We are happy to inform you that we have served 5,870 families affected by the three typhoons – Sante, Pepeng and Ondoy. We have reached out to nine cities in Metro Manila and two municipalities in the province of Cavite. The affected families were moved to the different evacuation centers, while others stayed in their houses which are floating in water and mud.

Our relief operations were done in coordination with the local government officials and the pastors of the local Christian churches. It was good to see people touched by the gospel every time we would share the goodness of God, and also show a demonstration of His love through the work that we are doing. You can see the faces of the people, some teary-eyed and some full of hope even in the midst of their difficult situations. We provided sleeping mats, blankets, towels, complete set of kitchen utensils, boots, assorted groceries like rice, noodles, milk, sardines, toiletries, cooking oil and soya sauce.

We are grateful to God for his people responding in times of need. In most areas the churches were also affected and had limited recourses to help the people around them. We came in and help them to reach out with the love of God to the people in their community. In this way they could build relationships and be a testimony in their area. It is wonderful that God’s people can be part of the answer in times of need.

(L-R) Some places looked awful; the help arrives from ministries without borders

Noralv Askeland

Here is the latest update from Noralv and Tone who work in the Philippines on how the relief work is going after the recent typhoon.

We have now given help to more than 3000 families. This means that 20,000 people have been touch by the love of God over the last two weeks. It is a great privilege to be here right now and be able to extend the help from God’s people. We have a fantastic team from Norway helping us.

They were joined by a team of young people from China that arrived two days ago. The Chinese team was thrown right into the work here in our relief operations. Next week they will stay at our base in Mindoro to be trained there. One truck after the other has left our base here to help ease the burden for the flood victims.

The team is packing food and soap to give to the victims and you can smell the soap all over the mission house here in Cavite. In a meeting with the mayor we looked at the long term help in relocating the people along the river.

We are coordinating with churches in the flood area. They are themselves badly affected and have little resources to help in the situation. That’s why it has a great effect when we come alongside them, helping them to reach out to the people in their area. Our social workers survey the area together with the locals to find those in most need, to comfort them and give them hope.

We also work with the local Social security office to make sure we coordinate everything to maximize the help given. Everywhere we are able to share the gospel and demonstrate the love of God in a most tangible way.

Pray for Gemma and Jovelyn, our social workers, as they work very hard to coordinate everything and find the neediest people. In the midst of this, all the other programs are going on as usual in the ministry.

Just to mention; the first 7 days of October twenty two babies have been born in our maternity clinic here in Cavite. We are grateful to God and give him all the glory!

Noralv Askeland

As a Church we have supported the emergency relief work in the Philippines through Noralv, who is an Apostle working there to extend the Kingdom of God. We sent two thousand pounds from the tithe and others have given individual offerings. Here Noralv reports on the aftermath of the typhoons and how our support is helping those in need.

“People are still in great need! Yesterday we went into Manila to one of the areas that are still flooded. Pasig is one of the lower areas in Manila and in some places the water reached up to our waist. We had armed military escort, and brought food supplies to many families. The army trucks are the only transport vehicle that can carry the amount of food we were bringing and manage the amount of water we were travelling through.

On the way in we saw a dead man floating in the river. In the same water children are playing. The water is so dirty you cannot see far below the surface. When we got to the house we were supposed to hand out food from, we realized there was too much water there so we had to do it in the street from the army vehicles. Over 500 of the neediest families were given food supplies.

However, there are still many families in need. And as we were there the word spread and thousands of people came, begging for food. As people have lost everything and the prices of food have more than doubled in the area the situation is critical for many of them and they can get desperate. Here the armed soldiers came in handy. Today we helped an additional 50 families in the Cavite area. The ones that get help are extremely thankful. Every day we are reaching out to people with the most essential help.

Many organizations are helping in the outer edge of the affected area, but are reluctant to go into the inner areas where we went yesterday. It is important to give the help now to prevent hopelessness and sickness. The Filipino army is very helpful and was very good at calming the people we could not cater for this time. We are impressed by the Filipino people coping with this situation. In the midst of the problems they are grateful and praying to God for help. It is a great privilege to be your extended hand to the Filipino people, demonstrating the love of God.

Noralv Askeland

There is still some time to give to this work of restoration. If you would like to send support please talk with one of the Elders.

WorldWatch was held at All Nations Centre in Cardiff this year and, as always, the Spirit spoke powerfully through his servants. I only managed to get to the Saturday part but it was still an incredible time of testimony and edification. It’s so encouraging to hear how Christian brothers and sisters are advancing the gospel in the nations, even in the face of persecution.

We heard how Jesus was being made famous in the Philippines, Cuba, Vietnam, and Bhutan among others, through ordinary people trusting in the extraordinary Holy Spirit. That same Spirit lives in us!

