Euphoria!

“I don’t believe in God”, said YY, “that’s how I was taught in 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 difference becoming a Christian had made to his wife, YY said, “She was always an anxious person, negative about the future. But since she became a Christian, she is filled with hope. In fact she’s often….” (scratching his head and reaching for a good word in English) “…euphoric!” Curious to see what changed his wife, YY is now studying the Bible (Genesis, at his request) every week with us and ZY, around a table at the foot of a tower block, in the warm evenings. “What do Christians think about the origins of the universe? How old is it? If creation is good why are there so many natural disasters?” Please pray for him to come to faith.

Steve beat a path to Dr Chan’s door once again for his first major heart review since April 2006. An ECG was done and a detailed scan. Dr Chan eventually said, “Steve, I’m glad to tell you your heart is back to normal.” No more leaky valves. No more poorly moving walls. No more enlarged bits. What an electric shock of delight it was! Another less serious exam result was also forthcoming recently as Steve and Josh’s clarinet grade results arrived. Both the boys passed well (although Dad did a little better than Josh to his secret relief!) We need to take a decision with Josh about what International GCSE subjects he will start in January – where did our little boy go?! Josh wants to take on double maths and triple science but the school have to agree that he is capable of handling it. Please pray that the right subjects are chosen.
Love from us all

Steve Anna Josh and Aimee

Number 917

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 to her name, number 917 to be entered. Against her name was the laconic entry, “Died, Sept. 1900”.

Jim told us more of her story. Emma Georgiana was 32 when assassins came looking for foreigners & Christians. She escaped the initial assault together with three colleagues & two children. They were hidden by local Christians in various mountain caves, trying to keep a step ahead of the soldiers. Emma wrote & hid letters in the caves, hoping they would be found & sent back to London (which they were). Her last letter reads in part “ ..we can only say God rules over all & must have some wise purpose in allowing all this to come to pass .…. it would be nicer to be taken & be with so many who have laid down their lives; but for the sake of the dear ones who may read this , & for the sake of the many who are still without Christ, one would like to stay for further service. The Lord is keeping one’s heart in perfect peace during this time of trial. We have heard that the people are coming, so we are going home to our Heavenly home. There I shall see you. Do all repent & meet me there. I have no time for more. The will of the Lord be done. Your loving sister, Georgie.” Emma was found by the armed men, dragged from the cave & killed by the road somewhere near the Ai-k’eo mountain ranges, not far from what was then Peking. A waste of a life? From the lives & witness of such people came the Chinese church. With China today becoming a global superpower, the presence of tens of millions of Christians to be “salt & light” in that society is a stark reminder of the wisdom & timing of God. Reminded of Acts 13:36 “for when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep”, together with Jim & Kaye, we thanked God for Emma’s life, asking to serve God’s purpose in our own generation.

Steve’s Mum recently joined us for a two week visit in Singapore. It was a whirlwind time but she womanfully pressed on through the full days! She enjoyed the IHQ team morning prayers, hearing the testimonies of the new OMFers as well as joining in the mid-year Day of Prayer. She mingled & helped out with the often noisy home visits with OCers in our flat. She went to Sentosa beach, joined the OC barbecue, was taken out for lunch to Little India, enjoyed evening walks with us in the Botanic Gardens & was also treated to a sumptuous Shanghai-ese meal with the Fung family.

We have a lot of speaking engagements coming up in August & need your prayers. Anna will be leading a day retreat for the ladies of Prinsep Street Presbyterian on the 4^th entitled “A Woman after God’s own Heart”. Steve will be speaking at Bethesda Katong on Acts 13/14 (!) on the 12^th & leading a workshop at the combined English Presbyterian Mission Conference on the 18^th, tackling the challenging issue of “Integrated Mission”. Then we’re enlisting Josh & Aimee’s help to lead the family service at our church, Adam Road Presbyterian on the 26^th. Anna will be speaking again on 28^th to the ladies of Bethesda Frankel Estate Church. We will study the Bible with 2 doctors from a large country near us starting on 8^th August. The wife believes but not her husband. Please pray he comes to faith.

Josh is hard at work at the Anglo Chinese School – even starting the day with a ½ hour of extra science to make sure that there are no gaps with the others in his new class. After a month he has settled well – we’ll hear more about it at a meeting with his teachers next week. Meanwhile Aimee enjoys her holiday, helping out at Kidzone at the July OC, looking after younger children. Steve & Josh received their clarinet exam results. They both passed comfortably, although the teacher told us the external examiner marking was tough this year. Phew! Onwards to the next level. With our love & thanks for your prayers,

Steve Anna, Josh and Aimée

The Pines & Ko Jaan

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, shifting curtains from huge cumulo-nimbus clouds onto the turquoise sea. Forked lightning dances within the dark, brooding masses. Minutes later the sound waves racing across the sea make land-fall and we hear the crack and rumble of thunder. Two rocky, jagged islands a few kilometers off the coast are picked out by rays of sun and enclosed in an iridescent arc of rainbow, touching the sea, arching up high over their irregular, saw-bladed ridges to touch down on the sea on the other side.

