Wednesday 23 December 2009

Hi again, and a very Happy Christmas and peace and goodwill to you all!

York has recently been regularly and beautifully covered with fresh snow, and I am hopeful with the prospect of my first white Christmas in a long time. I have decided that York is indeed colder than Norwich, but I have as yet managed to avoid being incapacitated by any climate adjustment disorder!



I was blessed and privileged to be able to spend some time with John McKay and Randall Hardy, dear friends and leaders within the ministry of Creation Research (John is the director and chief speaker and Randall is responsible for the mailings, literature, and speaking engagements in the UK):


Elijah Kirik's birthday entailed the creation of an edible skate park (not life-size) which I believe he was pleased with:


James (my landlord and housemate) and I wanted to investigate the flaming Christmas pudding phenomenon, and decided that it would be a good idea to turn off the lights for full effect. Behold the full effect:


I was really excited to be able to return to Norwich for the Servants Church Christmas play:





During the play I heard a song called "God Is With Us" for the first time and immediately loved it, I pray that it blesses you too:



...I also had the chance to do some street evangelism with the guys from church on the Saturday before, here's a shot of John sharing the Gospel:


...and had a chance to fellowship with brothers and sisters that I haven't seen since the August Family Camp:



...as well as eat a rocking horse that Noelle Brown made me:


At the office we had a delivery of 16,000 new copies of "Revolution In World Missions". This is the space they were destined for before we unloaded them:


...below is a shot of the books sitting outside in the freezing cold. It seemed that the trodden ice was not going to be helpful to us as we carried the book boxes in. In the absence of proper grit we used table salt to try and melt the ice. Unsuccessfully. I am hoping the next deliver will be in the Spring!


...and this is the filled up space after much elbow grease!


We pray that each of these books would represent a sponsored missionary, that everyone that reads one would be stirred up to live their lives to fulfil the Great Commission and be focused on eternity. At the end of the day this isn't about books, or money, or even missionaries, but about souls brought to Christ.

Saturday 14 November 2009

Hi there! Thank you for sparing time to come here again and peruse my blog.

What I do

I have been serving with Gospel for Asia for almost 8 months now, and I thought I would try and describe what I do here. I am involved in 'partner relations' and I am basically the first point of call for people who contact Gospel for Asia UK. I answer phone calls, e-mails and letters and deal with (or re-direct) people's questions and requests. I receive people's donations via cash, cheque and credit card, and process people's direct debits and standing orders. I download information from the bank and assign people's donations to the appropriate fund allocations. The ultimate point of what I do is to make sure that money from a donor goes to what they wanted it to go to, whether it was for missionaries, bibles, tracts, gospel radio, child sponsorship etc. I feel that my role here is a perfect match for my heart and gifting and everyday I am grateful that the Lord has placed me here to serve Him in this way!

Things at home

Things at the house are good, except that our washing machine now refuses to spin (grrr).


Landlord James was on the case to see if he could fix it, but in the end the solution proved too elusive.


Of course there are other methods to dry your clothes in rainy season.


Tim and Judy recently moved house which meant that I got another chance to drive a van! We all helped out and several people from Calvary Chapel York also came to lend a hand.






Dad's Birthday

I went back to Norwich for one night for my Dad's 60th birthday.


Me and most of my siblings were there and we all went out to a chinese buffet for what turned out to be a great time.






I bought him one of those roll-up working computer keyboards!


We also told the attendants it was Dad's birthday and to his surprise they played 'Happy Birthday' over the speakers and brought him some birthday cake!


Oh, and here my brother Joshua demonstrates that yes, ice cream can be eaten with chopsticks.


The Calvary Road

As part of my discipleship course I have recently read and completed a book report on 'The Calvary Road' by Roy Hession.


I must say that this book has impacted me greatly. I really feel that the Lord has used it to teach me about my 'self '; about how my pride rears it's head in my moment by moment attitudes and in my everyday choices. It's given me a fresh perspective on dying to self and esteeming others as more important than myself. I have been very challenged by this book and wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

Friends from Finland

We were extremely blessed by a visit from a couple from Finland who wanted to meet us and learn more about Gospel for Asia.




Magnus and Sinikka had read Revolution In World Missions and were really excited about the concept of reaching the unreached in Asia with the Gospel by supporting indigenous missionaries. Actually they are excited about reaching just about anybody with the Gospel through any means! We had a great time of fellowship and encouragement and were able to share with them how the Lord has led Gospel for Asia and formed it's vision and direction. We also wanted to take them to what is renowned as the best place for fish and chips in York but when we arrived we found it had just suffered fire damage! Talk about rotten luck!


India flooding

One of our recent prayer focuses has been the flooding in the South of India.


The states of Karnataka and Andra Pradesh have suffered from the worst flooding they have had in a long time, leaving many people without homes and basic necessities and at great risk to sickness and disease.


Missionaries there are ministering to flood victims and using the disaster as an opportunity to demonstrate the love and mercy of Christ to people who have lost a great deal, if not everything.


And to think that the other day I was miserable simply because my jeans got soaked in the rain. I am really blessed to continually have my eyes opened and my perspectives re-aligned!

