We had a wonderful family appreciation day today! I preached about "Families Fit For Eternity" and after the services, we took family photos of every family that wanted one. I hope to make a collage of all the families and post it soon.
By the way....If any of you computer gurus know the best way to do that, please leave a comment or email me.
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Sunday, August 27, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Another funeral
Ate Luz mother passed away recently and the funeral was held today. The living room is turned into the funeral home, and the body is displayed. Friends and family come by to visit and to comfort the family for 4-5 day until the actual funeral service. We held a service there at the home, and after the service the body is placed in the hearse and the long walk begins. There were many trikes, and several jeep that followed the hearse and of course a fairly large group that walked. It took about an hour and a half to get to the cemetary, where there was another service held and then the final burial. This picture came from this very cemetary.
As did this one. Follow @ddevonshire
As did this one. Follow @ddevonshire
Friday, August 25, 2006
School Daze
School can be hazardous to your health and your class ranking does not at all depend on your studies...well this is what I have learned today.
Bro. Albert and Ai Ai regaled us with stories of their education this morning. You probably wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that some schools don't have classrooms, the children gather under the tree and the teacher teaches them there. But what shocked us was what some of the assignments were:
1. Bring three eggs
Teacher, what for? Never mind, just bring them. All who brought the eggs got marked %80 on that assignment, and the eggs went into a basket and left with the teacher.
2. Who can bring Tuba wine tomorrow?
I can teacher!!! And bring it he did. The teacher was drunk in no time (during school) and did the following dastardly deeds; he saw a child playing with rubber bands and called the child to him, had the child hold the rubber bands in their cupped hand, and then lit them on fire with the admonition "Don't drop them!" The little kid had his hands burnt!!! Secondly, he asked a child where the hammer was, The child teased back saying "The goat ate it!" The drunk teacher was upset that the kid didn't take him seriously, and when he got the hammer, hit the kid in the head with it, drawing blood!
3. If you can bring a goat tomorrow, you will be ranked number one in class!!!
Now I know why I wasn't valedictorian...I never brought eggs, wine or a goat to school!
Bro. Albert and Ai Ai regaled us with stories of their education this morning. You probably wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that some schools don't have classrooms, the children gather under the tree and the teacher teaches them there. But what shocked us was what some of the assignments were:
1. Bring three eggs
Teacher, what for? Never mind, just bring them. All who brought the eggs got marked %80 on that assignment, and the eggs went into a basket and left with the teacher.
2. Who can bring Tuba wine tomorrow?
I can teacher!!! And bring it he did. The teacher was drunk in no time (during school) and did the following dastardly deeds; he saw a child playing with rubber bands and called the child to him, had the child hold the rubber bands in their cupped hand, and then lit them on fire with the admonition "Don't drop them!" The little kid had his hands burnt!!! Secondly, he asked a child where the hammer was, The child teased back saying "The goat ate it!" The drunk teacher was upset that the kid didn't take him seriously, and when he got the hammer, hit the kid in the head with it, drawing blood!
3. If you can bring a goat tomorrow, you will be ranked number one in class!!!
Now I know why I wasn't valedictorian...I never brought eggs, wine or a goat to school!
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Danger Will Robinson! Danger!
Beware if your food is delivered to you on an old beat up trike...One brother witnessed the trike selling vegetables, fruit and fish, stop at the back of the subdivision. The man started cleaning some of the fish he was getting ready to sell. The brother watched as he used the drainage water to rinse the fish. Now it is not uncommon to see young boys urinating into these open drainage ditches on the side of the roads, some urinals, small booths a man can step into to answer natures call, drain directly into these drainage ditches, they are filthy and often filled with trash....Later the man came to where the brother was and offered to sell him some of that same fish....Ah....No thanks!!!
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Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Home Delivery
Yes Pizza is home delivered here in the
: Sometimes what they are selling is a mystery. A man carrying two trash cans with lids attached to his bicycle, I had to ask: "Ano iyon?" What is that? He opened up the lid, and there, still warm, was some of the best sweet rolls I have ever had! Only 7 pesos a piece. Delicious! Yes, Mang Marco, missing one leg and wearing a wooden boot contraption to be able to pedal his bike, still comes around selling Balut (fertilized duck eggs). There is ice cream, peanuts, soup, and more!
