End of the Year Prayer Meeting

Please come to the church on December 31 for the End of the Year prayer meeting starting from 9PM to 12AM.  After the prayer meeting, if you don't have the transportation, we will find ways to drop you home.

Audio Sermon: Highly Favored

Christmas Celebration

Highly Favored

Christmas Celebration

We welcome everyone to join the Christmas Celebration!

Date: December 25

Time: 4-7PM

Place: Onnuri Church, 4th Floor, Vision Hall

Direction: See the map on the direction icon

Some pictures from Sunday :)

 

Our great worship leader, Andy

Cute little one having nap

'Wait and see what God can do!' Luke 1:5-20

Sermon: "Overflowing with Hope" - Romans 15:13

Sermon: "Famine and the floodgates of heaven" - 2 Kings 6:24-29

2 Kings 6:24~,7:3-4,9

Sermon: 'When God comes to town' Jonah 3:1-10

Audio Sermon: Gratitude is an attitude that fortifies our Spirituality (Ps. 107:1-32)

Sermon: 'We are created for compassion' - Ephesians 2:10

Sermon: "Christian Utopia" (James 1:9-11)

Sermon: 'Is God in your Calender?' - James 4:13-17

Sunday worship in Seoul

This was our gang who joined thousands in Seoul world cup stadium for celebrating the 25 years of Onnuri's existence for the glory of God.
For more, check in the side bar under Monthly Newletter

Sermon: "Testing of your faith" - James 1:1-8

Special Announcement

On October 10, We will not have regular Sunday Worship at 2PM.  

We will join the whole Onnuri family in a  stadium in Seoul to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Onnuri Church.

There will be tens of thousand of people gathering to celebrate this important milestone and there also will be prominent preachers speaking in English.  The highlight of that afternoon will be Nick Vujicic, the man without limbs, who has been greatly used by God to touch millions of lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Please send an email to Pastor Bhatta indicating that you want to join this event. Advance information is needed for the reservation of the shuttle bus from Daejeon to Seoul.

Our Buses will leave at 7:00 in the morning.  The Buses will be lined in front of City Hall, not far from the Church.

Audio Sermon: How should we live?

How should we live?

1Peter 4:7-11

By Pastor Bhatta

Sermon: "The Wind" - John 3:8 (Pastor Ryan Roberts)

Audio Sermon: Wish of a Dying Man

Click here to listen today's sermon
By Pastor Bhatta

Wishes of a Dying Man based upon Peter's wish for his reader in 2Peter 1:12-21.
Peter tells that he is about to die as Jesus had revealed to him, so before his departure, he wants to communicate his desires for the Christians who he was leading.

He writes;
1.  I wish you to remember the things you already know
2.  I wish to stir you up for the things you already remember and know
3.  I wish you to keep remembering them and be excited about it long after I am dead and gone
What are the things he wants them to remember?
a.  I have not changed the message for my benefits
b.  The message I have preached is a historical reality centered in the person of Jesus Christ and approved by God.
c.  The Scripture/written word of God is made more certain in the person of Jesus Christ
d.  The Bible is not man made, it is God breathed because men spoke from God

Sermon: "Can we add anything to our faith?" 2 Peter 1:5-8

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

Glimpses of OEM Worship

Sermon: "Our Sacrifices and God's Provisions" (Ph.4 15-20)

OEM Prayer Retreat

In this beautiful day, we gathered here in wonderful place by Geum riverside. After we have some free time wondering around river and enjoying beautiful scenery, we had a little bit heavy but good meal, Pork Bulgogi and vegetables. Also, we had a good recreation times doing some games like pig wrestling, hide and seek prepared by Jonathan. Last but not least, our main purpose for this retreat was to pray for OEM to keep moving forward to God's plan for us.

Pastor Bhatta prepared dozens of prayer lists for our ministry and our community.

We spent about 3 hours praying and praising God and it was a great opportunity to look back on 5 months this year and asking more God's Grace upon our ministry. I am pretty sure that we are all assured by Holy Spirit that God will lead us to His miracles this year as we obey to His words and humble ourselves before God.

