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Hi Friends:
We're winding down our Singapore school year and thought it good to update you. Actually, I never emailed our Feb newsletter so I'm attaching it with the one for this month. One update to the May letter is that a US$250,000 gift has been given to help renovate our new International Community School campus. He always provides! We still need another US$100,000 or so though to do the full job though.
Also, "The Da Vinci Code" movie begins showing worldwide this week. It touches on many issues that few of us know much about (art, early and medieval history, etc.), so I've updated my notes and PowerPoint responses on the SBC website (now over 200 slides for my 2 hours and 45 minutes seminar). I've given 7 of my scheduled 11 seminars so far, with four known decisions. You can download these yourself (112 MB) at http://www.sbc.edu.sg/Rick. A Chinese PPT translation is also there and in process of being put on another website to reach folks up north on a site that has 40,000 unique users monthly! He is good!
Rick (for Susan, Kurt, Stephen & John)
MYANMAR MUSINGS
February 2006
I just got some funny looks when
I went down to breakfast here at
my hotel. Maybe it was since
I’m wearing the Burmese skirt
called the longyi. No one
laughed since that’s what men
wear here. Actually, they looked
pleasantly surprised to see a
westerner in their clothes.
I’m wearing it because it’s Sunday and I arrived a day
early to preach in my Burmese student’s rural church.
(My seminary course on Romans starts tomorrow.)
Dressing differently reminds me how we are all one in
Christ and how we need to do things a bit differently at
times to identify with one another…
(Later today) Well, it paid off. Every other man in the
76-member house church today also wore a longyi.
I’ve never been more proud of my student No Pum
back in Singapore. He earns his masters degree in May
that will qualify him to teach other church planters here
at a higher level. He planted this church a few years
ago in this Buddhist area with no churches. Hundreds
of barefoot monks lined the road out there—some only
six years old—all with their saffron robes, begging
bowl, and fan. Even our driver for the seminary is
Buddhist. My translator is planting another church for
seven monks who want to become Christians (but their
superior transferred them to an unknown place).
How did the service go? Twenty precious
children sang several songs before leaving
for Sunday School. They actually knew
the words rather than lip-syncing a CD backup. The
simple guitar didn’t help with the words at all.
Then the young adults sang a song, two teenage men did
a duet, followed by a solo from a young man, and even
another solo from another young guy. I was blessed not
to hear one word of English!
Of course, I preached in English. The clock on the wall
read 11:20 while my watch said 10:20, so I wondered if I
messed up the 1.5-hour time difference from Singapore.
But then an hour later when I finished, the clock still said
11:20. These dear friends saved from Buddhism never
looked at the clock. They came and sang without any
props (OHP, PowerPoint, etc.). When the offering bag
came to me, I put in 500-kyat bill—the largest I had with
me—only to realize it was less than a dollar.
It dawned on me, “This week 25 years ago I became a
missionary.” It also struck me how fulfilling it is to serve
Jesus Christ. Oh, there’s sacrifice. I’m away from Susan
for a week now, back in Singapore for a week, then off to
Thailand to train Campus Crusade workers coming out of
the north. Yet my separations are nothing compared to
No Pum who’s been in Singapore for two years.
But Susan has sacrificed most—like in December when
her Dad, Kurt Ahlstrom, entered God’s presence at age
88. We told him our good-byes by phone when we would
much rather have done so in person. She did, however,
invest a month in California to help her Mom adjust.
Thanks for your sacrificial partnership to help train more
like No Pum who are bringing the message forward.
Rick for Susan, Kurt (19), Stephen (16), and John (13)
Special
Edition
_____________________________________________________________
THE GRIFFITH GAZETTE
May 6, 2006
Brown or
Bible?
Singapore (AP)— “I wish truth
spread faster than heresy, but
often it’s just the opposite,” noted
Dr Rick Griffith, 48, who teaches
preaching, Bible and theology at
Singapore Bible College.
“I don’t try to respond to
every attempt to disprove the
Bible. I don’t want a knee-jerk
reaction to heresy,” he noted. “But when a direct attack on
Scripture sells 40 million copies,
I can’t just ignore it.”
Dr. Griffith referred to the
face-paced murder mystery, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.