Unconcerned, a local fisherman and her young son patiently work in the sea, waist deep in the waves and covered from head to foot against the fierce sun. Coke and Pepsi, the “Pines” dogs saunter past us down to the waters edge and casually walk into the surf to cool off. We’re here at Prajuab in southern Thailand for a snatched week of family holiday at the OMF holiday home, “The Pines”. This is the narrowest part of Thailand, only 16 kilometres across from the sea to the Burmese border marked by tall, majestic peaks marching off into the blue horizon. Travelling here involved a 4:00 am start, a ride on the budget airline Tiger Airways, another taxi ride across the murderous, fume-laden, choking, heaving Bangkok traffic to the Southern Bus Station, a five hour bus ride south depositing us unceremoniously on the street in a small, sleepy Thai town. A short search turned up two motorcycle/side cars which chugged noisily along for twenty minutes to the gate of “The Pines”. We drop our cases and rush onto the beach – what relief!

“The Pines” has around 12 simple rooms, right on the beach. It is pretty full right now with a wide range of OMFers from Germany, Switzerland, Texas, Taiwan, Australia working across South East Asia, but presently all on holiday. We try and slow Aimee and Joshua down by offering them 2 baht holiday money for each length of the pool they do. They promptly rattle off 100 lengths each – more than a kilometer and earn themselves 2.50! We gulp, pay up and the next day offer only 1 baht per length. They respond by swimming 200 lengths!

We hire a boat locally and ask to be taken early the next morning to Ko Jaan, an island on the distant horizon. Our friends, Jannie and Marna who hail from Cape Town and have lived in Thailand for many years come along with Nerina and Kobus their children. Ko Jaan is a bird sanctuary – although birds nests are harvested there by small teams of men who live on the island for months at a time. Everything is brought out to them by small boat – even their drinking water. Birds nest is a Chinese delicacy used in making soup with supposed health benefits – certain swifts construct their nests, cementing them with saliva. These shallow cups are found high up on the walls of caves. One kilo of white swifts nest costs USD2, 000.00 and the red swifts nest can go up to USD10, 000.00! A lucrative business indeed. We arrive at the low point of a spring tide and our boatman initially can’t find a way through the ring of coral reef around the island. Cutting the engine and raising the motor, we manoeuver slowly with oars until it is shallow enough for us to leap off the boat and wade ashore, our gear held high. The boatman anchors offshore while we pick our way delicately through the clear water, exclaiming at the glories of exotic fish and corals we can see through the clear water while strenuously avoiding the wickedly spike-laden sea urchins. There is a small, brilliant, white-sanded beach surrounded by black and grey volcanic rock. The huts of the nesters cling precariously to the rock. Two pass us, with a heavy basket of freshly caught fish slung between them on a bamboo pole. Nerina skips over with Aimee to see what they have and chats away in Thai. The fishermen tolerantly laugh and chat back. As they prepare to go on, one generously hands over a gift of two fish half the size of Nerina! As we swim about with masks clamped to our faces, what we see is incredible – angel fish, brain coral, giant clams, clown fish, sea slugs, cowries bigger than my fist – the glory and massive diversity of creation is staggering. God is good!

With our love

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimee

“Licking the outside of the watermelon”

“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 goes on in our church life is reflected in the Korean proverb which talks about “licking the outside of the watermelon” – much activity but not getting to the sweetness, not getting to the whole point of what it means to belong to God’s people. “It’s not the church of God that has a mission in the world. It is the God of mission that has a church in the world.”

These quotes came from some of the Bible readings at the recent Joint Mobilisers and Candidate Co-ordinators Consultation. We had more than 70 people descend on us for a week of training and discussion. It was hot, noisy, busy, fast-moving and challenging as we continued to work out a part of what God is calling OMF to be doing. People met sometimes for the first time in years of emailing each other! It was a chance for some to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. One evening as we walked back on-site Anna and I looked around and saw little knots of people in prayer together. During the final two days we worked in small groups to discuss the challenges that we are facing and looked at ways to overcome them; this was both exciting and exhausting, with some staying up into the small hours of the morning to pull things together.

The May orientation course started here on Thursday last week. We were delighted to welcome a number of our workers from the Philippines, working cross culturally in their own country. Theresa Alibio has come with her eight year old daughter, Rejoice. Theresa and her husband Reuel had been working in the Southern Philippines. Four years ago, Reuel, known and loved by his adopted community, was riding home on his motorbike when he was stopped by extremist gunmen who shot him dead in broad daylight. They then proceeded to move his body, mockingly, into a crucifix position. They may have meant to mock but Reuel honoured his Lord in death as he had in life. Theresa courageously continues the work. Pray for Theresa, sharing the good news about Jesus in the Southern Philippines, while bringing up her daughter on her own.

