Introduction Video of OEM

This is an Introduction to our fellowship so far from the beginning of this year.  From less than ten members, we have now crossed the 50 marks with more than 100 registered.  We are believing God for one hundred members by the end of this year; lets believe God can  do great things in this city through us!

"When God Ran" lyric version

If you have ever wondered away from God; if your life seems to be going nowhere, please watch this video and listen to the song; it will change your life

Last Sunday's audio sermon, click Here

Because of the Knowledge of God; we have:
1.  Precious faith to live by,
2.  Grace and Peace,
3.  Everything given by God for Life and Godliness,
4.  We know it through the promises of God,
5. and because of the knowledge and the promises of God, we can overcome our evil desires.

Desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4)

God will fulfill the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4)

Terry Ratzmann had lived in a church community most of his life and was an active member of Living Church of God in Brookfiled, Wisconsin.  But his inner quest for purpose and fulfillment was never realized.  He remained a man still waiting for the day to come so that he could live a happy and normal life like every other human being was doing in his community.  His fellow believers witnessed that he was a faithful church attendant; he would rather miss the wedding of friends but not the church service.  According to the tradition of his church, he would attend the annual festival of tabernacles (similar to youth camp in other churches) in every possible place.  He was a 44 years old single man; longed for marriage but could never find a suitable partner.  His insistence in attending church services and the festival of Tabernacles was not so much a desire to know God but rather a hope that someday he would meet a woman with whom he could build a family together.  But most of those years disappointed him as he could not find a person like that.  

In addition to this disappointment, he was also staring at the certainty of losing his job as his contract was about to be expired and may have seen no way of renewing it.  It is possible that the company he was working for might have also noticed the toll his disappointment in finding a wife was taking in his life and work.  Finally, his disappointment in life had reached to a place of no return and in one tragic Saturday (March 12, 2005) he walked in his church service and opened fire, killing the pastor and six others before taking his own life.  What a tragic end to a man who had placed so much value in attending churches and camp meetings!  Unfortunately, he did not attend churches and camp meetings to deepen his faith and commitment to God; rather, he was hoping to find a woman whom he could marry.  Getting married replaced his faith in God; marriage became his god and eventually lost everything and destroyed others’ dreams.

How often we come to church, not for God but for something else.  Over the years I have met so many backslidden Christians who say that they got nothing from attending or serving in the church.  The fact is; if we make anything other than God the pursuit of attending a church, we are surely going to be disappointed in life and we will probably end up blaming God for our misery.  Some come to church with the hope of material assistance from the community, some with the hope of social security, and some with the hope of finding a wife or husband, and others with various kinds of human expectations.  In the context of English or International Church in Korea, some of us come so that we could have fellowship with people who speak the same language, some of us come so that we could meet friends, and others come with the hope of learning English language.  There is nothing wrong in hoping to find these things in an International Church, but if these things are the only reason for us to attend the church, then we are surely going to be disappointed.  But on the other hand, if God is the focus and the only aim for us to come to church, we will be surprised to see how God meets all our needs and instead of living disappointed and disgruntled lives; we will be living lives that are full and fulfilled!

Therefore, as a pastor of this International Congregation, I urge every one of you to look into your heart and see that there is nothing taking the place of God.  Let us come to Church with the hope and prayer that we will encounter the Living Lord in our midst as we join our hearts in worshiping him.  Let us also not be caught up with the pre-planned and programmed production of worship from the pulpit, but rather allow God to inspire our hearts with spontaneous praise and worship of him from the pew.  Let us come to the church to please one and only person (the audience of One in the words of Kierkegaard); the Lord Jesus Christ!  When we delight in him, he will fulfill the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4).

Sincerely,

Pastor Bhatta

8/22 Sermon: "Problems" - John 16:33

Pastor Ryan Roberts is serving TCIS as the Assistant Headmaster and also ministers at OEM with music and occasional preaching

Summer Outreach Report

We had a wonderful weekend of outreach among the foreigners in the city of Kimhae near Pusan.  Walking and handing tracts in the streets surely made us feel like as if we were in some south east asian nations and not in Korea. We started from Daejeon on Saturday morning, arrived afternoon and after lunch, we headed to Foreign Mission Church which is led by Pastor Subedi.  He is a Nepali Korean.  We began there with a short time of worship for ourselves as Pastor Subedi welcomed us and introduced his ministry there.  In the evening we divided our group into three parts; two went to different factories and one went in the streets to hand tracts and meet with foreigners.  Later that evening we had Nepali dinner in a Nepali restaurant.  Late in the night we had a special worship with workshop on Personal Spiritual Inventory.  The next morning we had a special session focusing on building Kingdom Focused Churches and how OEM can be that Kingdom Focus Church.  After Brunch at 10 in the morning, we headed to the church to prepare our main event.  Our team cooked a wonderful dinner while they continue to perform songs and drams.  Grace Jipsanim had an entertaining and encouraging testimony and Douwe and Anne asked challenging questions of forgiveness mirrored in their own personal lives and also from the history of their nation, South Africa.  Drama and worship dance made the people really participate.  Pastor Bhatta preached evangelistic sermon to over 70 participants for one hour and after dinner we took off from Kimhae for Daejeon and arrived towards midnight.  The followings are few glimpses...

We took the church van from Daejeon.  Our driver was a church member who volunteered to drive for us.  Since he was not used to drive such big bus we had to trust God and God did protect us and gave us success.

The seats were a little small and for those who had weak back; it was bit challenging to sit for four hours.

This is the foreign mission church.  After we arrived, Pastor Subedi welcomed us.  It was really hot and humid inside and many of our members had hard time to keep up their heads.

At this time, the group had a kind of "why did we come?" feeling.  Specially the Korean members were already down in their spirit because they could not practice some of their programs and were not sure what we would be doing in such a hot and humid town.

But after the short worship where Pastor Bhatta encouraged all of us to expect God to do something; our spirits were revived and we went to our sleeping place to plan, prepare and practice.

Here we are pasting the levels on our gifts that we prepared for the Nepalis who would come to attend on Sunday's evangelistic meeting.

The sleeping place was good enough for all of us; we really had a nice time.

We had a really nice dinner in a Nepali restaurant.

Douwe said it was the best food he had after he came to Korea!!

Preparing for the Sunday program

Pastor Bhatta presenting the gospel to the Nepalis who had come

There was no seat left, they keep coming even towards the end

The group really made everyone to participate

Grace Jipsanim's testimony was very interesting and kept everyone clapping their hands

Douwe and Anne gave a challenging testimony related to their lives and their nation of South Africa..they talked about God's unconditional love and forgiveness.

The food our team prepared was really good and we had to cook extra rice twice

This was our final pose before we left; after everyone was gone and we had done the cleaning, this was the remnant group.  We took down our banner and had a last goodbye picture with Pastor Subedi and some of his church members.

Sermon: Be on your guard, 1Peter 5:8-11