I still have to watch when it comes to the prices though. I was getting my shoes fixed and the peanut man came up vending garlic peanuts. I asked how much they were. He told me 10 pesos. I asked again, "Are you sure? That sounds expensive! Is that the normal price?" He assured me it was, and I was hungry, so I doled out the dough and was happily munching away, when I notice a kid come up and slip five pesos down next to him and get the same peanuts. I cried out "Hey! You told me 10 pesos, but you are selling to him for 5! Give my friend one also!" He smiled sheepishly and gave one to the brother with me.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Brevity of Life
She was in church Sunday morning, they told me it was the first time they had seen her raise her hands in worship to the Lord. After church she told some of the people she came with, I am going to bring my whole family here! But by Sunday night she was in the Intensive care unit at the hospital and by Monday she was gone......
Ate Regina, Nol's auntie, passed into the next life.
How quick things change! How soon life is over.
Today, we went to the hospital for a different lady. She was also in the Intensive Care Unit. If you are thinking I.C.U. like America, I must bring you back to reality. For the first three days she was there, she was attached to a respirator, which was manual. Someone had to push the mechanism for every breath that she took. This task fell to her now elderly daughter, who also has medical problems. Thankfully, this morning, they hooked her up to an automatic machine.
How quick things change! Alive, and thriving one day, and then suddenly everything is different.
I talked with a lady tonight and shared the scripture with her:
(Jam 4:14) Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
May we say with the writer "Lord teach me to number my days..."
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Ate Regina, Nol's auntie, passed into the next life.
How quick things change! How soon life is over.
Today, we went to the hospital for a different lady. She was also in the Intensive Care Unit. If you are thinking I.C.U. like America, I must bring you back to reality. For the first three days she was there, she was attached to a respirator, which was manual. Someone had to push the mechanism for every breath that she took. This task fell to her now elderly daughter, who also has medical problems. Thankfully, this morning, they hooked her up to an automatic machine.
How quick things change! Alive, and thriving one day, and then suddenly everything is different.
I talked with a lady tonight and shared the scripture with her:
(Jam 4:14) Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
May we say with the writer "Lord teach me to number my days..."
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Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Why did God want to kill Moses?
There is an interesting scripture In Exodus that says:
Exo 4:24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
The "him" here is none other than the prophet Moses! Incredible! God, who had chosen this same man to be a deliverer to His nation, seeks to kill him before the mission even gets started...
Why?
It is not a difficult answer. God had commanded the Israelites to circumcise all of their male children as a sign of His covenant with them. His wife seemed to offer some resistance to this directive of God. She, afterall, was not an Israelite, but an Ethiopian, and this probably seemed unnecessary to her.
We can not totally blame her. Moses should have stood up and said "This is what God said to do, and we will do it!" But what we should do, and what we do, aren't always the same thing, even for this great man Moses.
Maybe he said "It's just not worth the fight..."
Or maybe his wife had truly convinced him that it was "just a small, unimportant matter....it doesn't really matter..."
But it did to God...
God, who had chosen Moses to be the deliverer, was going to kill Moses, because he refused to surrender and do what God had said...
The one thing that he didn't do...the one point that he didn't surrender to God on, almost cost him his life!
How true even today. The thing that we won't surrender, will cost us our spiritual life, our relationship with God, perhaps our eternity...
Thankfully, we see Zipporah and Moses finally giving in and circumcising their boy, and Moses going on to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
May all make that wise choice and surrender to God.
New Testament Christian Church Follow @ddevonshire
Exo 4:24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
The "him" here is none other than the prophet Moses! Incredible! God, who had chosen this same man to be a deliverer to His nation, seeks to kill him before the mission even gets started...
Why?
It is not a difficult answer. God had commanded the Israelites to circumcise all of their male children as a sign of His covenant with them. His wife seemed to offer some resistance to this directive of God. She, afterall, was not an Israelite, but an Ethiopian, and this probably seemed unnecessary to her.
We can not totally blame her. Moses should have stood up and said "This is what God said to do, and we will do it!" But what we should do, and what we do, aren't always the same thing, even for this great man Moses.
Maybe he said "It's just not worth the fight..."
Or maybe his wife had truly convinced him that it was "just a small, unimportant matter....it doesn't really matter..."
But it did to God...
God, who had chosen Moses to be the deliverer, was going to kill Moses, because he refused to surrender and do what God had said...
