On to Pakistan (Pakistan Trip 2nd Post)

After one night in Dubai I flew the following evening to Lahore, Pakistan.

We have been involved there since 2006 when Yaqoob Ilyas, a former immigration centre detainees,started a church, prison ministry and adult education classes.

There are three million Christians in Pakistan all facing varying degrees of hardship, discrimination and outright persecution. I assure you they are truly brothers and sisters and part of our Christian family. In their time of distress I can think of no place I wold rather be than with them, sharing the treasures of His love and His word.

I spent the first eight days in Green Town a Christian "colony", where Yaqoob has his church. We ran a three day Bible Conference, a youth meeting, a Sunday meeting and three days of Bible classes for his workers. I stayed with Yaqoob in his flat in Bahar Colony, however we never ate dinner at home and spent every night at different peoples houses praying together and enjoying their hospitality. By the end of the trip I honestly felt very at home and found it a little hard to leave. It was hard to leave a place where I could spend my whole time studying and teaching Gods word and being so well received by all there. It is now my second "home"!



Here is myself and Yaqoob at the the Bible Conference.



Our Students!




Somehow I manage to pray for two people at once! I have never prayed for so many people as during this visit to Pakistan. Its interesting that praying for others is rather like a muscle. The more you do it, the stronger you feel and the more confident you are that God is working through the prayers.




Yaqoob praying for all the young men who came forward.



Asiya, wearing brown, praying for the young women.



Dancing at the end of one of the meetings!



Yaqoob and I exhorting the people



Asiya pulling a funny face! She is a great help to Yaqoob, teaching the Adult Education Class, faithful prison visitor and organising church meetings!



Myself with Asiya, Shammah and Suleiman. We have seen a great change in this family since first coming to Pakistan. They are all actively involved in church and prison ministry.



Distributing our new book in Urdu."Obstacles are for Overcoming!" What a blessing and a lovely job by Yaqoob.



At the end of the Bible conference

More pictures and stories following!

Dubai (Pakistan Trip 1st Post)

Well only one picture which is pretty lame but I didn't have a camera. I stayed with an old friend Michael Frampton who was singing and playing the piano at Frankies. ( A restaurant bar started by Frankie Dettori (famous jockey) and Marco Pierre White). He generously picked me up from the airport and rode on the fabulous new Dubai overland metro that winds its way through the fabulously 21st century Dubai city. We spent the day catching up and went to a fantastic mall (the Il Ibadan) for food etc. The next day my Afghani friend Abdul Rahim came over to Michael's apartment for five hours in the afternoon. We talked, read and prayed together. I met him in 2006 in an immigration centre in London. Claiming asylum as a Christian, he was refused and sent back to Afghanistan. He has spent periods on the run, walking all the way to Pakistan, starting Christian groups that were raided by the police. and traveling the country meeting with and encouraging new believers.



The time with Abdul was very special and reinforced my belief in him that God is using Him for something special. God has kept him through so much in the past few years all for a purpose and I am so happy to be a part of that and help him in whatever way I can.He lives in Kabul but spends large amounts of time travelling around the country encouraging and strengthening new believers. He is on the very front line of the battle working in dangerous circumstances and deserves all the support he can get I believe. We will be helping him in the future and hope to pass on news of his progress in the future. God bless Him!

First post for a long time!!!

Well its been so long since the last post. Natasha went to Kenya for five weeks. It was a long time away for all of us at home but the Lord really kept us and so we were fine even though missing her. She came back safely and ten days later I went to Pakistan. Well first I went to Dubai for

one night and then to Pakistan for the next 12 days. What a special trip it was! Emotionally you feel like I discovered a home I never knew you had but it has become a place where I feel completely at home with friends and Christian family. I will gradually blog my experiences there. We are all together once again..putting together a youth performance for schools for the end of term in four local schools.. and then getting ready for a visit from my mum over Christmas which will be a real blessing to us all.

Last Pics from Drakensberg

The last day of hiking took us way out of the National Park to Cannibals Cave past several waterfalls. Beautiful winter sunshine meant that noone got burnt, though we did run out of water on this trip.