Friday evening saw the whole Griffiths family joining in the games of the Orientation Course Fun Night! It was great to see Anna shrieking and leaping about, having a fine old time despite the busy week we had just been through. Her energy levels are so much better these days that we realize how ill she was before. Join with us in praising God for her good recovery. Josh spent a great week on a school trip in northern Thailand – trekking through the mountains and staying a night with one of the hill tribes before rafting back down the Mekong. Our grocery bill dropped by nearly 50% in the week he was away! He is somewhat nervously anticipating a move to the Anglo-Chinese School in a few weeks. Please pray for him in this additional transition.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Joshua and Aimée

This link will take you to a short OMF video clip. You may find some images disturbing.
ServeAsiaStingerMaster500kb.mov

Anna is home!

We 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 complications which her husband and three other medics had all feared.

She did have a rip-roaring infection in all the sinuses in her head - “They’re all lit up like a Christmas tree” said the ENT surgeon, cheerily as he reviewed the pictures. Neither specialist can explain the swollen eye-lid adequately at the moment so they will follow Anna’s progress closely . Tests showed that Anna has grown a nasty bacteria and a mould in her sinus. She’ll need to be on some fairly heavy-duty treatment for a little while yet. Overall though the news is good. Thank you for your prayers.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Joshua and Aimée

Anna is unwell - again.

Today 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 strength and comfort for her (and the rest of the family). We will let you know the outcome as soon as we can.

I also had my six-monthly check-up with the cardiologist today so it was quite a stressful day. However, he decided to stop my heart medication and review me in six months. This is a great encouragement so we praise God for that.

All this comes in the middle of last-minute planning and preparation for the Joint Mobilisers and Candidate Co-ordinators conference with more than 70 people descending on us for a week of training and discussion as we continue to work out the implications of the call to prayer for 900 new workers. We feel caught up into a battle. We humbly ask your prayers for that consultation - for a deeper sense of unity and a greater desire to seek God glorified in East Asia through the declaration of what Jesus has achieved on the cross. Pray too that we would be able to play our part in it.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Joshua and Aimée

Klearance, Klebsiella, Klarinet, Ko-ordinators, Kala & Katherine

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 them to be brought to me. They were upset that we had not informed them of the funeral service. I said we never tell them about funerals and weddings as these are church functions and do not come under legislation – they agreed. They then asked if I knew who the person was to which I replied that that did not matter as ALL people are made equal in the eyes of God and the church exists for times like funerals, weddings and life issues. They asked us to give them a list of all the meetings we have each week and I said okay – I have nothing to hide. When we have meetings not covered by church issues we always ask for police clearance and they know that. When they said they wanted to go I asked them to stay a little longer so I could pray with them. So we had a great time of prayer together (well I did)… They did not know what to do – it was so cool! My staff were stunned to hear me pray with the men. One of the staff said to me “I thought I was mad… but you are madder”.

So we are all well and I feel God has used this incident for His good. I am challenged by the statement that for evil to prevail all that is needed is for good men to do nothing. I don’t intend to be accused of doing nothing." Please do pray with us for a resolution to the terrible leadership crisis gripping Zimbabwe.

We are so grateful for the calls, cards, letters emails and prayers for Anna recently. She has made good progress since her sinus surgery, with just a few hiccups along the way. (For the medics, culture of the organism showed she was harbouring a multi-drug resistant Klebsiella.) Healing of the sinuses has been good & Anna has a lot more energy & zest for life than a few weeks ago. However, she is still experiencing pain around her left eye & associated headaches. She has been seen by both an ophthalmologist & a neurologist & is presently on a course of treatment. If that does not give results she will need further tests. We would appreciate your prayers for this issue and for complete healing.

Joshua has been offered a place at the Anglo-Chinese School. (He must have done a good, quick job on those exam papers!) He starts at his new school in June – after just two weeks summer holiday. He is both excited & apprehensive at the change – please pray for him. Jamil, his close friend at the Canadian School is very disappointed that Josh is moving. Steve & Josh are working hard at their clarinet practice. We will be taking Grade Two exams next month…the strain is worse than final year medical exams!

From April 23rd-27th, we’ll be hosting the largest consultation that OMF has ever had here in Singapore, together with Jon Fuller, the International Director for Mobilisation. A (Biblically significant?) seventy-two people will be descending on IHQ from across the globe. This is the Joint Mobilisers & Candidate Co-ordinators Consultation (JMCC). Anna & I will be leading two full days of training for the candidate co-ordinators, the team that handle enquirers, that process their papers, keep in touch with them, sort out interviews, chase up on referees & help handle all the thousands of little details that need attention for folk heading for cross-cultural work. We’ll also be working with the wider group. Our time has been pressured lately what with Anna’s illness & a very busy Orientation Course that just finished last Friday. So please pray that we will find the time to pour into the preparation of our teaching sessions. We very badly need to get on with this!

Kala (from Sri Lanka/Ireland) & Katherine (from Canada) are two of Aimée’s school-friends whom she has invited to a sleep-over next Easter Saturday night followed by church on Sunday morning to attend an evangelistic Easter Sunday service for children. Katherine came along last year & really enjoyed it. Pray that the two girls will be able to come & enjoy the fun but also that they would be challenged by the Easter message.

John Updike wrote in celebration of the Easter news:

"Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that--pierced--died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance."

