SBTC ... Alive and Kicking!

I am so excited about what God is doing - right now - in and through our Bible School. This September, SBTC is 10 years old! It was started before we arrived but I thank the Lord that what is happening now at SBTC has been accomplished by a step by step progressive vision. We have been in a process - from an 8 month basic Church Planting course into a two year School of Ministry.

The last two years have been tough, I must admit. The sudden death of Pastor Abe really knocked us all .. particularly me! And when I came back in 2007 things were just not the same without my friend and co-worker around. I found it hard to put my heart back into the Bible School. We set up a temporary dean - Pastor James Bastian. We all took extra responsibilities to get us through but James is the guy I need to thank the Lord for. How he help everything together -along with his ministry at Cornerstone AND being the Administrator AND starting a family - is beyond me. But he did!

Last year, my co-director Pastor Angel and I identified a Pastor to be our new Dean of students. He was from Pastor Angel's church originally but had left to go to Bible School years ago. He married a lovely lady called Joy and they were ministering in the AoG's biggest Bible School in the Philippines - Bethel Bible School in Manila. Pastor Lorenz was the Dean of students and joy ran their Nursery School as well as being the Dean of Women! When we approached them, they said they would pray about it. But they could not come last year due to responsibilities and commitments.

To cut a long story short, I went down to visit them in Manila and preached in their Bible School. Unbeknown to me, the things that I said in my message were exactly the words that Lorenz had challenged God about that week. Gos is amazing. If He wants to tell you something ... you had better be ready! So they handed in their resignation and followed the call. They arrived here in the first week of May.

They are our new neighbours and they have two great kids - Rohama (4) and Aaron (2). They have made a huge difference to SBTC and are using all their skills and giftings to bring new ideas to our Bible School. best thing is ... they are so passionate about what God has called them to do. It is infectious! I have rekindled the love for these students and for the amazing vision of our Bible School. I am so excited! Joy is also working part-time in teh afternoons at the Nursery School and is really helping Mary.

We started enrollment at the end of May and I am delighted to tell you that we have 24 first year full time students and 13 full time second year students! So we have 37 full time students at SBTC and around 5 or 6 that are day students. There is a new buzz around the place! Can you spot me in the top picture?

I am especially delighted to tell you that we have eight full-time students from our Cornerstone Churches (see pic below)! Wow! They are the next generation of church planters and leaders that have come through our church. We are beginning to see some fruit of our labour at Cornerstone!

There are many Leaders in the AoG District here that really want us to reach out and do extension seminars in various places. Please pray for this new possibility. It opens up doors for us to train even more people fro the ministry from around Northern Luzon.

Pray also for our transport situation. We have a large Jeepney van, but it is very unsafe and I am really worried about it. We have so many students now that we need either another multi cab plus get our one fixed or we need to trade in the old banger and use any money towards buying two multi cabs. I am praying we can do this by September when the students start to go out on evangelism and church networking. We have been challenged to plant a church directly from our Bible School, so pray we can do it! In the AoG here now, you cannot apply for credentials unless you have planted a church!

Please pray for us at SBTC. The first few weeks can be difficult for the new students and we have found that many of them feel under so much pressure to go home. Pray for the Salazar family as they adjust to life at Sefton Village. Pray for that God would continue to give us a progressive vision that we will be able to understand and follow.

Catch you later ...

Mark

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!

Face the World Face Down ...

Last week was ultra busy yet ultra excellent. So many things were squeezed into a few days and it seemed like we were on a roller coaster that wasn’t stopping anytime soon!

We started off with our FEBC Radio Programmers Seminar from Monday to Wednesday. We are praying that by Oct/Nov we will start to build the radio station at Sefton Village, but before that FEBC have to train people to run the programmes. Around 20 progammers came – comprising from housewives to businessmen to pastors – and they had a great time. Their final assessment was that they all had to plan and execute a 15 minute ‘live’ progamme … they did so well.

A bonus for us was to meet a Scottish FEBC Trainer – Peter McIntyre – who is from Edinburgh but who has been ministering in Manila for 20 years. When I first met him he said that his wife was from a place I had probably never heard of (Tain), but he got the shock of his life when I told him that we often drive through Tain because my wife was from much further north in Wick!

From Tuesday – Friday we had our ‘Week of Refreshing’ which is designed to give our students and former students a few days to feel special – to relax, un-burden, be ministered to, to have fellowship and plenty fun. We had seminars, ate out, went swimming, played sports .. but the most important thing was that the Holy Spirit really broke into some of our meetings and touched the lives of these precious young people.

Many of them come from very difficult pioneering works and they receive next to nothing for their support. They really know what it is to ‘live by faith’. In one meeting the Lord really impressed on my spirit that he wanted to ‘break the chains of disappointment’ over some of their lives … and it was tremendous to see many respond and to see God breaking many things in their lives.

On Friday afternoon we had a very special occasion – our SBTC Graduation Service. We had a great time and the students did so well. We had the marching of the students, their parents and SBTCF staff, praise & worship, testimonies, Graduation song and then Keith gave a great message. We gave out their certificates and then all the Pastors prayed for the students – this is always a special time. At the end, the students are given 2 flowers to give to the people who have helped them through Bible School. It is so touching to see them thank and pray with their mums, dads, pastors and relatives. There are very few dry eyes!

I watched over the week at these young students and Alumni (former students). One thing that struck me was the amount of time they spent just bowing before the Lord. Just kneeling at His feet. Waiting for His voice. Sitting in His presence. Not flustered about time. This is not a place of weakness … but a place of strength.

If we are to face the world with the Gospel of Christ, then we must go from our knees. We must learn to rise up before we speak out. We must learn to listen in quietness before we speak with power. We must learn to bow in surrender before we walk in victory. These young people don’t have much in the eyes of the world … but in the eyes of God they have surrendered lives and open hearts; and that is all He needs.

Selah…