We read in Acts 2:47 “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” This is exactly what is happening across the globe: multitudes giving their lives to the Lord and the good news preached, backed up by signs, wonders and miracles.

It inspires me to make a reality of what I hear about in other nations. Multitudes saved, miracles and people being raised from the dead: we should expect God to do those things in the UK, in Manchester and on our streets, just as he is doing across the world. Let’s be expectant that God will do mighty things here, today and though us!

Matthew Harkness

A translation of Yambalu Mposhi’s report on sewing school at Kabinda, DRC.

In the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo , we have organised some sewing schools with the aim of helping change the lives of young women.

The girls that have been chosen to come to the school in Kabinda are all those who are among the most disadvantaged in the town and have not been able to finish their secondary education. Around half are girls who have lost both parents in the Congo War, the other half are simply those who have come from families who are too poor to pay for their secondary education. (The Church in Kabinda has a programme for helping the war orphans).

Our twin goal has been to help these young women be in a position where they can support themselves through being trained in sewing and dressmaking skills and also be schooled in Christian teaching and thus be able to leave with a strong Christian character and have a positive influence in the region.

Staff and Students
The school is staffed by two teachers paid and supported by the local church and through the sales of what is produced and sold in the sewing school lessons. We have started with 20 students.

The length of the course
This is a one year course. The aim is to keep a turnover of 20 students per year. There are still many more who could profit from this training.

Before the gift came
We had initiated this project before a gift came from England. We had the teachers teaching the girls with one sewing machine and the girls making drawings in their exercise books about how to work the machine. They then took it in turns to practise on the on the one machine. They were actually learning, but very slowly.

After the gift
Since the gift has come there has been a much happier atmosphere at the sewing school. The teachers say the girls are all making excellent progress and becoming skilled machinists. They are producing good quality clothes, which are being sold and paying for more materials for the school. It means the school is not asking for any more money to buy material but is totally self supporting.

Praise God for what is happening through this adventure into changing forever lives through the Gospel of the Kingdom!

Yambalu Mposhi

Roger Beattie & Peter Paine report on their Mission 193 trip to Kyrgyzstan.

Our mission to Kyrgyzstan was a wonderful high-point in my life. It was an awesome privilege to be used by God as an agent of His Kingdom, making a difference in eternity. We knew such outpourings of God’s grace, mercy and joy whilst we were there – and throughout our preparations beforehand. Kyrgyzstan will never be the same again – and neither will we.

We heard God’s call to go at Bible Week this summer, and when we came back home we started preparing – laying practical and spiritual foundations. While we were talking and praying, Peter used the phrase ‘a faith adventure’ – it seemed to sum up what we were about so well. And then we got thinking …. There are adventures and adventures, from those that merely slightly quicken the pulse, to those that are potentially life-threatening. But we knew God’s peace in this – He is trustworthy in all things. We were relieved to find that Kyrgyzstan was a comparatively stable country, although bordering some more challenging territories – we were being sent on a faith adventure according to the measure of our faith – God is good.

Our families met together every fortnight to eat, pray and plan, preceded by 24 hour fasts. And as we met together, and with the body, God continued to speak to us, and we knew growing excitement, as we mixed God’s word with faith. God spoke to us about ‘divine appointments’, and that ‘He would give us every place where we set our feet (Josh 1:3). At the last family gathering before we went, God spoke to us about sowing in tears, ands reaping with songs of joy, going out weeping carrying seed to sow and returning carrying sheaves (Ps 126:5-6). We were to take seed to sow, in the natural and in the Spirit.

At the Mission 193 celebration at Living Rock church on the weekend before we set out for Kyrgyzstan, there were amazing testimonies of what the Lord had accomplished throughout the earth – in countries like Libya and Afghanistan – that inspired and provoked faith. God reminded us that His Word will not return to Him empty, but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it (Is 55:11).

We knew God’s grace and provision in terms of the practical arrangements – the timing of our visit, how we would get there, getting Visas and where we would stay. God honoured us and blessed us deeply in all our preparations: everything fell into place so well, God had gone before us and made a way for us – it all felt so pre-ordained. It was time to go.

We had a fairly uneventful flight – although breaking bread together on the plane was a first for both of us. On landing in Kyrgyzstan I felt something akin to an echo of Paul’s statement ‘And so we came to Rome’ (Acts 28:14) – in that this was the culmination of where God had been leading us, and where we would see the fulfilment of all that God had promised us: God had brought us to Kyrgyzstan for purpose – to declare His promises of peace and prosperity – and for blessing.

