December 8, 2013
Megan Banks commits her life to full time missionary work in Africa
OEM was greatly blessed by Megan's ministry. She led our Sunday worship for nearly two years and also the women's ministry. From the time she walked in our fellowship, she had this amazing positive energy around her. Many young people who were like her in Korea from different countries found a friend and a mentor in her. We all know that everyone has one's fair share of troubles, hardships and disappointments in life but knowing Christ helps us to transcend them all and still be optimistic and joyful in life. Thats what we see in Megan. She not only carries herself under the grace of God, she also takes others along with her.
We will miss her from our fellowship, and we know that wherever she goes, that place, that community is going to be blessed greatly.
Also, now we know she is going to Africa as a missionary where she will have to raise her own support. As a church that has benefitted immensely from her ministry, it is our desire that many of us will pick up the pen and write to her saying we are with you in prayer and if needed, financially as well. Lets keep her in our prayers and also in our communication so that our fellowship remains alive for the glory of God.
November 29, 2013
November 7, 2013
October 29, 2013
October 25, 2013
Picnic and BBQ Party on Sunday, October 27
We invite all our members and friends to join us for a time of fun and fellowship in a nearby park after our Sunday worship. We will leave church at 3 and go to a park in the compound of KRISS near Expo-Park. You can invite your friends, but let us know how many will come.
October 21, 2013
October 14, 2013
September 24, 2013
September 9, 2013
August 27, 2013
Proposal for youth meeting!!
Are you interested in joining a youth program in OEM?
Are you interested in leading such a youth program?
The Lord is bringing many young people to our worship and we are planning to start a youth program. There is no age limit as such, from teens to thirties and in between; all are welcome to join.
We are also praying for a person/persons who is/are interested in reaching out and raising up the youth for the glory of God. If you have the heart and the gifting, please let us know.
Those of you who are interested to be a part of this program, please send the following feedbak to Pastor Bhatta;
1. Are you interested to be a part of youth program?
2. Would you prefer to have the meeting on Sunday or other days?
3. What other days are good for you to join?
4. Is Saturday good for you?
5. What time of the day?
6. How long will you stay in Daejeon?
August 25, 2013
August 5, 2013
July 22, 2013
July 16, 2013
Not Judgmental but Faithful
1 Corinthians 4:1-7
Not Judgmental but faithful
Not Judgmental but faithful
July 7, 2013
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Living Temple
June 25, 2013
June 17, 2013
June 14, 2013
God is after your money, Right?
On June 12, 2013, Ravi Zacharias
was speaking at RZIM's Summer Institute in the US and I was watching his live
stream in Daejeon, Korea. Ravi shared
about how God weaves the threads of our lives to create a grand design for his
glory. From his own life experience, he
gave the following story of how God works in ways that we can hardly understand;
In 1971, while he was a seminary
student, was invited to speak in a conference in Canada. In that conference, he met a missionary lady who
invited him to come to Vietnam and minister for the three months of that summer
there. When Ravi hesitated due to the
lack of finances, the lady said "God will provide". To make things clearer, Ravi said, "I am
not just talking about the travel expenses; I am talking about my school fee
for the next semester because if I join the mission team, I won't be able to
make the money to pay for my next semester school fees". The lady again said, "God will
provide". Lo and behold, a lady that
Ravi never knew from New York sent him 3600$ to cover his travel expenses and
the next semester's school fees. Ravi
sent her the thank you note, went to Vietnam, graduated from school and went on
to become one of the greatest Christian Apologists of our generation, but never
again heard from the lady.
About five or six years ago, a
letter with crooked writings came to the office of the RZIM headquarter in
Atlanta Georgia saying "Is this the same Ravi Zacharias that I sent 3600$
in 1971? I heard him speak in a Radio
and if this is the same man, I am very glad that I had the chance of investing
in his life". Ravi attempted to find
out who this person might be, and found out that this was a person who had suffered
with polio and was bound to a wheelchair.
June 10, 2013
June 2, 2013
May 28, 2013
The Cross: power and wisdom of God. Contentment
Lessons from a Peasant family
A landless peasant couple decided
to abandon their hard life in the countryside.
They moved to a small town where they rented a small shed on a piece of
property next to a wealthy man's house. It
was a rundown shed but with little work, they were able to make their
home. They even made a small patio to
enjoy the sun and the air. They were
woodcutters, and the only trade they knew was to fetch firewood from a nearest
forest and sell it in the market. Most people
of that town used firewood for fuel; this provided the couple a stable means for
their livelihood.
