St Patrick’s Day: You may be surprised to know that no other national festival is celebrated more widely across the world. March 17, the official festival day, coincided with the visit of a short-term worker to our church (IBF, Japan) this year. Joy Anne is a 23-year-old university student who came to Japan for a few months to assist the missionaries in IBF and another local church. She volunteered to organize a St Patrick’s Day cultural event. It was an opportunity to share the testimony of St Patrick besides helping people learn more about this popular festival. The event was attended by a mixture of church members and non-Christians who
South Korean tour: Sansung Church, Daejeon
This March, I had the unexpected opportunity of visiting Sansung Church in Daejeon, South Korea. This was thanks to Pastor Ban of Shonan Community Church in Japan. I heard about how, through Sansung Church, Pastor Ban decided to become a missionary to Japan. It was an amazing story of God’s leading and His great plans. Sansung Church is Methodist in affliation and has over 3,000 members. I will try to summarize what I learned about this church: 1) Led by a senior pastor and 14 assistant pastors and staff members, Sansung has grown to two church sites. Not centered merely on programs, the church focuses on making disciples — that
1 Kings 22 sermon, Part 1 of 2, “Our Attitude to God’s Word”
We are almost done studying the book of 1 Kings. Today, we will read chapter 22, which ends the story of Ahab, king of Israel. From this story, I would like to suggest 3 points: 1) We need to check our attitude toward God’s Word, 2) We must be faithful to God’s Word, and 3) We may suffer for holding on to truth. Let us pray. [Read 1 Kings 22:1-40] We need to check our attitude toward God’s Word My first point is about our attitude towards God’s Word. Let’s reread verses 19-23: Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord : I saw the Lord sitting on his