In Easter hope,

Steve Anna Josh and Aimée

Interceding Otorhinolaryngologist..eh?

Anna’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 pleased with the way things went overall.

Anna had a somewhat stormy post-operative period with repeated vomiting and some bleeding. She also had considerable pain which necessitated calling the surgeon at one point. However some treatment resolved the situation. This made for an uncomfortable night but Anna was still able to come home today. She is now fast asleep having taken her vast collection of medications. She will be seeing the surgeon daily for a while – fortunately we are very close to the hospital. She will need ongoing treatment and weekly review for at least six weeks. Dr Lim told us today that we are 60% of our way through the intervention necessary to resolve Anna’s condition. There is still 40% to go in terms of good post-operative care.

Anna has been given two weeks off work. She is protesting (somewhat feebly) about this but really needs to get some rest as she has been unwell now for more than two months.

Joshua also had his marathon placement test today for the Anglo-Chinese School – two two hour papers with an obligatory break between them. He finished both in around an hour and talked the invigilator into shortening the break so instead of five hours he was home in two and a half! In a few days we will know if he was so quick because he knew it all or because he really didn’t understand the questions!

Thank you for your emails of love and support, assuring us of your prayers. We are so very grateful.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimée

Urgent Prayer Request

Anna 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 around two hours and she will be in hospital overnight.

Potential complications are rare but because of rules regarding informed consent, the surgeon had to outline them to Anna. This has upset and frightened her, even though she is well aware that the chances of these things happening are uncommon.

Please pray for:

• The peace of God that passes all understanding to guard Anna’s heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
• The surgeon, Dr Lim who is an excellent doctor and a Christian brother who has been so generous and kind in helping us at this time.
• The children who will come home from school to find that Mum is in hospital.
• For a good outcome to the surgery and rapid healing for Anna.
• For the March Orientation Course starting this week – for Anna not to feel burdened about this.
• For Joshua writing his five hour school placement test tomorrow.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Joshua & Aimée Griffiths

Reading the Walls!

Robert 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 tracts to folk along the riverbank. Despite official warnings to immediately depart, the American schooner continued upriver until she stuck fast in the muddy river bottom. The local Governor initiated attacks against the grounded ship. Since no crew member survived, the historical account of the General Sherman's fate is incomplete. What is known is that on September 3, 1866 the local forces sent down against the ship their own fire-ship. The crew, in attempting to escape, jumped into the water and were killed as they struggled ashore. Once ashore, Thomas exclaimed, “Jesus, Jesus!” in the local language and offered his translated Bible to a armed man. The man refused it. When Thomas knelt to pray, the man either stabbed him in the chest or decapitated him. Thomas was 26 years old.

But Thomas’ legacy was not over. The man who killed him became convinced that he had killed a good man. He had taken the Bible home and used the pages of the book to wallpaper his guest house. In 1891, a full quarter century later, an American visited the area and asked the proprietor about the unique wallpaper in the guest house. The owner told of how, over the years, people had come from far and wide to “read the walls.” In the years that followed, the killer’s nephew graduated from the local Union Christian College and served as part of a team that revised the national Bible. A church was built near the site of Thomas’ death. But with the coming of a new regime in 1945, all churches across the area were destroyed. Once again, the “Hermit Kingdom” was sealed in isolation.

Two weeks ago, we were at the New Ventures Field Conference and heard about the new Science and Technology University being built close to the capital by a Christian academic (www.pust.or.kr/eng/) The government gave him some land. As the bulldozers moved in they uncovered the ruins of a church. It was the Thomas Memorial Church - now being rebuilt as part of the campus! Thank you for your prayers for Steve’s Bible readings during the conference. The theme was “Jesus meets us at our point of weakness” - each day another chapter from 2 Corinthians, where Paul talks of his suffering in Asia. It seemed entirely appropriate for a small group of courageous believers facing difficulties, sorrows and suffering with hope and faith. Pray for our colleagues as they work and wait for God to continue to open the door to the “Hermit Kingdom.”

A schooling decision for Josh seems closer – the Anglo-Chinese School ( http://www.acsinternational.com.sg ) is willing to take him and with a small bursary from a former pupil of the school we think we can manage it. As he can do the International Baccalaureate there it will help him keep his university options open. He was asked to write an essay about why he wanted to go to ACSI – his closing sentence was “So because ACSI is better academically, sports wise and because it’s a very God orientated school I wish to attend”. We’ll see what they make of that!

Anna has been struggling with her health for the last two months or so. She somehow keeps up full working days but it has left her both drained of energy and feeling a little low. She’s due to see a specialist in the next few days. Pray for a clear diagnosis and for adequate treatment.

We've enjoyed two days break, celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year - the biggest holiday of the year in this part of the world. We went to visit Swiss colleagues who are running a hostel for eleven children whose parents are working in Thailand, Mongolia, Indonesia and Japan. It was a hoot, sitting down for supper with such a large "family". Good organisational skills are definitely needed! The hostel is located in a massive flat on the top of one of Singapore's tower blocks. After dinner we enjoyed watching a film on the roof in the open air projected onto the water tower, while the fireworks blazed and crackled in the streets below.

