God's Desires Obeyed

GLF Ayala

Sunday worship in Ayala was a real highpoint in our journey so far. What an incredible joy it was to be amongst the people of God. Every single one has been drawn by God, not just to the Church, but far more importantly to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Each one is a beautiful  new creation in Christ. Cesar and Ludima originally sensed the call to plant a church in Zamboanga City, but God directed them to this area of Ayala. In obedience to the Spirit, they went and began Gospel Light Fellowship. Through the prayers of so many this fellowship has grown as they have been faithful and courageous in God.
John and I were received with such love and genuine warmth, it was at times very moving. As we worshipped God with these brothers and sisters we had a powerful sense of God's heart for the nations to come and bow down with one heart and mind in worship of him - a foretaste of heaven indeed!
John, or should be call him Pastor John? - was the preacher. As I indicated on the last blog he preached on the healing of the official's son in John 4:43-54, Cesar giving a simultaneous translation, but done so as if he was preaching Filipino style! No-one could slumber or sleep. No snores from the back staid Presbyterian pews! Apart from anything the pews are backless benches or plastic garden seats so there isn't much chance of comfort.

My Friends

As I sat in the front row while John was preaching, a group of three little boys joined me with their Gideon New Testament. They could not read but they wanted to see where I was reading from. As I shared my Bible with them, they became my friends and friends means photos - so here they are.
Here is a vibrant church, with a passion to see families come to know Jesus. It is not easy. The dominant religious atmosphere is Catholic or Muslim. There are powerful forces of land and money at work to make breaking from either to follow Jesus in the simplicity of the Gospel, extremely costly. The work goes on with quiet, prayerful, courageous faith - a truly beautiful quality I suspect is only produced in the face of adversity.

Come let us worship and bow down!

The great news is that two families are leaving the GLF! Most pastors would be devastated by that statement, but not Cesar. He is thrilled! They are not troublesome malcontents, the exact opposite. They are faithful families whom God is calling and drawing back to Zamboanga City to plant a new church. They have a vision to plant near the Airport, as one of the families will be living there. They have asked Cesar to remain as their Pastor and he has not only agreed, but agreed with great delight. From December he will pastor both GLF in Ayala and this new little congregation in Zamboanga City. Who will God gather round these two families? What lives will be touched by the reality of the Risen Christ in these people? Only God knows that bit of the story. But for now, they know they are going; Cesar knows what he must do and they are joining in what God is up to. Full Circle for Cesar - a church plant in Zamboanga City - just a different timing form expected. Yet that's how God so often works. Does it get much better than that?

Spiritual Leadership

I thought a wee report on how things went today would be in order! It was an early start to get out to the church in Ayala ready to share with the various leaders. The first thing to say is that it was great to see so many young leaders. Their sense of faith and life and commitment is very strong. It was great because one of the aspects of John's talk was highlighting the ministry of Timothy who was a young, shy leader entrusted with looking after a whole group of house churches in Ephesus and how Paul encouraged him not to let anyone despise his youth but to set them an example. Most definitely a word from God for them.
Prior to John speaking from a "helper's" view of ministry, I had shared the prophetic ministry of Barnabas as he encouraged the newly converted Saul in his embryonic ministry and then bringing his cousin John Mark into the team as a helper so that he could experience what Gospel ministry was all about. The fact that he blew it and chickened out gave Barnabas the opportunity to give him a second chance, much to Paul's annoyance! That second chance was to ultimately lead to John Mark being used of God to write the Gospel of Mark - no mean legacy of life and ministry for John Mark, or for Barnabas!
All in all, it was a great morning and these talks seemed to be greatly appreciated as was the lunch Ludima and Cesar's Mum had prepared for everyone! More food! This time it was mainly vegetable dishes - young bamboo; mung beans; some unpronounceable dish and noodles, oh and a free range chicken brought especially for us from one of the pastor's yards!

Tomorrow is Sunday so we will head back to Ayala for morning worship and John is going to preach on John 4:43-54 - the Official's son. I get a break in the morning but we are so much in demand (!) that we have been asked to fit in another church here in town in the early evening, so I will preach at that one and John will have a rest! Division of labour.
 We are looking forward with anticipation, aware that in ourselves we are not up to much, but by the Spirit he can accomplish wonderful and untold things. So our prayer is that - " accomplish wonderful and untold things in the hearts and lives of your people."

Productive Rest

A couple of days of rest...lots of chatting, walking round and round the car park and of course sampling more Filipino delights in the restaurant. This down time has enabled us to prepare for sharing with the various leaders in the Gospel Light Fellowship tomorrow. Thanks for helping out by prayer on this! As we have thought, prayed, talked, we have put together a good outline for the morning. I will open up the subject of spiritual leadership emerging from Barnabas. Then John will look at the role, spiritual qualifications and effectiveness of helpers in the local church - fancy coming to our conference? Maybe someone should tell God TV! All joking apart one of the things we are looking forward to is the time to really engage with these believers and hear their hearts as they seek to serve God effectively in Ayala.
Our daily rhythm is continuing as we read through Ephesians. This morning were were bowled over by the grace of God in Ephesians 2:1-10. It is a staggering passage which culminates in the amazing assertion that we are God's masterpiece, creation, workmanship. He is the beginning and the end of all we are and all we do. Fantastic!
Cesar and Ludima came in to spend time with us today which was lovely. They treated us to various delicacies and great chat, then we headed off to Greenwich Pizza and Pasta House for lunch, meeting up with their daughters Shilomei and Sheenne to make a family outing of it. What a lovely and generous treat. We had such a great time. As the sun sets and evening falls we are ready and waiting for a wonderful day tomorrow - so until next time...