He has warned Asians in a dozen
seminars of the novel’s shoddy
“history.” Brown claims Jesus
married Mary Magdalene and
their daughter grew up in France
and merged with its royal dynasty.
The author says the idea of Jesus being God was invented in AD 325 to give the emperor power.
“I refuse to get my theology
from the media,” Griffith quipped.
“If I did, I would believe that all
religions teach the same thing—
and eventually I’d believe that
Japan hasn’t rewritten WWII
history, that no Christians helped
establish America, and that many
respected historical figures were
supposedly homosexual!”
Dozens of books refute the
“gospel according to Brown,” so
Rick chose another type of
contribution. He has developed
nearly 200 PowerPoint slides and
about 20 pages of related notes for
pastors, teachers and parents—all
available to share the truth to
others. Anyone can get these
materials as a free download at
the Singapore Bible College
website (www.sbc.edu.sg/Rick).
A Chinese translation of 145 PPT
slides is also accessible. The
slides have a few hundred pictures
to appeal to our visual generation.
Feel free to download these
resources yourself.
ANOTHER VENTURE...
Singapore (AP)— Susan Griffith,
librarian at ICS (International
Community School) in Singapore,
faces yet another challenge.
This school that the Griffiths
helped start in 1993 with 22
students now has ten times that
number with 230 enrolled. With
the campus bursting at the seams,
all looked bleak. ICS had two
years remaining on the current
lease, so the school not only
needed to find a larger campus,
but also to secure another school
to assume the current lease.
God did both! The new
campus even has a gym and a
field with grass—both lacking at
the present facility. Susan’s main
project for May is to move 13,000
books into the enlarged library.
The school is also accepting work teams from the US to help renovate. The Griffiths have
appreciated many over the years who have helped make ICS what
it should be for the Lord Jesus.
Maybe this is you this time!
"CALIFORNIA, HERE I COME"
Yucaipa, CA (Reuters)— The
guys aren’t singing this song just yet,
but the college
plans for Kurt
Griffith, 19, and
Stephen Griffith,
16, begin this summer.
Kurt anticipates that he will
transfer to the USA as a college
junior in Fall 2007. Stephen will
have graduated from ICS by then
and hopes to attend somewhere in
the states too. Who knows, they
may even attend the same school.
So California will be our
home from June 8-July 30. While
not an official WorldVenture
home assignment, some limited
ministry may occur—but these
seven weeks will give our sons
time to see actual college
campuses firsthand and to spend
some time with Susan’s mom.
A BIG THANK YOU!
We’re bracing ourselves for a
huge deficit due to a faithful but
declining USA church about to end its $774/month support.
Also, headquarters accounting
errors cost us $16,000. Although
not “out of the woods” yet, we
thank those who responded to our
needs. God is good!
_____________________________________________________________
May 26, 2006
Hi Friends:
Greetings again from Singapore. Three quickies...
Our Singapore Bible College website has been under attack the past month with over 30,000 vicious emails on some days. This has clogged up our servers, so IT tightened the loop so well that I can't even send emails to myself! If your message to griffith@sbc.edu.sg was rejected, please bypass this by sending it directly to my laptop at rickgriffith@worldventure.net (rickgriffith@pacific.net.sg and rickgriffith@world.cbi.org also reaches me fine too).
Also, I mentioned in my last email that a US$250,000 gift was given to help renovate our new International Community School campus. I later learned that this was only partially true. Actually, a matching GRANT of UP to US$250,000 was promised, but we still need US$71,000 for
matching funds. To complete the entire renovation, we are still short
about US$619,000! Donations by check or credit card can be given at https://www.nics.org/pay/pay.php.
Finally, it's been good to see many download my "Da Vinci Code" notes
and PowerPoint on the SBC website. You can download these yourself
(125 MB) at http://www.sbc.edu.sg/Rick. Yesterday I updated them again so that the original 183 slides are now 223 slides--enough for a four-hour seminar. I have also explained most of the slides in each slide's presenter notes section. The notes are now 20 pages too, so you may want to download them again. PTL, another eight people trusted Him at my last seminar!
Thanking you for standing with us in sharing the truth,
Rick (for Susan, Kurt, Stephen & John)
WORLDVENTURE
1501 W. Mineral Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120-5612
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