After checking-in to our hotel in Bishkek, the capital city, we grabbed a few hours sleep, and then set out to explore the city. We talked, prayed and worshipped as we walked around, stopping at Victory Square to read the prophetic scriptures that Mission 193 had given us to declare in every nation – to declare our Lord’s victory over the world, and over the spiritual forces of evil.

God led us to a church near the railway, where we enjoyed warm fellowship with a couple of Kyrgyz believers – they shared with us in broken English how God is building His church in Bishkek. We were also able to speak with someone from another church in Bishkek, who gave us some key areas to pray into concerning Bishkek and the church.

God had spoken to us through the prophet Isaiah (Is 52: 7-10), saying that we were to go up into the mountains of Kyrgyzstan to proclaim the prophetic scriptures, that all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. So the next day we headed off into the mountains, in a car the hotel had arranged for us. Our driver told us much about Kyrgyzstan, its history, traditions and people – he himself was a Muslim. The mountains were beautiful, with what looked like fairly fresh snow lying around. We left the car, and walked on, climbing steadily, into the gathering mist.

We then stopped at a bend in the road, and read the prophetic scriptures. We sowed in the spiritual and in the natural, praying that God would raise up a harvest for himself, and declared the prophetic words God had given us for the country and people of Kyrgyzstan, that God can raise up children for Abraham from stones, from the very rock (Mt 3:9).

And as we prayed, the mist dramatically lifted, but came back down once we had finished – a sign in the natural of change in the heavenlies. The Lord brought to mind a scripture from Isaiah (60:2-3): “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” We were witnessing, and being part of, the outworking of this promise for the people of Kyrgyzstan – how awesome is that! What joy.

We returned back to Bishkek, knowing that much of our mission had been accomplished, and confident that God would see it completed. We were very pleased when our driver accepted one of the Russian bibles we’d been given to sow into the Kyrgyz nation.

We spent the afternoon walking around Bishkek, aware that we had one more Russian bible to give away – we had prayed that it would be treasured by whoever received it. We visited a Russian Orthodox church, and were thrilled to see that at the back we were they were building an extension – increase in the spiritual realms being reflected in the natural – glory to God. As we were walking away, we saw an old lady begging, and went to give her some money. When she heard us saying the name ‘Eesus’ – Jesus in Russian – her eyes lit up, and she gave us huge hugs. Rarely have I seen such joy in anyone’s face – it is more blessed to give that to receive.

We spent the final evening in a restaurant, where we broke bread together, and enjoyed traditional Kyrgyz cuisine. We had had such a good time – knowing God’s provision and blessing. And then back to our hotel, the Silk Road Lodge. It had an office, with something of a library for guests to use, and it seemed good to offer our remaining bible to the hotel. We were delighted when they told us they didn’t have a Russian bible, and would add it to their library.

And so we returned home, mission fully accomplished. We are continuing meeting together, praying for the people and country of Kyrgyzstan, and are extending the circle of covenant to include others who have been on Mission 193 or who are going to go. God is building his church – the day is coming when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, even as the waters cover the sea. (Hab 2:14).

Roger Beattie, November 2008

Our trip to the Pacific nation of Vanuatu was a flying visit – we arrived on Friday at 14:00 and were due to check in for our return flight at 13:00 two days later, giving us less than 48 hours to complete our mission.  We arrived in the capital Port Vila, having left Canberra at 06:20 that morning and changing planes in Brisbane.  We then wandered around looking for a place to stay, ending up in a lovely French guesthouse.  (Vanuatu was jointly administered by Britain and France up until 1980, hence the French influences).  In the evening we went to a restaurant where Tim tucked into fruit bat!

The next day was Sunday and we went along to a church service with a group of young people who we had bumped into walking down the street with Bibles.  We wandered around Port Vila, but didn’t feel led to anyone in particular that day to give the Bibles to, and torrential rain forced us to head back to the guesthouse.

On Monday, with only about 4 hours left before we had to head to the airport, we went off in search of the Prime Minister’s office, as we had both independently felt on our way over to Vanuatu that we should present the Bibles to someone in government.  We looked around for someone to point us in the right direction and saw a man walking in our direction on the other side of the road.  He happened to be a security guard for the Lord Mayor of Port Vila and took us straight to the Prime Minister’s office.  When we asked to speak to the Prime Minister we were asked if we had an appointment and saw quite a queue of people.  However, the man who had shown us the way told the Prime Minister’s secretary that we were “with him” and we only wanted to speak to him for 3 minutes, and we were therefore granted an audience with the Prime Minister.  The Prime Minister read the letter we presented and received the Bibles, before saying how important he felt it was that all nations strive for peace and expressed his gratitude that we had gone to Vanuatu and were praying for their nation.

After leaving the Prime Minister’s office we then prayed some prophetic scriptures over Vanuatu and hopped in a taxi to the airport.