With love from us all,

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimée

PS photos to follow - as soon as we can get the website to accept them again!

A Ilha Formosa: The Beautiful Island.

Taiwan (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. Most cities are an ugly urban sprawl – enough to make a town planner weep. The air is often thick with a choking haze of pollution. People give enormous time and energy to the pursuit of business success – which often consumes them. The worship of ancestral spirits is common across the spectrum of society from the rural farmer through to the smart city socialite. There is a challenging belief system: spirit possession, various extremely ascetic and painful practices and superstitions complicating everyday life. The working class is huge in Taiwan – around 70% of the population. But the percentage of Christians among them is very low - they feel marginalised in the mainly middle class church. They find the emphasis on formal Bible study hard to follow and the classical Chinese script small and complex. OMF teams in Taiwan have developed “mini-Bibles”, portions of Scripture written in a contemporary style, in a large script, which are much more attractive to working folk who rarely read. This is just one of several creative ways developed to reach the unreached in Taiwan. OMFers also teach theology and work with university students, people living with AIDS, the homeless, young prisoners and gay commercial sex workers - very challenging.

Anna and I spent the week in Taiwan, visiting the OMF teams in three cities - Taipei, Chiayi and Taichung. The teams are experienced, hard-working….and perplexed! Taiwan is an open nation. Missionaries are able to come and work freely there. The percentage of believers is much lower than in Taiwan’s well-known neighbour. New workers are needed. Yet, there has been just one new long-term worker join the team in the past six years. It is a source of frustration and pain. Please pray.


Our holiday over New Year found us taking the bus up to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia with friends. We had a wonderful week of cool clear days, log fires, good food and relaxation. New Year’s Eve was “the wildest party ever” according to Aim as we first shared together about the challenges and triumphs of the year gone by, prayed for the year ahead and then got down to playing some of the noisiest, silliest party games ever devised by man! We spent a day climbing to the top of peninsular Malaysia’s highest peak: as we came out on the peak at nearly 7, 000 feet, we gave thanks to God for His goodness. A year ago Steve would never have dreamt of doing such a physically demanding climb.

Next week we’ll be travelling to Thailand for the New Ventures field conference where Steve will be giving the Bible readings and together we’ll be leading a workshop on member care. New Ventures folk work in a number of East Asian countries – seeking to reach into some very tough situations with the Good News. Pray for good preparation, for clarity of thought, for gripping presentation and hearts prepared to receive God’s Word.

Bull Riding

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 should try and land on the other ankle!

He won a national championship, (the start of his winning ride pictured above). The times that he won were good - hotels, baths and steak meals, for him and his friends. They were a tight-knit group and when one was fortunate they all shared in the glory and sudden wealth. After the money was gone, Nick went back to living in his truck. One day he met a Christian cowboy, someone who took Jesus seriously. Nate, against his better judgement, was powerfully drawn to Jesus and decided to trust him. The result was total ostracism by his friends. Once word got around that he had “got religion” none of his former friends would even speak to him. Eventually he left the rodeo circuit and went to the Philippines to serve for a year or two. The challenges of a demanding physical environment, of a variable living standard, of being in a situation where violence can flare unexpectedly were meat and drink to him! He met and married Emma, a Filipina Christian, who had grown up, jumping in and out of trenches and bunkers in the war-torn south where the army had battled Muslim extremist rebels for decades. No strangers to hardship, they decided together to join OMF for long-term service.

Nick and Emma came through our latest Orientation Course, in November. This was the biggest group of new members that OMF has ever had - forty-two people and sixteen children. The youngest was in his early twenties (a footballer who previously played for the Swiss junior national team) and the oldest in his mid-fifties (a colonel in the Canadian Air Force who took early retirement). They each told their stories during the course of the training. Over and over again, the theme was heard, “I believe in Jesus because someone else I know lived for Him and cared enough and was courageous enough to tell me about Him.” Sometimes it was a parent, sometimes a friend, often a stranger. Sometimes people were driven by a search for God and a hunger for purity, sometimes there was terror and hopelessness following the death of a father or a beloved sister or abuse or a broken family, sometimes loneliness and emptiness and a hunger for significance other than materialism, sex and drugs. Sometimes it was a surprise - God breaking in to lives that were complacent and satisfied, where people felt no need at all of anything other than what they had. Sometimes it was the testimony of a consistent life lived well for God, sometimes just a fleeting contact - a talk, a book or a tract, just a Bible verse pressed into a hand.

An Asian colleague lived in agony over the death of her sister in a car crash, in horror and fear at the thought of her own death. One day, while praying and burning incense, she got up and walked over to the image that she prayed to until she was nose to nose with it. “I screamed at it”, she said, “but I realized it could not hear my words. Its blank eyes could not see my pain. It could not help me - in fact every day we had to help it - feed it and clothe it.” This startling image of a young girl, tortured by grief and fear, head to head with a household god, screaming at his impotence in the face of her raw human experience was an echo of the powerful words of Psalm 115. Trying to live by anything other than God is to “feed on ashes”. As we listened, it was a reminder again of how God meets us as individuals - endlessly creative and resourceful in His powerful, potent work of reconciling us who were His enemies to Himself.

