God is able to do more than we can imagine

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.” (Eph. 3:20-21)

Dear OEM members,

I want to encourage you to believe in what God is able to do in our lives and also in our church. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we become born again by the power of God’s Word and the Spirit, we become the children of God, we come under the covenant which God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We come under the covenant which God renewed with David and the prophets and finally we come under the new covenant which God sealed with the blood of his own son Jesus Christ. Under the new covenant, we have become the seed of Abraham and joint heir with Christ Jesus himself. As the children of the covenant and the joint heir with Jesus Christ; Jesus said to us “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:19). We have received all power and authority to overcome the enemy, the Satan. It is Satan that likes us to be bogged down; depressed and discouraged so that we would not have the strength to trample on the snakes and the scorpions (these are the demonic spirits that are sent to torment God’s people). Satan generally uses our environment, circumstances, and situations where we struggle with lack of finances, poor health or poor interpersonal relationships with family or friends; these are areas where Satan finds ways to divert our attention away from God and therefore, we need to exercise our God given authority and encourage ourselves out of these circumstances and cast out all the demonic spirits represented by snakes and scorpions from our work, health and families and friends. We need to trample on these demonic spirits and believe that they have no power to harm us. Jesus said, “nothing will harm you”, because he gave us the authority to cast them out before they can harm us. Therefore, cheer up and know that God has given you all authority over powers of the enemy and you are well able to do what God has called you to do in your personal life, family and society at large.

Relating to our fellowship in Onnuri, we also need to believe that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. The week before I was invited to speak for the first time; there were only five people attending our English worship. The week I was officially announced as the English Pastor, there were 15 people and in the last two weeks we have seen 39 and 43 members coming to worship. These are surely positive signs and God is well able to do more than what we can see with our physical eyes. There are thousands of foreigners living in Daejeon and many more Koreans who speak English, and God has placed us in this city for such a purpose as this so that we will be able to reach out to these foreigners and also to the Korean young generation that speaks English. Let’s continue to pray and believe what God can do instead of focusing on what we cannot do. The same thing applies to your personal life; don’t focus on what you cannot do but focus on what God can do and then believe his word. Amen?

Our Vision

Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth, Edifying the Church in Love and Fellowship and Evangelizing theWorld by Words and Deeds

From the Pastor's Heart

Dear friends,

It is now the third week for me as the Pastor of OEM and how wonderful it is to see God’s hand in what we do in our fellowship. But the most important thing that I would like to see happen in our fellowship is to see the hand of God working in every single member’s life, to see you personally being refreshed and renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. No matter where you are in your walk of faith, God is absolutely watching over you. He will never leave you nor abandon you because that is what Jesus promised, and what he said, he really meant it. There will be time in our lives when the circumstances and situations of this world would attempt to overshadow us and hinder us to see the loving arms of our father, but that does not mean God is not there…in fact, if he was not there we might not have made this far in life. The very reason you have come this far is because of God’s grace and his unfailing love. He is a father who is always on his children’s side, even when they make the mess of their lives, he still loves them enough to stand-by and provide the helping hand in cleaning the mess out of their lives. There is nothing which God cannot restore…he even promises to restore the years we have wasted.

Therefore, as the Pastor of OEM, I want to invite you to see the brighter side of life. For those of us who are here as foreigners; the very word “foreigner” does not have anything positive about it (except when you want to excuse yourself of your silliness in front of an inquiring police personnel or a nagging taxi driver!). When someone addresses you as “foreigner”, I am sure you feel really out of place and disconnected, but in OEM, it is our dream to address ourselves as the children of God regardless of where we have come from or who we have been so far...

I also invite my Korean friends who speak English or would like to worship God in English and build relationship with people who are different than them. Together, we could build a church in Daejeon that would glorify our maker, edify our brother and evangelize our neighbor.  Most of our support staffs are Korean and well-versed in English, but when you meet them and have the opportunity to know them, you will find them to be some of the most dedicated, committed, and kind hearted people in whole wide world. Without their dedication and sacrifice, the OEM would be nowhere near from where we are now.

For those who have attended our fellowship once a while, I encourage you to make the time to attend the fellowship as often as you can and always if possible. For those of you who have made OEM as a regular place of worship, it is our honor to fellowship with you and it is our prayer that you will find your place of ministry within our fellowship. We wish you to make time even for our small group Bible study. You will surely enjoy the time of sharing in the small groups…we all have a story to tell and in small groups, we are interested to hear your story too. For those of you who are still looking for a place of worship; with open arms, we invite you to come and be a part of our fellowship.

SEE YOU ON SUNDAY!

We had a wonderful time of refreshment in our one day retreat; it was cold and the place was fully covered with snow, yet with games and other activities we never knew how soon the day was over...sadly, not all our members could attend.

The retreat hall was wonderful...and when the time comes in Spring...we shall be there...

Small Group Bible Study

We have begun our small group fellowships...Elder Peter Weldy is leading this group...please take time to stay behind after the worship and join one of our groups...to study God's word and also to build closer friendship.

Another group is lead by Pastor Bhatta...we have a weekly devotional called "Living Life" from which we start our discussion...but we don't have to be limited by that...we can talk about any thing that needs answer...we also take time to pray for one another

Please be a part of these groups!

Update on Winter Retreat

Dear friends,
There is a change on our planned winter retreat.  Because of the 40 days special early morning prayer meetings, many of our members do not want to miss because they have promised to God to pray for 40 days.  Therefore, the retreat has been changed into a one day field trip.  On 16 (Saturday), we will start from Onnuri Church at 10AM and go to Gongju.  Because of the cold, we shall limit ourselves with the indoor activities.  Please do make time and join us so that we can deepen our fellowship.  After arriving at our retreat destination, we shall have a short devotion and then begin our fun activities...it will be fun....

There is time for everything

There is time for everything, and a time for change is often the most difficult one. We as English speaking and International Church have seen too many changes taking place over the years. Pastors have come and gone; members have come and gone but the beauty of relationships lives on for a long time if not for the lifetime. Looking from heaven’s eyes, we know that the material possessions we acquire will one day be left behind; houses, cars, toys, and you name it…all of them will have no worth when our time on this earth is over. But even at that time of our change, if we have acquired good friends and relationships, they will continue to live on in eternity. Therefore, as we have now come to a place of another change in our fellowship, let us remember to cherish all that we have accomplished so far and look ahead to the future with high expectation from the hand of the Lord.

Pastor Peter Shin has now moved on from English worship to the young adult worship in the Korean department. Let us continue to pray for him and his family so that they will be all that God has called them to be. While we say goodbye to Pastor Peter, we also welcome Pastor Bhatta and his family into our fellowship. Pastor Bhatta is originally from Nepal but has lived, studied and married in India. Mrs. Bhatta comes from the Indian state of Manipur. They have one son, Martin, who is now 16 years old. Prior coming to OEM, Pastor Bhatta led church pioneering ministry in Nepal. Their ministry can be seen at www.hopec.org Pastor Bhatta also has ministry experience in Korea during his seminary days. Lets keep our hearts open to God and to one another so that we can hear his word and feel the leading of his Holy Spirit.

Christmas 2009 Memories

Elder Peter entertained us with his innspiring music and Grace Jipsanim's family served us a wonderful Christmas dinner. We even had a cake and sang "Happy Birth Day to you Jesus!" How biblical that is; you figure it out...

On Christmas Eve, Onnuri Church had a family concert and our OEM members danced themselves out with "Jesus is my Superhero!"