Everyday
early in the morning they would go into the forest and by evening they would be
carrying two bundles of firewood on their backs to sell it in the market. The money was enough for them to buy daily
food and even enjoy an occasional rest and recreation. Every evening, after the hard work of fetching
and selling the wood, the couple would enjoy a good meal and then sit in the
patio. They would chat about their life
in the village, their first love, and their new life in the city. Even though they could not have any children,
they were happy to be with one another, they loved each other very deeply. Turn by turn, they would massage each other's
back; carrying a heavy load from a distance everyday had created a kind of
stiffness in their back and neck, and being massaged with oil or other herbs
gave them great relief.
The
couple loved each other so dearly. Often
they would take a walk nearby their home and even though it was not culturally
accepted to hold wife's hand in public, the husband would grab his wife's hand
and continue to walk as if no one was looking at them. She felt a tinge of embarrassment at first
when she noticed how people were staring at them, but as the time went by, she
loved being hold by her loving husband and was proud to be married to this man.
They had a beautiful life and were so
content to live it they way it has turned out; they would not change it for
anything.
The
rich man next to their shed had a beautiful house with a terrace garden. They even had servants to take care of the
gardens and the house. The house was
always busy, people keep coming and going.
Every evening, the wife of the rich man would sit in the terrace garden
and observe the woodcutter's family down sitting in their patio. She would notice how affectionate the man was
to his wife and how content they looked.
She began to compare her life and theirs and found out that she had no
happiness at all. Husband never took the
time to spend with the wife and children; he was always busy in making money. Most of the time he stayed out of home due
his business and even the children had become very cold to each other. The beautiful house felt so cold and empty
even though it was filled with wonderful things husband had bought.
One
evening when her husband was at home, she asked him to join her in the terrace. As they sat on the roof chairs, the
woodcutter couple below also came out to sit in their patio. The rich man's wife began to explain to her
husband about this couple as how happy and content they were, and how the rich
couple had lost the true sense of happiness.
After his wife finished speaking, the rich husband said, "don't
worry, their happiness will be over soon" and he went down.
The
next day, when the woodcutter family had gone to fetch the firewood, the rich
man threw a big bundle of money inside their shed. When the couple returned, they were so
surprised to find the money. With fear
and nervousness, they waited if someone would come and claim the money, but no
one came. After realizing that they
could have the money, carefully they counted it and found out it was more than
what they could have earned in five years. The whole night they could not sleep; their
minds struggled to decide as what to do with this money. Finally in the morning, husband came up with
the idea; they would purchase a piece of property and build their own house in
town. But the money was not
sufficient. So, the husband came up with
the plan to earn the remaining money by cutting down their expenses, cutting
down their free time and working harder.
Instead of one trip to the jungle, they began to make two trips. Instead of going for a walk in the weekends,
they began to continue to fetch the firewood.
Instead of sitting on the patio every evening, they began to stay late
in the market to sell their remaining firewood.
Instead of the home cooked meal, they began to eat from the street
vendors and come home only to sleep. No
sooner, the little hut went into some kind of quietness. There was no laughter; there was no light in
the house. Every day before the dawn
they left and they came late at night.
No one saw the couple taking a walk together during the weekends anymore.
One
night the rich neighbors heard a quarrel taking place in the hut. Wife was shouting about the hardship the
money had brought. She complained about
the increasing pain in her back and the lack of rest and proper food. She lamented how happy she was before the
money came into their life; ever since the money came, their life became so
miserable. Husband tried to calm her
down. He told her to think about how
happy they would be when they would be able to build their own house in town, and
so on and so forth. That night she
became calm and went to sleep. But this
quarrel did not end; every night there would be some kind of commotion in the
hut. Husband became very rude and
demanded the wife to obey him and do what he says. Very soon, due to the quarrels, unhappiness, lack
of rest and proper food, the couple's health deteriorated badly. They could never come up with the money to
own their own house in town.
The
greatest loss was not that they could not own a house in town; the greatest
loss was the loss of their love for one another, their happiness and contentment. Greed for more is the greatest thief of what
we have right now. The Bible is right in
saying that "contentment with godliness is great gain"!
May 22, 2013
Arms Of Grace: Stop Worrying and Start Living
From How to stop worrying By Dale Carnegie Overcoming worry can bring a great change into our life. The following is a true story of...
May 20, 2013
May 13, 2013
Please Pray For the Following Points
- Leaders and Volunteers: Please pray for the leaders and volunteers. Especially when God begins to work, Satan targets the leaders and volunteers with discouragement, discord and other problems. We want OEM leaders and volunteers to be filled with zeal and love for God and for fellow human beings. Pray for their personal and professional lives to be joyful and fruitful.