We spent two weeks in New Zealand in June 2008 as a stop-over on our way back from Australia, where Frida had been studying for one semester as part of her university studies.  We started our trip visiting friends in Christchurch, then headed down south to Queenstown for a few days, before flying up to the North Island.  While in Queenstown, we decided to drive out to Glenorchy, famous for the scenic landscape (and for being a place where parts of Lord of the Rings was filmed).  With the snow-peaked mountains in the background, the green pastures before us and the sun shining we decided it would be an apt place to get out of the car and pray for the nation of New Zealand and read some prophetic verses.

A couple of days before New Zealand we visited a Maori village near the town of Rotorua.  Although it’s a tourist attraction, thanks to the fact that the residents cook their food in the steam coming out of the ground, it is still a genuine village where people live.  On our tour around the village we learnt that a resident had recently died and a funeral was taking place.  We also found out that because of the funeral the local Maori chief was present, and both of us instantly felt that he was the person we would like to present the Bibles to.  We hung around the village for a couple of hours waiting for the funeral to finish before approaching a group of men standing outside the Maori meeting house and asked if it might be possible to speak to the chief.  We were told he was very busy and it wouldn’t be possible.  Nevertheless we still hung around for a while longer and spoke with some other people we bumped into, before concluding that obviously we were not going to present the Bibles to the chief and started heading out of the village.  Just as we were leaving a guy ran up behind us and asked if we were the people who had been looking for the chief, telling us he was now free and we should go and speak to him.

The chief was delighted to hear of what we were doing and, after rushing off to get the keys to the protestant church in the village and showing us in, gladly received the Bibles and the letter we presented.  Standing in front of the altar he then prayed, first in English and then in Maori, thanking God for the Bibles and blessing the rest of our trip. We bid each other farewell by touching our noses together in the traditional Maori way!

On our way home from Australia we factored in a 3-day stop-over in the Kingdom of Tonga, which would enable us to “do” a Mission 193 visit. While walking around the capital of Nuku’alofa with our Lonely Planet guide in hand, we noticed on the map there was a small dot marked “Mt. Zion” just behind the Royal Palace, which turned out to be a rather insignificant hill with a radio mast on the top, but decided that it would be a symbolic place from where to read prophetic scriptures over the nation of Tonga and pray for wisdom for the King who would be crowned a few weeks later.

The next day we went to the palace office to investigate the possibility of an audience with the King and were directed to another building down the road to speak with the Lord Chamberlain. We explained the nature of our visit, and the Lord Chamberlain asked if we would give the Bibles to her, promising to present them to the King, together with the letter, during her next audience with him.

You can buy a flat screen TV for around £300, it will last a few years before it will need replacing. This same amount covers the cost of a student in India going to Bible School for a whole year. King’s Church has sponsored students for a number of years and again this year we have sponsored five students on the Bible School that Chandrakant Chavda runs in Nadidad, in Gujarat State. Chandrakant is an Apostle, and shared at the recent World Watch Conference that many of us attended in September. It is our priviledge to use money from the church tithe to sow into the lives of these young men and women.

We have received fantastic reports from Chandrakant about how the students from last year are getting on. Pray for another amazing Kingdom return on this money invested into the nations!

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV

Here is some of the testimonies for the students who graduated last year:

Sunil (left) – Bible School Principal and Rasu who was healed of lung cancer as a youth having been given only days to live. He now leads a church of 4000 in South Gujurat!

Ramsing – Since leaving Bible School, and as of Feb 08, he has started 4 churches

Tony and Prakash – Recent Bible School Graduate – recently prayed for a man in a coma for 2 years – completely healed!

Bharat with Chandrakant

• Father saved 7 years ago having been healed of TB and lung cancer – first believer in his area
• At that time Father and 3 sons were migrant labourers and starving, their small piece of land would only grow “thorns and thistles”. As they began to practice tithing and giving, the land became fruitful, to the point that now it supports 4 families. Large fruit.
• Bharat went to bible school and then returned home to evangelise. Today in that region there are over 500 believers in 42 villages.
• A believer of just 2 months prayed for a lady who had been bed-ridden for 2 years: instantly healed and got up to serve them (like Peter’s mother in law in the Bible).
• 7 year old boy paralysed for 5 years healed
• 18mth old girl raised from the dead – had been sent away from the hospital for burial, but they brought the body to some believers who prayed and she opened her eyes, 25 people saved instantly

Course Subjects for 2008/09

• Christian Foundations
• Bible Overview
• Kingdom Of God
• Covenant
• The World View
• The Church
• Evangelism
• Faith
• More Than A Conqueror
• Following The Pattern
• Ministries
• Spiritual Gifts
• Restoration
• Discipleship & Prayer Life
• Women In The Bible
• English & Computer skills