What was quite interesting was the food that would boost us. We found that cherry tomaotes were incredibly encoragng on the long hike as well as oranges and chocolate and the obligatory sandwiches.

One day we were horrified as we sat down to find our sandwhich bag was missing. How could we have dropped it??!! We sat horrified sharing the few snacks and morcels we had. Eventually we stood up to go and Jad (12) found he had been sitting on them all the time!

The beautiful Drakensberg. This range behind us is called the amphitheatre.

Our final destination. Cannibals Cave actually took us out of the National Park for a couple of hours. We had all settled for looking at the cliffs and seeing any small cranny and saying, "That must be the Cannibals Cave." Only Richard (in the hat) persevered to find this spectatular cave and came back to lead us there

This and more was the inside of the cave.

On the way..this was the section that had been burnt the previous day

Shawn (15) with Jad (12)

All in all it was memorable trip...with over 45 kms covered and no major setbacks injuries or complaints!!

Are you praying Old Testament or New Testament?

I recently heard a series of talks on prayer by a Louis Giglio

His basic point was that generally we pray for four things on a regular basis that really, as Gods children and New Testament Christians, we should realise are not in line with our beliefs. He was suggesting we upgrade or remix our prayers to reflect what we actually believe.

The things were:

1) God bless me/us/the situation/this meeting/ this time/ this journey etc

2) Be with us/Go with us here/there/as we go

3) Protect us from harm

4) Forgive us for our sins

Can you think why these are are not such New Testament prayers?

See below!

1) God bless me/us etc

The point is that through salvation through grace and becoming joint heirs with Christ, God has already blessed us to the nth degree. The promises are in the bank and there to be claimed and received by faith. We dont have to ask for Gods blessing as through Christ he has already blessed us over and above all we could ask and think . How would you feel if you gave something to a child (full blessing) and then they kept asking for it. Frustrated?!

How about instead praying that we can bless Him!

2) Be with me/us...go with me /us

Jesus has already promised to "be with us aways even unto the end of the world." He has already promised to "never leave nor forsake us." If these promsises are to be believed (which they are) the last thing we need to pray for is for God to be with us, as He already is!!!

By leaving these things out and praying for other things we can make our prayers more effective.

3) Protection.... is not necessarily a New Testament given. In fact we are promised that in the world we will have tribulation/ or trouble. Nearly all the apostles came to a sticky end somewhere. If we are always praying for protection and asking for protection and looking for safety and security for oursleves and our families we may be frustrating Gods greater purposes.

(He shared the story of an Australian missionary Graham Staines who was murdered with his two sons outside a home for lepers in rural India in January 2000. He had served in India for 30 years. His wife and remaining daughter publicly forgave the murderers and committed their futures to India. the incident had a major impact on India as a whole and turned into a marvellous testimony and victory for the cause of Christ in India)

I must say I find this one a little tricky as this is something you generally always pray for especially on long journeys and mission trips. I think the point is that these prayers need to be bracketed with the request to glorify Him in whatever ways He sees fit. .....?

4) Forgive me for my sins.

Finally and most simply He already has.! The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. We need to confess our sins but His part of forgiveness is already in the bag!

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It is already in the bag . It is done. It is finished.

Interesting concepts, hey?

Punishment no more

Just a little thought .... I went to church recently and enjoyed a little clarification..sometimes bad things happen to people and they can be tempted to wonder.."is that God punshing me? after all i am not perfect and I make lots of mistakes etc" and I would normally say "No, .....I dont ..think so!"

But it was clarified for me that for His children, those who have received His son into their lives, there is no such thing as "punishment" any more.

Punishment looks back in to the past at what you have done; chastening or training looks into the future into what God is making you into.

Because Jesus took our punishment for us, we are no longer under punishment. But we are in training and anything that happens to us is for a purpose and a reason , a part of His love for us and an investment for the future! Nice huh?

"He suffered and endured great pain for us,but we thought his suffering was punishment from God. He was wounded and crushed beacuse of our sins; by taking our punshiment he made us completely well.

All of us were like sheep that had wandered off . We had each gone our own way, but the Lord gave Him the punishment we deserved." Isaiah 53