“Only God keeps this ship afloat!”

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 Records as the oldest ship still afloat. Having started life as a freighter on the Atlantic coast of America, she was converted to a passenger ship and used to ship emigrants to Australia as well as Roman Catholic pilgrims to Italy.

Finally in 1977, she was bought by a Christian organization in Germany, refitted in Bremen and began a new lease of life. The Doulos is now the worlds largest bookshop, carrying 6, 000 titles across the oceans. Since 1977, she has visited more than 100 countries and welcomed more than 18 million people on board. The Doulos arrived at the quayside in Singapore last week. Crewed by around 350 Christian young people and families from over 50 different countries, including friends of ours, Aimee and Joshua welcomed the chance to go on board. Josh has now declared that he’s found his ideal project for his gap year – as a crew member on the Doulos!

“…as you help us by your prayers".

“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 will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” Paul in Second Corinthians

A week ago, Steve went to see the cardiologist for his regular four month check-up. Dr Chan spent more time discussing his recent trip to Cambodia with us than he did Steve’s condition! That was a good sign. The next check-up will be in six months while Steve continues on low-dose medication. Later, Anna read the passage above which seemed so apposite. More than ever, we are coming to rely on God, learning in pressures and hardships and suffering not to depend on feelings but on what God has told us about Himself and His purposes. We thank God for His present deliverance and we thank you too for your prayers on our behalf.

Out of the blue, a few days ago, Joshua suddenly asked, “What would you say if I told you I was thinking about going to Hebron School?” You may remember that two and a half years ago, Josh and Steve traveled together to India to scout out Hebron as a possible place for Josh to board. The change of direction to Singapore meant that Josh could stay with us for the time being. However, now he has decided he might want to spread his wings and head off to India after all. Josh is earnestly praying, together with the family as we make enquiries, work out costs and determine logistics – to get a clear picture of what it might mean. Please pray for guidance for Josh as he works this idea through and also for us as we help and advise him.

The children are hard at work at school but also are very involved in the demanding production of “Peter Pan”. Yesterday (Saturday) they were at school from 11:00 until 6:00. Josh has no understudy, even though he has the lead role. Both children were unwell during the past week. Please do pray for them, to remain healthy in the next four weeks until the play run actually starts and that they will demonstrate character in remaining cheerful and positive while avoiding grumbling and fighting, not only in the public eye but also at home!

Jonny Elvin, the vicar of Trinity Church, Exeter came out to see us for a week. He joined us during several weeks of a thick blanket of smoke haze covering Singapore caused by uncontrolled forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo. That didn’t help the holiday snaps! But it was wonderful to renew friendship, to have up-to-date news of the church family in Exeter, to talk through issues that we are mutually grappling with, to encourage one another to stand firm. We had a chance to race each other on the luge track at Sentosa (not on ice but on wheels!), to enjoy the beach, to bike-ride and roller blade along the East Coast and to sample the many and varied delights of Singaporean food courts! A highlight was a moving visit to Changi Jail museum where thousands were detained during the Second World War. The horror of those days was clearly depicted but there was a powerful underlying theme of sustaining faith that came through over and over again – the centre-point of the museum were murals painted by a desperately ill prisoner, only able to work for fifteen minutes at a time...he had painted Jesus being nailed to the cross and above it, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

From next week, we will be involved in the last Orientation Course of 2006. This time forty-two adults and sixteen children will take part. We look forward to having them – but it will be a busy time too as we interview each person, lead worship, teach and speak as well as enjoy the various activities that will be going on. Our fellow Directors are very busy at the moment, with visits to sensitive areas of Asia, traveling to encourage and support home and field teams, and coping with complex issues. Several OMFers are seriously ill in various parts of the globe. Please do help us by your prayers.

Love from us all

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimee

Avoiding Idolatry

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 dressing burns and dispensing drugs to women coughing blood. These people in their wretchedness perfectly deserved my mother's care. She bowed with them, freckled hand on spongy curls, offered up a prayer for healing. If only I could do something to earn her touch. Because I could not distract my parents from their missionary service, I shadowed them. Their work became mine; their calling so big it overshadowed any puny need of my own. I understood when my father left the dinner table to greet this teacher or that pastor that I would have to share my parents. I cringe at my continuing need to feel significant to them, my need to earn degrees, win prizes and contracts. Sometimes I feel obsessed, as though I possess a deep well that needs constant filling with attention."

This approach where work takes over and constantly demands time and attention that belongs to children, God calls idolatry even when it is found in a Christian family.

In the TCK consultation held last week we looked together at the story of Hannah. Desperate for a child Hannah wept and prayed before God, promising that any child that was given she would surrender to God to serve him all his days. Her request was granted in an amazing way, and Samuel joined their family. It would be easy for Hannah to justify keeping such a precious baby. And yet Hannah put God in first place and gave Samuel up to serve in the temple at Shiloh. As the "TCK support team" we need to help families not to meet an unbalanced approach to work with an equally unbalanced approach - that the family must always come first! For putting anything before God is to make an idol of that thing, no matter how intrinsically worthy it may be.

