tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:56:32 +0000http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/missionblog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)Blogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-8822561198528903778Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:25:00 +00002008-10-04T14:41:29.213ZThe mullah stormed into the meeting, being held in a yurt in a small Mongolian town. Filled with jealousy, he interrupted Bill, the speaker, to declare to all present that he too knew religion and was qualified to teach people in public. Bill waited patiently until the rant was over. Then Bill asked to talk to the mullah in private after he had finished the meeting. Bill asked the mullah if he http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2008/10/only-true-muslim.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-2555407077905340158Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:23:00 +00002008-10-04T14:56:32.339Z Spot the Plane! I look out across the city of São Paulo from the 13th floor of our hotel. As far as the eye can see, skyscrapers sprout like thousands of blades of grass across the hills in this aggressive, hyperactive city of thirty-three million people. We swing past Maracanã Stadium, the biggest football stadium in the world, see Cidade de Deus, reputedly the most violent slum in Latin http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2008/07/so-paulistas-following-paul-to-asia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-7855346137909508929Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:30:00 +00002008-03-30T08:32:46.752Z Srey Leak grew up in Stung Meanchey, Phnom Penh which hosts the biggest rubbish dump in the country. In the area live thousands of the poorest of the poor, scavenging to survive. Srey Leak’s parents decided to give her up for adoption. She was adopted and taken away at the age of eleven despite both her parents still being alive. Srey Leak has ended up in the same class at school as Aimee – http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2008/03/who-is-jesus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-5003285840080438779Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:28:00 +00002008-02-24T13:46:02.624Z A few weeks ago a BBC reporter interviewed a Kikuyu refugee from the Eldoret area in Kenya. Anthony was out in the fields when he heard the roar. He rushed towards his village to see a 700 strong Kalenjin mob, many who were his own neighbours, surrounding the church and setting it on fire. In the church were his elderly father, his wife and baby son. As flames engulfed the building, his http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2008/02/shining-like-stars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-1242858616188662572Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:19:00 +00002008-01-21T14:53:12.569Z“Sending our own people as missionaries is a waste of money, resources and time,” said the Asian church leader to Steve as the visiting speaker. “Mission is so expensive and demands so much from a church. Our people are well-trained with a high living standard. They expect too much. Our policy is not to send any Singaporean in mission. But we will send money to help pay national pastors http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2008/01/cut-price-christianity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-3869448803932515543Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:08:00 +00002007-11-17T05:00:02.057Z We heard today of a Christian family who have a daughter who is now in her twenties. Outwardly completely normal, she has a mental age far below her physical age, including difficulties with speech. She is very affectionate and loves to welcome people. In fact when the doorbell rings she rushes to the door. But once it is open and she is face to face with the visitor, she doesn’t have the http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/11/brokenbroken.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-4049645516594058643Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:15:00 +00002007-11-17T04:13:56.533Z<?xml:namespace prefix = o />“I don’t believe in God”, said YY, “that’s how I was taught in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />China. Science has all the answers. But I’ve begun to think again because of the change in my wife ZY.” ZY, a post-grad research scientist, came to Singapore a year ahead of neurologist husband YY. Through the outreach of a church here ZY came to faith. When asked what http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/09/euphoria.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-6932832224643026009Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:32:00 +00002007-07-30T23:38:48.305Z A busy morning, phones ringing, impromptu meetings, a personnel crisis unfolding – then we were asked somewhat apologetically, if we had time for an elderly couple who had just walked in off the street, asking to “see someone in OMF”. Jim & Kaye had recently discovered that Jim’s great-aunt had served with the CIM. We heaved the old CIM registers out of a drawer, searching until we came http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/07/number-917.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-7899040905816672145Sat, 16 Jun 2007 17:31:00 +00002007-06-16T18:05:47.533Z The sun is searingly hot at three in the afternoon. We have left the stifling 36 degree heat in our room – despite two fans, no clothes and lying perfectly still we pour sweat at any point that touches the mattress! We find out way down onto the beach, a good sixty feet away. Looking far out east from a white-sanded beach into the Gulf of Siam, we watch the rain drift down in huge gray-white, http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/06/pines-ko-jaan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-1081982409756766885Sun, 13 May 2007 13:55:00 +00002007-05-22T14:07:26.976Z “Those who are working cross-culturally to share the Gospel make up just 0.02% of the Christian church-goers worldwide. Many more could be serving cross-culturally, especially when we think of the one billion people in East Asia alone that have still not even heard the name of Jesus. There are seven hundred church congregations for every unreached people group in the world! So much of what http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/05/licking-outside-of-watermelon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-2784470628818071759Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:15:00 +00002007-04-13T10:16:07.474ZWe collected Anna from the hospital this afternoon, following her MRI and review by the two specialists who have been looking after her today. Compared to the tense atmosphere this morning as they examined Anna, it was good to see them both relax as I handed them the results of the MRI. The MRI showed that Anna did not have either a cavernous sinus thrombosis or a retro-bulbar abscess - the http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/04/anna-is-home.