Thank you Lord!

What a brilliant day it has been. We joined the congregation of Gospel Light Fellowship for their Annual Thanksgiving service as you will see - and both John and I were guest speakers! 

It was primarily a time of worship and celebration of all God's goodness to this people throughout the last year and it was clear that preparations had been going on for most of the past year for today.There were a couple of testimonies of how God had blessed lives; reading from Scripture; these delightful boys and girls singing "How great is our God" - albeit with some judicious prompting! - and all held together in an atmosphere of worship and exuberant praise led by the youth worship team. By the time John came to preach there was an anticipation and expectation which burst open in vocal agreement with the Word and at times, applause of the Truth. Soon nerves dissolved and the joy of declaring the Word from Psalm 100 broke through.

I had decided to preach on Romans.12:1,2 and had prepared accordingly however in the course of the sung worship the Spirit redirected me to focus on "God is good and his love endures for ever" as it is sung in various places of celebration and warfare in the OT. It was certainly not what I planned, but it was clear it was the Word of the Lord for us all. What a wonderful God we have - Hallelujah!

The time of worship then gave way to a time of fellowship - snapshots and hugs, and laughter and enjoyment before we shared food together. I am sorry this subject has occurred again, but really how often do you get a whole roast pig for lunch? I don't include the picture to offend anyone, but merely to illustrate the lavish kindness and blessing prepared and shared with us from a people with so very little. It was simple, beautiful food and the conversations which flowed were rich and deep. If the trip was only about today, it was worth it, but I have a real sense that this is only the beginning! God has even more in store for us all - it will be so exciting to see how it flows from now on.

We have a couple of rest days now, but are giving some thought and prayer to what we share with the church elders and ministry leaders on Saturday when we spend the morning together. We invite you to pray with us on this.

Shoes

I confess my huge ignorance of the Philippines prior to this adventure. The name I had heard of was the disgraced former President Marcos and of course his wife Imelda Marcos -the mysterious IM! She spelled her name S-H-O-E-S. Many women have a penchant for shoes, but she was addicted to collecting, and wearing, an outrageously lavish array of shoes.
But shoes are a luxury and apparently more than a third of the world's population cannot afford shoes. That is the stark reality of rich and poor - of vast wealth and such painful poverty.

That contrast was immediately highlighted in conversation today - church members who are very very poor and are ministered to by the giving out of monthly supplies of rice, and extremely rich big business. Many ordinary Philippinos feel like slaves in their own land - owned and exploited by economic empire-builders.
Today has been a day of  R & R in the hotel. We barely ventured beyond the car park - as seen from our room. However we had good time to begin a saunter through Ephesians together and were struck with the powerful knowledge that we have been "sent" by God and Gilcomston Church to the faithful people of God in Zamboanga. That turned into a time of praying and interceding together which was rich.
Later in the afternoon Cesar and Ludima joined us and brought a feast with them. Now this far-surpassed previous food discussion. They brought freshly boiled monkey-nuts; orange juice; the most fabulous fresh mangoes and the gateaux. It is Ubi cake and contains no artificial colouring! And it was delicious - giving carrot cake a real run for its money!
However the richest thing about the day has been spending time with Cesar and Ludima and just chatting, getting to know each other and beginning to hear their story. It is humbling and stirring to hear the depths of their desires to share Jesus and see men and women find the Truth of Christ. They have spent much of today preparing for the Thanksgiving Fiesta tomorrow when the church members are on holiday and come to celebrate God's goodness in worship, fellowship and food. That will be when we go deeper, experience more and enjoy the story of Grace in the lives of the people of God. Bring it on!

Enjoy your Sunday Lunch?

Well I quipped about the Royal Dutch Airlines Menu, so here is the little competition....guess what delights are represented on the tray for Sunday lunch or dinner - lost track of time as you do when you are enjoying yourself. Answers on a postcard please...Oh I must have that wrong as I am the one away and I am therefore the one who should be sending pcs!
Clue - the left pic or of the main course and the right one is of the dessert. I think the woman next to me was wondering why I kept taking photos of the food - maybe she thought I was Egg On Ronny - sadly the one of the breakfast rubbermaid omelette is a bit blurred although that could just have been my eyesight, having slept little. Still it fuelled us until we landed in Zamboanga to be treated to bright orange brollies on disembarkation - to protect us from the sun. Here is John sporting that little number.They even laid on a dance in the baggage hall.

So we have arrived and were met by Pastor Cesar and his wife Ludima and then joined by two of their three daughters.
A short excursion to the supermarket for supplies of water was quite an experience as we dodged heavy traffic on overcrowded streets - traffic mainly of motor-bike tricycle taxis. Fun and fumes.
It is clearly going to be quite an experience and in a through it all God is leading and opening up the opportunities.

It's a long way...to Zamboanga!

Well today's the day! The cases are packed and the check-in is done. It's a long way to...is it Tipperary? - No, Zamboanga! Our flight leaves Aberdeen at 11.00 just as lots of you will be in worship services. We touch down in Amsterdam for a mere 55mins then head off on one flight direct to Manila. From there we take a direct internal flight to Zamboanga City and arrive there about 13.25 on Monday 10th.
For anyone interested in the "where" the following maps give the whole journey and then the short internal flight.
The next post will be from Zamboanga - different land, different culture,different language - and probably written through a mist of jet-lag. Till next time....


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