"Judge nothing before the time..." 1 Corinthians 4:5

Pastor Dave recently gave a great exhortation on not judging things before their time. Often we will look at what's going on in the church around us and we are completely confused by what's going on. We think we know what the end result should look like but we don't see ourselves getting there. He showed us this 5 minute video as an illustration. If you watch it please be patient until the end. You will experience confusion as you see what appears to be mess, and eventually you will be shown a picture of what the church is supposed to look like. Don't judge it until the end! God bless you.

Saturday 29 August 2009

I have had a really full month this August, it has been busy but really good. Here is a rundown:


New Wine 2nd-9th Aug

I drove Tim, Matt (a volunteer), 800 copies of “Revolution in World Missions” and lots of food in a big white van four and a half hours to the Shepton Mallet Showground where we would be camping for 7 nights.

We were praying for rain (so that people would be persuaded to spend time inside the exhibition hall and visit our stall), but as we were approaching over the last few hills we saw big black clouds perched over the showground and realised it was time to STOP praying for rain! It was really REALLY wet and I got the van completely stuck in the muddy parking area (but along came a Landrover and everything was fine) and one of the nights we got a little flooded and lots of my clothes got wet.


We manned our stall from 10:30am to 10:30pm with a break between 6pm and 8:30pm during which we cooked dinner and rested. The rest of the time was spent washing and sleeping! We signed up about 700 people for the book and chatted to a lot of people supporting native missionaries and have already seen some good response. We continue to pray for the books to get read, for people to consider furthering the Great Commission in Asia through native missionaries, and for souls to be saved in Asia.

I thank the Lord for a productive conference, a great time with Tim and Matt and for keeping us safe on the roads.


Family Camp 10th-14th Aug

I had a fantastic time being re-united with folks from Servant’s Church (my sending church, formerly Calvary Chapel Norwich). This year’s camp was back at Whitwell Hall and I had a place in the single men’s room.

I went thinking that because I now served with Gospel for Asia I already knew all about living in the light of eternity and that none of the teachings at camp would touch me. I was wrong! John’s message on not playing church and being missions driven really cut me in pieces. Simon Lawrenson also gave a great teaching Jesus’ three-fold ministry as Prophet, Priest and King, in response to our three-fold problem of being ignorant, guilty and corrupt.

I had a really good time, I was really blessed to sing songs, fellowship, and have some amazing food with familiar faces and unfamiliar faces, and I was able to let everyone know how I was doing and what the Lord has been doing in me. I introduced a song I learned at CC York and it seemed to go down well.




Back home 15th-17th Aug

I went to stay for Saturday at my Dad’s house where I had some Vietnamese noodles (phở)


…played some Chinese chess (Xiàng Qi)


…some football games on the Xbox 360 with my brother Joshua.

It was nice to be back at my Dad’s house and talk to my Dad. Joshua was my driver for any journeys I needed to take and it was nice being chauffeured!

I went to Sunday service at Servant’s Church and Simon Lawrenson taught on the sufficiency and abundance of the Lord.



I went with Dave Jones back to the church house to have a look at how the lads were treating my previous place of residence, then I spent the rest of the day at my mother’s house.

My young cousin was visiting from Cambridge, my brother came up from London and my two sisters came with their boyfriends to visit.

My mother had been up since the early hours of the morning preparing food, we had Vietnamese spring rolls (Chả giò)


…and crispy noodles


In the evening after my sisters left I destroyed my brothers and cousin at Monopoly!


Back to York 18th-21st Aug

Back in York I was met with a mountain of things to catch up on and found out that I was designated as a driver for our coming weekend in Northern Ireland. Sat Nav anybody?


Northern Ireland 22nd-23rd Aug

The Renew Your Passion Conference was Saturday 22nd Aug in Northern Ireland at Carnmoney Presbyterian Church. It was great to meet KP Yohannan for the first time and I found I immediately had a respect for this man who was willing to spend most of his life travelling on planes alone and exhausted to exhort God’s people to remember the lost in Asia. We had a great time at this conference spending time with our supporters in Northern Ireland and we pray that as a result there would be fruit in harvest fields of Asia.

This is Carnmoney Presbyterian Church's building:


...Brian and Mindy Kirik:


...smiley volunteers!


...me talking with Pastor Robin Marshall:


...a shot of the crowd:


...Pastor Loren Coombs from CC Bridlington was helping us too!


...the sanctuary:


...Brother KP in action!


...another shot of the crowd:


...our resources table:


...Northern Irish money!


...Mindy Kirik in action:


...Brian Kirik in action!


...Tim and Rachel at the resources table:



Sunday 23rd KP Yohannan spoke at Holywood Baptist Church and again it was a really good time. I got to spend a bit more time with Andy and Rachel Lovell who are our Northern Ireland representatives before we had to fly back, leaving Brian and KP to go onto the remaining conferences by themselves.

Our resources table again!


...Tim with one of the congregation:


...me, er... pulling a face at someone:


...Brother KP talking after the service:


...Mindy talking to some visitors to the church:


...Judy explaining the Bridge of Hope program to one of the church members:


...Brother KP again:


...the gentleman on the right is Andy Lovell, Andy and Rachel are our Northern Ireland reps:


Well that's all for now, I'll write again as soon as I can. God bless you and keep you!