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-6911710273876643403Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:02:00 +00002007-04-13T06:03:53.856ZToday we had to take Anna down to the hospital. She began to vomit yesterday afternoon and had eye pain on looking to one side but it settled in the evening. On waking up this morning the area around her left eye was swollen. This suggests a potentially serious complication of her sinus surgery some weeks ago. She has just been wheeled in to have an emergency MRI. Please can you pray for http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/04/anna-is-unwell-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-4937867869449276460Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:51:00 +00002007-04-02T13:57:10.282Z News from our home church in Zimbabwe has been distressing recently. We were concerned to hear that a funeral for an opposition activist killed recently during the violent disruption of a prayer meeting was to be held at the church with the threat of further violence. Our pastor there wrote to us about the situation "We had a visit from the Police yesterday and I had given instructions for http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/04/klearance-klebsiella-klarinet-ko.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-5163707377941309261Tue, 06 Mar 2007 06:31:00 +00002007-03-06T06:35:33.112ZAnna’s surgery last night took around three hours. The surgeon reported finding large collections of infected tissue, especially in the left maxillary sinus and ethmoid bone (for you medics out there). On reviewing Anna today, Dr Lim prayed with us and thanked God for helping him during this long surgical procedure in an area of the body where you don’t usually want any surgery! He was pleasedhttp://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/03/interceding-otorhinolaryngologisteh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-358322582174348332Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:24:00 +00002007-03-05T06:26:54.870ZAnna going for surgery Anna is going into the operating theatre today 5th March 2007. She has been seen by a specialist over the last few days who has put her on high doses of drugs in an attempt to control a chronic infection in three sinuses in the bones of her head. This has not worked well and so he has just taken the decision to operate on her this afternoon. The surgery will take aroundhttp://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/03/urgent-prayer-request.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-491315731679448837Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:20:00 +00002007-02-26T15:01:40.145ZRobert Thomas was a young Welsh missionary in China who became increasingly interested in the “Hermit Kingdom” nearby, and began to learn the language. In 1866 Thomas secured free passage as an interpreter on the voyage of the General Sherman which would seek to establish trade with the country. In August 1866, as the General Sherman proceeded upriver toward the capital, Thomas tossed gospel http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/02/reading-walls.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-2733379925565444230Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:48:00 +00002007-02-01T14:10:57.662ZTaiwan (formerly called Formosa by Portuguese explorers) is serious about business. Over the last half a century, a rather sleepy island in the South China Sea with few natural resources has transformed itself into one of Asia’s top-rank economic success stories. Taiwan now holds one of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves of more than $500 billion. However, this has come at a cost. Mosthttp://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2007/01/ilha-formosa-beautiful-island.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-116683095112039908Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:38:00 +00002006-12-22T23:44:51.483Z Nick’s dream was to ride the bulls in the rodeo. For years he lived in his truck, traveling from rodeo to rodeo and riding the meanest, most ordnery bulls that the US had to offer. He was injured many times, breaking ribs, hip and legs as well as other injuries. Once he even rode with a broken ankle, strapped up tight by a local medic, and trying to remember that when he jumped off he shouldhttp://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/12/bull-riding.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-116393722643892526Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:33:00 +00002006-12-22T23:47:15.593Z Built in 1914, the M.V. Doulos is just two years younger than the Titanic. The boast of the Titanic’s builders was “even God himself couldn’t sink this ship.” As the Doulos crew members look at the battered sides and struggle with the ancient engineering systems on board, they wryly say to each other, “it’s only God that keeps this ship afloat!” The Doulos is listed in the Guinness Book of http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/11/only-god-keeps-this-ship-afloat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-116295518367499868Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:05:00 +00002006-11-08T14:29:15.460Z“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/11/as-you-help-us-by-your-prayers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-116109040901088726Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:06:00 +00002006-10-28T05:45:46.536Z Idolatry is a strange word. It's a word associated with primitive cultures, with mysterious statues and dark temples, with pre-scientific societies. But here are the words of a TCK: "I could not hope to hold my father's attention, to be the voice he recorded, his microphone trained on the purest sounds of Chokwe and Lungwe, tapes as big as dinner plates twirling. I found my mother at the clinic http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/10/avoiding-idolatry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-115997046891432956Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:01:00 +00002006-10-04T14:43:25.126Z <?xml:namespace prefix = o /> "They are perpetual outsiders, born in one nation, raised in others, [shuttling] back and forth between nations, languages, cultures and loyalties. They live unrooted childhoods. Lifted from one home and set down in another, these children learn not to attach too deeply. Yet despite their resistance to rooting, these children need a sense of belonging, a way to http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/10/pilgrims-or-tourists.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-115910838131275804Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:33:00 +00002006-10-01T23:18:52.333Z<?xml:namespace prefix = o />24th September, 2006John Wilson* was bishop of the Anglican cathedral when Singapore fell to the advance of the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. During the fighting the Cathedral's nave was converted into a casualty station to care for the wounded, where Bishop Wilson helped to care for the wounded and dying - the fighting coming so close that in http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/09/grace-like-rain.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-115857781311118718Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:10:00 +00002006-10-01T23:22:46.776Z It's been a chilly 27 degrees in Singapore today. We've wrapped up warmly (!) and shivered our way through church today! The tropical rain has thundered down, lashing the massive trees in the Botanic Gardens just across the road and sending roaring torrents of water down the storm drains that run below our window. Lightning strikes have kept us jumping! In a brief, dry spell this afternoon, http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/09/passion-for-impossible.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33163036.post-115626329735429012Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:14:00 +00002006-10-11T13:04:21.670Zwatch this space...http://www.missendenchurch.org.uk/blog/2006/08/missionblog-is-live.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Griffiths Family)