The consultation drew together a multicultural international team. Altogether we represented more than 20 different countries, and a multitude of educational systems, German, Korean, Japanese, Afrikaans, Tagalog and everything in between! There are more than 600 children whose parents are serving in Asia and they use a wide variety of educational options. Some families are able to use international schools and boarding schools are still used, but we need to make more support available for non-traditional schooling options. Many of our families are working in areas far from other expatriates. For some of these families, schooling their children at home is one way of meeting their needs in a tough situation. We want to find home school tutors, teachers who are willing to live at a single location, and travel from that location to advise parents who are homeschooling their children. Over the next few years, we're going to need more and more teachers willing to work in this way. Please pray with us that the right people will come forward. We recognize that happy, healthy, holy families are better enabled to realise the vision to which God has called OMF.

Two days ago, Joshua decided to head-butt the floor. He'd been sitting for a while playing on the computer, stood up suddenly, felt faint, and fell forward mashing his lip on a metal door frame. We mention this because yesterday was Joshua's 13th birthday. In his birthday photographs, he looks as if he has done three rounds with Mike Tyson! It's terrifying to be the parents of a teenager. We don't feel old enough or able enough to take on this next role! I don't know when the last time you went shopping for a teenager, but trying to choose a present for Joshua was next to impossible. So armed with money from grandparents, Dad and Joshua sallied forth to do business with Singapore's shopping district. After 4 1/2 hours shopping, Dad was relieved to discover that Joshua didn't have much idea what he wanted either. He's a pretty contented sort of guy! So the money will sit in his room until he's decided what he needs it for!

With our love,

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimee

Pilgrims or Tourists?

"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 integrate their many cultural selves and find a place in the world".

Unrooted Childhoods: Faith Eidse and Nina Sichel

Born in Zimbabwe, raised in Mozambique, schooled in Cambodia, England and Singapore, Joshua started life trying to add Portuguese and some Makua to his English. He learned to fit into an American school in Cambodia, struggled in England because he knew nothing about soccer and now has a lead role in a play speaking Mandarin. He is the only Caucasian in the youth group at church. Like Steve, Josh and Aim struggle to answer the question, "Where do you come from?" We are enriched by our experiences but find that we also wrestle with a sense of rootlessness and identity. We are Third Culture Kids, 'individuals who have spent a significant part of our developmental years in a culture other than our parents'. We have relationship to many cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Elements from each culture are mixed into the TCK's life but the sense of belonging is to others of similar experience.

There are more than six hundred children whose parents serve with OMF. Over the next ten days we will be leading the Third Culture Kid Advisors' consultation - for those from both homes and fields who are responsible for advising on the education and care of our children. We will work together to plan for the next three years or so, as well as doing some training. As we have particular responsibilities for member care (including kids!), we would ask your prayer for us during this time.

We had a day off on Monday and took the children to see Dr Yee - our dentist. Are we all having fun yet?! But that didn't last long and we headed for Sentosa, a smaller island off the coast of Singapore Island but connected by a long causeway. On Sentosa are some of the famed coastal defences - the gun batteries that were facing the wrong way when the Japanese invaded. From Fort Siloso there are some magnificent views out across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. But we headed for Mount Imbiah where a luge run has been set up. For a small fee you can hire a low-slung "sled" on wheels and race down a winding track - Josh and Aimee loved it, and Mum and Dad didn't mind it either. At the bottom there is a chair lift which very conveniently took us back to our starting point again. The thick haze from massive forest fires just across the straits in Sumatra, cut visibility right down but fortunately didn't cause any breathing problems! Josh has chosen to go back to the luge for his birthday celebration with his three closest friends. But we've had to postpone it for two weeks until the end of Ramadan, as two of his friends are Muslim and so would be fasting during the day - not much fun to go to a birthday party under those conditions

Love from us all

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimee

Grace Like Rain

24^th September, 2006

John 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 the cathedral yard was burnt out military vehicles. In March 1943 Bishop Wilson was arrested and made a prisoner-of-war. Along with around 3000 others he was imprisoned at the notorious Changi jail and brutally tortured during repeated interrogations. However he continued to love and pray for his captors and to serve his fellow prisoners - even taking beatings meant for inmates he considered too sick or weak to cope. At the end of the war he returned to lead the team at the cathedral. One day while conducting baptisms, Bishop Wilson recognised a Japanese officer among the candidates - one of the very men who had viciously flogged Wilson. The Japanese soldier told Wilson he had come to believe in Jesus through Wilson's witness. He asked for Bishop Wilson's forgiveness and then requested that the Bishop baptise him into the faith.

