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In January 2017, church members and relatives of the departed attended back-to-back services. One was a Christian funeral, and the other a Buddhist funeral. At the Christian service, stories of personal faith were shared along with photographs of the departed and her relatives, as well as expressions of love towards her family members. On the other hand, at the Buddhist funeral, no message about the Resurrection was shared; however, it was a family-centred event that overflowed with love and gratitude towards the departed. Regardless of religious beliefs, we were each reminded of the importance of living a life full of love. “As in life, so in death.” These are the

An IBF member was suddenly called home to heaven on January 14th after a heart attack. Since her family desired a Christian funeral, on the day I paid a visit to comfort them, we made arrangements for a funeral to be held at a nearby assembly hall. We also drew up a program which consisted of Scripture passages and hymns that the deceased loved. I asked various IBF members what passages and hymns they thought fitting to include. In addition, it was also important that I prepared well to speak from Romans 10:9-10. The passage, I hoped, would guide the faith of those who attended the funeral. My hope is

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Last month, we talked about David’s advice to his son Solomon on how to be a successful king and have a secure kingdom. David said the biggest key was obedience to God. Today’s, we will see that the king’s role, besides being a spiritual leader, is to identify his friends and enemies, and to make decisions of mercy and judgment. Let’s read today’s passage, which starts from 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 5. The passage continues David’s advice and shows how Solomon responded after that. [Read 1 Kings 2:5-46] Solomon’s systematic elimination of his enemies

The Sixth Japan Congress on Evangelism was held in Kobe from Sept 27 to Sept 30, 2016. The main speaker, Dr. Christopher Wright, gave 4 keynote addresses at the congress. Over 1,000 participants from all over Japan came together for a time of learning and sharing about evangelistic efforts. You can listen to Dr. Wright’s talks, which are available at the CGNTV web-link below. Personally, it was a pleasure for me to have met missionaries working in Hokkaido and those serving that area by performing wedding ceremonies. http://japan.cgntv.net/detail.php?number=2980&category=829

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Today’s sermon is about taking on big new challenges. Today’s Scripture is about David’s advice to his son Solomon as Solomon takes on a huge new responsibility: becoming the next king of Israel. May David’s words be useful to us in our own challenges today. We will only a short passage in 1 Kings 2, only the first 4 verses. [Read 1 Kings 2:1-4] Background We don’t know how old Solomon was when he became king of Israel. How many people here are 30 years old or younger? Please raise your hand. Some scholars suggest

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Intro Today we are entering a new series of sermons on 1 Kings, a historical book in the Old Testament. As a young Christian, I used to dislike the Old Testament. It has stories that are weird, more dramatic and shocking than your 7:00pm TV drama. Sometimes I don’t know what God wants me to learn from those stories. Yes, it’s not easy to study the Old Testament, but it is part of our Bible and is very interesting. I hope together we can learn some good things from the book of 1 Kings. Today

This summer, together with friends from church, I visited the families of American missionaries who had served many years in Minami-Nagareyama. That is, Otto and Pat who now live in Lewiston, Idaho, and Steve and Sheila who live 3 hours away in Walla Walla, Washington. We visited for only a week but had a chance to renew old friendships and were encouraged to see our friends doing well, still lively as ever. Pat threw an international reunion party at River City Church, and we had a great time with many people – dearly-missed old friends, exchange students, and others. Otto, on the other hand, borrowed a huge van from the