Sermon

Prayer Points for Whole Night Prayer Retreat

1. Onnuri English Ministry

a. Revival to come in OEM

b. Holy Spirit’s presence to come in our worship

c. Our worship and preaching to be anointed by God

d. God would save many new souls from our ministry

e. OEM to become a leading International Church in Daejeon to reach out to the foreigners and the English Speaking Koreans

f. Growth of OEM up to one hundred members by the end of this year

g. Our small group meetings and Bible Study to become more effective

h. Our financial condition to improve

i. Our evangelism and outreach programs to be successful and fruitful

2. Pastor and leaders

a. God’s anointing on Pastor Bhatta and the OEM leadership

b. One heart and one mind in the leadership for the growth and development of OEM

c. Strong family life and favorable work environment for our leadership team

d. Visa extension and financial breakthrough for Pastor Bhatta and his family. Pastor Bhatta needs a car to be more effective in ministering OEM members as they grow in faith and in numbers.

3. OEM Members

a. They would have strong faith in God and loving and healthy families

b. They would have financial miracles and favorable work environment

c. They would have passion for God’s kingdom and evangelism

d. Their hopes and dreams would come true such as marriage, job, education and others

e. They would all be united in love and vision of our church

4. Onnuri Church

a. For the leadership

b. For the growth of the Church and its relevance to the Korean society

c. Open to the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit

d. Onnuri Church would support OEM’s vision and stand with us

5. Taejon Christian International School

a. May this school continue to be a Christian school and influence the future generation

b. May all the teachers and staffs come to the knowledge of God and live for him

c. May God provide the fund to relocate the school to a new location

d. May the construction of the new facility be smooth and on time

e. May the leadership; Dr. Penland and Mr. Roberts be guided by the Holy Spirit

6. Nepal Mission

a. God’s protection over Hope Churches and the leadership in Nepal

b. Growth and provision for Hope Christian College

c. Growth of Hope Church in Kathmandu

d. Many more new churches to be pioneered in other towns and villages

Sermon

OEM Spring Picnic

OEM had amazing time together on 24th of April.

We went on a picnic to KRISS.
We all brought our own lunch and share.
wonderful weather and wonderful people.
We are soooo happy!!!

Sermon

sermon 4/11

sermon 3/21

Sermon preached at Andy and Pauline's Wedding

Scripture:

1Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Ephesians 5:31-33. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

As marriage is a joyful event and therefore, I think it will be all right for me to make a few humorous comments.

First of all, the words of Socrates…he said,

“By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher”. (Socrates).

I hope Andy will not become a philosopher and if he does, that won’t be a bad idea either!

Secondly, Benjamin Franklin said,

“Keep your eyes wide open before the wedding, half shut afterwards”. (Benjamin Franklin). I think it is better to have them fully shut at times after you are married!!

Finally a serious one, and it is from Shakespeare, he said

“They do not love that do not show their love” (William Shakespeare).

That’s a very serious charge to all of us who are married and are planning to marry.

Similarly, in Ephesians Paul tells the husband and wife to demonstrate their love one to another. In the text we read here, he has explicitly used the analogy of the love of Christ to the Church and demonstrated an ideal relationship between a husband and a wife.

Marriage is the place where our ability to love and be loved is demonstrated in the public eyes. And, loving husband and wife is no longer based upon your pre-marriage feeling of falling in love. As Franklin has said, you open your eyes wide before marriage. But at times, as a common saying goes, “love is blind”, so we close our eyes before marriage and choose to be blind. We just brush aside anything that was not normal because our feeling of love controlled our behaviors. But after marriage, after the feeling of being in love or falling in love begins to diminish, we begin to open our eyes, we begin to notice the imperfections, we begin to hear words that sound strange. Then without realizing, our feeling in love vanishes, we don’t feel like loving this person anymore. We start wondering “why and how did I end up marrying this person?” Loving your wife and husband requires more than emotion, it needs will to love.

Therefore, our loving one another is not supposed to be based upon our feeling. It is supposed to be based upon the very words of God. You love your wife and husband because the Bible tells you to love. You decide to love; your love is based upon the command of God and not on your feeling; it’s your choice that you make; you will to love. Once you decide to love based upon the command of God, then you enter into the process of becoming one; you leave your respective families and go on creating a new family by becoming one. It is a deliberate process of making choices based upon the word of God. Love is a combination of will and emotions; and when you will to love, you begin to feel the love.

