles and a different world from Disneyland ... Mark.

The Start of the Scottish Invasion!

Well, I am back from Manila (in one piece!). Crazy, crazy people on crazy, crazy roads. Seems like the most logical and acceptable place for some Filipinos with big cars to overtake is

* just before the brow of a hill
* at the outside lane of a hidden bend
* on the hard shoulder when all the rest of us have stopped for roadworks

Yup, I think we have seen a few 'near misses' in the last few days ... but praise God we are still in one piece. I am not joking! Had to laugh though. Many cars in Manila had these car stickers ...


...so funny!

We had a great service at Cornerstone United on Sunday. We had a lot of people there and we had the visit of a YWAM team. A local Pastor spoke about how we need to live in the grace and power of God. Really exciting to be there.

We left on Sunday afternoon to go to Manila. Wow, what a long drive. Monday was the first day of classes here in the Philippines and I think that every car, truck and bus was on the same road as us! We arrived there at 11pm, but safe.

Had a great time with my wee girl in Manila. Lydia behaved so well and really enjoyed herself. She thought she was a really big girl because she helped her daddy and took care of him! (I am only 38 ... not 83!!!) On Tuesday Vivian arrived and Lydia was over the moon to see her 'Aunty Viv-ee'. We left for home on Tuesday afternoon .. and we had a traffic-free journey! Bliss.

From now on it's all systems go as far as visitors are concerned. Vivian is here now and we are also expecting an Australian couple from John Partington's church in a few weeks. I am going down to the south of the Philippines to the island of Palawan to preach at my friend's church. On the way back we will pick up a team of 5 young adults from Cornerstone Singapore. They will be here for a week's mission and will minister in the church and at our various ministries and outreaches.

I will drop them off at Clark airport on July 2nd and then continue down to Manila to pick up a team from Fraserburgh. My cousin Elizabeth and her husband John are coming out with their two beautiful girls Libby & Milly. Another family is coming with them - David & Grace Strachan and their two kids and last but not least is a lovely young lady from Fraserburgh AoG called Kirsty. Lydia and Josiah are so excited to see their 'sorta cousins'!

They will be here until the 19th July and on the 26th July more friends will arrive - Michael & Alison Tait with their niece Jemma. They have been such a blessing in so many ways to Sefton Village for many years and this will be their third trip. It is always great to hear their enthusiasm and encouragement as they see what God is doing. Michael and I also share a love of good food ... believe it or not!

They will leave on 14th August and we have no visitors until October 2nd when some of the Ritchie tribe arrive. I am so delighted that my brother Paul is coming out with his whole family - Ashley, Nathan & Aaron. I am looking forward to some 'nephew time'. My mum and dad will be coming with them (their 123rd trip!!!) and also my cousin Alexander's wife Monica will be coming. She is so gifted in singing and songwriting and she has made two beautiful CD's.

Of course, at the end of September the newest part of our Sefton Team will arrive - the Kerr family. They will be doing the Missions Course at Mattersey and then coming out to join us here. We are about to start renovating their house next week. Please pray that all their practical plans will go smoothly and that everything will fall into place. They are so brave and we know that they will be such a blessing to Sefton Village.

There is word that my other brother David might be coming out with a friend at the end of the year ... so it is all systems go!

And that's not all ... it seems like Sefton Village is in hot demand for Missions Teams. In March, a team from Mattersey, led by Dr John Andrews, will be coming for a fortnight. In April, our good friend Pastor Steve Ritchie is working on sending out a team from Fraserburgh AoG. There has also been contact from a three churches in Scotland who are in the planning stages of sending teams out from their churches next summer.

Phew. It's all happening.

Please pray that, for every person and every team, they would be a blessing ... but be blessed. They would give a challenge ... and be challenged. Be an inspiration ... and be inspired. Bring change .... and be changed. For every sacrifice they make to come here ... God would send the fire on their altars. For every hope and vision they have ... God would do more.

This is my hearts desire ....

SOS '07

In these next few paragraphs I want to tell you about an amazing man with an amazing ministry here in the Philippines. His name is Ray Calusay (pictured below with his grandson and very handsome friend!) and he comes from a place called Roxas City which is located way down south in the island of Davao. He has been an AoG pastor for many years and is now the General Superintendent for the Philippines AoG (the top man!) Yet, his heart and passion is still winning people to Christ and planting churches. He is a great preacher and a real 'people' person. He is a funny guy but with a huge heart. I have met him many times and have come to really love and respect Ray and his family.


Many years ago, Ray cried out to the Lord for a new church planting vision and strategy. He saw that the old models we worked with had lost their emphasis and effectiveness. The Lord put in his heart and spirit a new ministry called 'Summer of Service' or SOS. The basic principle and ethos behind this ministry is that volunteers are gathered from various churches. They have intensive training for one week and then they are put into Ministry Groups according to their giftings, character and ministries. Then, they are sent out to a town or village or city where they will plant a brand new church ... in three weeks! The people give up their entire vacation time ... to start a church. At the end, a Pastor and leadership team are left to continue the work and grow the church.

It has been going for many years in Roxas City, and when I asked pastor Ray how many churches they had planted he calmly told me "between 190-200". Gulp. Makes me kinda feel I haven't even reached the starting line!!


We adopted SOS into our Bible School curriculum three years ago and this year our students joined another 80 volunteers to plant three new churches in Northern Luzon. They finished their intensive training on Sunday and on Monday all the jeepneys rolled up to take them to their places of ministry for the next three weeks. They will be doing door to door ministry, starting cell groups, leading people to the Lord and on the last Sunday they will have the first opening service in each location. The teams are so exited and you can almost feel their joy. What an adventure. Most of the volunteers are teenagers or early twenties. Tremendous.

It got me thinking about back home. How much response would we get if we challenged people in the UK to give up 3-4 weeks of their holidays to plant some churches? I thought that maybe SOS is only for Filipinos in the Philippines. But Pastor Ray told me that they have successfully adapted SOS in Australia! Mmmm...

Our concept of church planting is people 'coming in' and doing their thing. I wonder if we will ever realize that our greatest resource is not finances, technology, good musical instruments, great venues ... but our own people who are willing to sacrifice a bit of luxury to find a bit of destiny.

One day ... I would love to see this happen in the UK.... what do you think???

Selah ...