Today Chris Chia, our pastor, shared this story to remind us of the staggering power of the saving grace of Jesus as he led a service of baptism. The service was translated into Mandarin for the benefit of dozens of older relatives and friends specially attending. Today no less than eighty people declared their faith through baptism before around a thousand folk packing the school hall. Chris prayed powerfully and originally for each person. We sat and watched with tears in our eyes - the fruit of the unseen and forgotten workers who had given their lives in the past to make the Good News known to the Chinese was there before us. A grandmother was baptised together with her grandchildren. Parents and children baptised as a family. A knot of elderly Cantonese-speaking women, some too frail to stand on their own. Indonesian believers and a Japanese woman. What a privilege to witness the result of the faithfulness of those gone before us.

In March 1929, after conducting a careful survey and following a meeting of the C.I.M. Central Council, the then General Director issued a call for "some two hundred workers over two years" to meet the needs of the neglected in-land areas of China. It was an inauspicious time to do so - with the Great Depression taking hold worldwide and a massive upsurge of lawlessness in China itself. In September of the same year, C.I.M. missionary Douglas Pike was taken prisoner by bandits and executed, one of several to die that year. Two of his grown children, Walter and Allison offered and were accepted as members of the "two hundred" (eventually 207). Walter was Anna's grandfather.

Seventy-seven years later, Anna found herself a member of that same Council, listening to the results of a similar survey and debating its implications for OMF. The Council heard of the continuing needs of the Buddhist world, of the challenges and advances of Muslim outreach, of going the second mile in helping the burgeoning Chinese church to reach out in mission, of the need for workers to reach the hundreds of millions in the Asian Diaspora scattered across the world. Next week together with the General Director, we will work on the wording of a final statement and call for workers. Please pray specially for us. We have no interest in building the "kingdom of OMF". The desire of our hearts is to hear the voice of God, to glorify Him and to call others to join in God's mission to the world, to see grace fall like rain in our broken and hurting world.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Joshua & Aimée Griffiths

* The story is told in the book "John Leonard Wilson: Confessor for the Faith by Roy McKay "

Passion for the Impossible

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, Anna and I lay flat on our backs on the back veranda and watched the massive clouds go scudding across the sky, driven and torn by the wind. Exhilarating!

Our church here in Singapore is slightly different to Great Missenden! Around 800 people attend the 9:00am service in a school hall (and a similar number the 11:00). Although services are mainly conducted in English, the vast majority of people are young Singaporean Chinese - a reflection of the huge growth in the number of Christians here. The music is very good and the minister, Chris Chia, is a former journalist who speaks thoughtfully and compellingly. He often holds a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other - quoting from both!

Tomorrow is the big day....once every three years, the entire OMF leadership from 30 different countries get together for a week for what we call International Council. It will be a time to renew friendships, to look back on what God has done since the last time we met and also to pray, to discuss and work on the direction that OMF should take for the next three years. Our theme is "Passion for the Impossible - Reaching the Neglected Frontiers. OMF has always wanted to work at the cutting edge of God's mission- where there are few or no followers of the Lord Jesus. We're asking if there are areas or peoples that need to hear the Good News - and then asking what (if anything) OMF should do about it. For the first time in it's 140-year history, a Chinese, Dr Patrick Fung, leads OMF. This will be his first Council in the driving seat.

Last week, the Council began arriving. Anna and I in our role of International Director of Personnel had meetings with each OMF Director - ranging from Canada to Korea. Twenty-four formal meetings in thirty-six hours was no joke!

We've been working hard on preparing for our own sessions for weeks now - still some of the finishing touches to go. We're looking at who is joining OMF - it's exciting to see the number of Asians in OMF growing to around 40%. We have Japanese Christians reaching out to Cambodians, Koreans going to Thailand, Burmese taking up the challenge of work in tough areas of South-east Asia. But we need to ask if we need to do more to help Asians to join us.

We're also asking questions about giving better care on the field . We have 1, 100 missionaries serving with OMF. Many work scattered across vast areas, or in parts of Asia where it is not easy to communicate directly with them. Amazingly, in a recent survey over 70% reported a sense of contentment. Over 90% felt at home in the country they were working in - perhaps because OMF places such a strong emphasis on language learning and understanding the culture. But many are facing fear, frustration, loneliness, misunderstanding, and poor support. We want to do all we can to make sure that our people don't just survive but thrive. But how can we set about that effectively? Pray for us as we lead the discussion.

Josh and Aimée are hard at work, back at the Canadian School. They travel (alone) on the public bus system to work every day. Singapore is a very secure place in many ways which gives our kids freedom to do things that they probably woudn't be able to do at home. We were out last night with friends from Cambodia, eating Indian and Chinese food which the children love. Josh has landed the part of Peter Pan in a school production of the play - rehearsals start tomorrow and will be very intense until just before Christmas. He's not too sure about having to kiss Wendy but is willing to endure pain and suffering for the sake of art! Aimée is going to be a mermaid - disappointed to miss out on being a Lost Boy or a pirate, "because they get to fight one another!" Still, slight and willowy as she is, we think it was a good casting choice!

We'll sign off here, (our first attempt at blogging!) and try to keep you updated from time to time!

Steve, Anna, Joshua and Aimée

Old missionaries!

Anna's great-grandparents in China in the 1920’s

missionblog is live

watch this space...