Becoming one marks a complete new beginning in the lives of two individuals. Your wedding lasts only today, but your marriage is for the rest of your lives. Today you both go back to school again, the school of marriage. Today you begin to learn again, to learn to love each other in a deeper way. You are joining yourselves to each other today to become one, without, of course, losing your individuality. Becoming one doesn’t happen overnight. It is something that you will learn and become better at as you share your married life together. Becoming one means loving each other, sharing your lives with each other, taking each other into consideration always. Becoming one means getting rid of all selfishness out of your lives because there is no room for selfishness in marriage.

In this process of becoming one; love and respect are the two most important factors. When a husband makes his wife the number one object of love and affection in his life; not just in theory but also in practice, with all probability he will have a happy wife and if you have a happy wife, you will become a happy man. If your wife is not a happy woman, it is impossible for you to be a happy man. Similarly, if a wife respects her husband and is proud of her man, not in theory again, but in practice, she will have a happy husband. Only a wife can tell you what you can achieve with a happy husband!

Respecting husband in today’s term is considered old fashioned, but the human need can never be replaced by age or time. If the first woman needed love, women still need love today, and if the first man needed respect, men still need respect today. But this respect is not some kind of slavish submission to the will of the husband, but a respect based on love just like the church respects Jesus Christ. Christ loves the church and church respects (fears) Christ. It is a respect that originates from the command of God and is activated by wife’s own will to respect her husband.

Andy and Pauline; if you can keep love and respect in your home you will have what we call an Ideal marriage because Jesus said, where two people are gathered in one accord, there he will be. Jesus comes in the family that is united in love and respect. When Christ is present in any marriage, that marriage will last for eternity; that marriage will be a happy marriage. May the Lord give you grace to love each other and respect each other so that Christ may find his abode in your home!

Announcement: We will not be going for evangelism this Saturday

Dear OEM Members,

This Saturday we have some unexpected programs coming up and therefore, we will not be able to go for Evangelism as announced on last Sunday.
 We will go for it next Saturday.  However, if you can, please step out in faith and talk to someone in your area about Jesus! 
Evangelism is our life-style and it does not have to be only on especial days.  Please keep praying for our fellowship; we want God to save souls and bless us along the way with his presence as we seek him and his kingdom.

See you all on this Sunday!

Pastor Bhatta

Celebrating Life!

Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife/husband is from the Lord" (Prov. 19:14). As Brother Andy and Sister Pauline have begun to plan their future together, we rejoice with them in their new found joy and happiness. Life is a big celebration with many breaks in between. Like a journey, there are ups and downs along the path of life and as we move along, we must not forget to take note and celebrate the moments of joy and happiness. Like everything that comes to an end in this side of eternity, our moments of joy and happiness also do not remain constant, we also face some moment of sadness and gloom, disappointment and sorrow. But because we have taken note of the moments of joy and happiness, we can also overcome every other moment in life with the sure knowledge that nothing will remain the same. Especially for those who believe in God, the joy will surely come in the morning! Our life is on a journey that is headed towards the better things...every day will have its blessings, but for us; today is better than yesterday and we aim to live better than yesterday, tomorrow will be better than today and the goodness of the Lord will eventually lead us in the perfect place of joy and peace.

Marriage is also like that, it gets better everyday. But for it to get better everyday, we must not remain in the moments of sadness and disappointment knowing that it was just a temporary glitz. There are times of breaks, but they are not there to remain forever, rather these times of breaks are the reminders for us to get back at work. Once we know how to get back to work, then these breaks allow us to see even greater things in marriage that in time past we had neglected. Next to God, your wife or husband becomes the object of your love and affection; the single most important person in your life. Seeing that person smile and rejoice gives you the greatest pleasure and without knowing, the smile and joy become your portion too! In this life, you can do without the houses and inheritance, but it is hard to do anything without the joy, love and affections and this we get only from a husband or a wife who is aware of his or her givenness by God.

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!"