The one thing that he didn't do...the one point that he didn't surrender to God on, almost cost him his life!
How true even today. The thing that we won't surrender, will cost us our spiritual life, our relationship with God, perhaps our eternity...
Thankfully, we see Zipporah and Moses finally giving in and circumcising their boy, and Moses going on to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
May all make that wise choice and surrender to God.
New Testament Christian Church Follow @ddevonshire
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Money Misunderstanding
I was reminded this morning of a funny story.
Last January when we were working towards 500, we had a large banner hanging in the church that said "Goal 500". We were telling everyone that we wanted to get 500 people in the house of God. One child went home and asked mom "Can you give me 500 pesos?" She asked, "What in the world for?" the little one replied "Pastor wants 500 in the house of God!" Later we were able to clarify, that is 500 persons, not 500 pesos!!!
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Last January when we were working towards 500, we had a large banner hanging in the church that said "Goal 500". We were telling everyone that we wanted to get 500 people in the house of God. One child went home and asked mom "Can you give me 500 pesos?" She asked, "What in the world for?" the little one replied "Pastor wants 500 in the house of God!" Later we were able to clarify, that is 500 persons, not 500 pesos!!!
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Saturday, August 12, 2006
She did it! At least I think so....
As part of our last push for 1000 Sunday I was encouraging people to bring 100 people and called it Pastor's 100 club. There was one sister who brought about 50 but she really wanted the 100. I teased her afterwards and told her that it must be that the ladies can't do it, because it was only the men that had brought over 100. I don't believe that for a second, but just wanted to stir her up a bit. She said "Oh Pastor! Not so!" I said, "Well I don't know, you haven't did it yet..." She said "I will!" I asked her when she would accomplish this feat and she said within one month. Well...today was the last Sunday of that one month. As I pulled up to church this morning, there was already one jeep of people waiting, and soon several others arrived, all carrying people she had invited. Before the last jeep had arrived, I had already counted over 90 that she had brought. I am pretty sure she got the last few she needed.
I think the greatest part of it is, there was not a special push for today, she created her own motivation and went and did it. Hurrah! for her and for the many that prayed for salvation this morning!
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I think the greatest part of it is, there was not a special push for today, she created her own motivation and went and did it. Hurrah! for her and for the many that prayed for salvation this morning!
Follow @ddevonshire
Friday, August 11, 2006
Good letter from a good brother
Received a good letter from a friend of mine...thought you might like it. Here goes...
DCD
Rev. Devonshire,
Thanks for the recent post on your blog about our leaders. My wife and I can truly say where would we be without our leaders. They have stood right by our side every step of the way. While in Hinesville we saw the love of our leaders. Rev. Jones came by several times. He helped us so much. Rev. Ashmore came by three different times and each time we would fellowship until the early morning hours. Often times he would share different events that he had gone through in the ministry that would be of help. Rev. Olson has always been right behind us. He has truly been an examply of a man of God. How can I put into words the help of our pastor! He came to see us. He paid for his plane ticket, paid for his motel, paid for his meals, gave us the offering and showed his love to the members of our church.
We have recently started a new work in Korea. I can say it would not have been possible without the family of God. Once again the organization has shown us the same love as they have helped us start this brand new work. They have saved us so many battles and hard experiences by keeping us in the right direction. There are so many things I could say about the family of God but it is really difficult to put them into words.
Bro. Scriven
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DCD
Rev. Devonshire,
Thanks for the recent post on your blog about our leaders. My wife and I can truly say where would we be without our leaders. They have stood right by our side every step of the way. While in Hinesville we saw the love of our leaders. Rev. Jones came by several times. He helped us so much. Rev. Ashmore came by three different times and each time we would fellowship until the early morning hours. Often times he would share different events that he had gone through in the ministry that would be of help. Rev. Olson has always been right behind us. He has truly been an examply of a man of God. How can I put into words the help of our pastor! He came to see us. He paid for his plane ticket, paid for his motel, paid for his meals, gave us the offering and showed his love to the members of our church.
We have recently started a new work in Korea. I can say it would not have been possible without the family of God. Once again the organization has shown us the same love as they have helped us start this brand new work. They have saved us so many battles and hard experiences by keeping us in the right direction. There are so many things I could say about the family of God but it is really difficult to put them into words.
Bro. Scriven
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