- New Members: New members keep visiting us, but we need to find ways to connect with them. As most of our old members have returned to their countries or moved to other parts of Korea, we need God's grace to be able to keep in touch with our new friends so that they will feel comfortable. The nature of our ministry is one of a transition; new members come and old one move on from here. Let's pray that the new members will also find courage to take the lead in becoming effective witness for Christ. That they may be able to blend in our fellowship without any odd feelings. Pray for the welcoming team to be able to get in touch with them.
- Old Members who have returned home: Let's continue to pray for our brothers and sisters who have returned back to their countries. Although we are far apart but God sees the heart and hears our prayers. It takes more spiritual compassion to be in fellowship from afar but our prayers mean a lot to those who might be going through rough times in their lives.
- Families that are going through various difficulties: Family is Satan's primary target to weaken the church. We need to pray for these families that are going through difficult time in terms of relationship, finances and others. Let's pray that they may have God's wisdom and strength in creating godly family where the Holy Spirit dwells. Lets pray that we all a family God may live with this motto "Jesus Christ is the unseen guest at every meal and a silent listener of every conversation in my home"!
- Freedom and healing prayer: On Sunday after our small group fellowship, we are having a special time of prayer. Pray that those who need God's miraculous intervention in their lives would be touched by the power of the Holy Spirit even as we pray for them. If you are in need of special prayer, if you are struggling in silence, we invite you to come and join this prayer meeting. It is a time in which we earnestly and intensely seek God's presence and power to heal our brokenness. We believe God can set us free from all kinds of addiction, we believe God can deliver us from all kinds of bondages that the devil has tried to put us in and we believe God can heal our bodies, minds, and emotions. Please stand with us even as we stand with those who are going through tough times in their lives. As our prayer meeting takes a better shape, we could go out into the city square and pray for the city of Daejeon. By prayer and fasting, we can do greater things than what we have been able to do so far.
- Pray for our Nepal Mission trip: We need prayer and volunteers to join us in this trip. The dates will be either the 1st or 2nd week of August. We will conduct revival meetings for the believers and leadership seminars for the pastors and leaders. We will also have ministry to the children. We will also have some time for sightseeing; if you have not been to Nepal, this would be a good time to join us!
- Evangelism to foreigners in Daejeon: May the Lord give us boldness and wisdom to reach out to many foreigners in Daejeon. We could go out in the streets, we could visit bars, we could visit schools and universities to evangelize them but first we need the Holy Spirit to anoint us and guide us.
May 12, 2013
May 5, 2013
April 30, 2013
April 27, 2013
International Wedding in OEM
On April 20 (Saturday), we had a small but sweet international wedding. The Groom, Kim Hyun Nam, is Korean and the Bride, Yumiko Motohashi, is Japanese. They live in Ulsan but often take the time to connect with us in Daejeon. Pastor Bhatta officiated the wedding. Many OEM members worked hard to help the newlywed to have a memorable wedding ceremony. We wish the new family to enjoy God's blessings and favor even as they begin their new family in Christ!
April 23, 2013
When Church Fails You
Being in the pastoral ministry
for sometimes now, I and my wife have known and seen many potentially wonderful
people walk out of the church, shutting the door behind them forever. Memories of these individuals, though as old
as a quarter of a century, still remain fresh in our minds and at times wonder
and wish that there was something we could have done better to avoid their
departure from the church. Yes, in
hindsight, we could have done something different. But then, we were young and inexperienced
pioneering pastors struggling to raise a new church to stand on its feet. Like Paul to the Thessalonians and
Corinthians, we never wanted to be a burden to the church and thus worked hard
on many odd jobs, not only to provide for our family but also for the needs of
the church such as paying rent and other utilities so that we could also
present them the example of sacrificial service in God's kingdom. As indigenous
church planters in a heathen society without any missions or supporters behind;
it was a staggering task. But by choice,
we took up the challenge of becoming bi-vocational pastors. Because of the bi-vocational nature of our
ministry, we could not give as much time as we wished to the needs of many of
the believers; yet the call of God for the pastoral ministry was so clear and we
could not convince ourselves to abandon the church when we faced many difficult
situations. The difficulties arising
from the lack of finances, ill health and persecution were not as challenging
as arising from a disgruntled church member.
Whenever a church member demonstrated the traits of disgruntle, as
inexperienced as we were, we would spend more time with such members, try to
pray more, try to reason with and always hoped for a miracle that someday
he/she would understand the grace of God in Christ Jesus. More often than not, we failed to convince
such members to appreciate the grace of God; concepts like forgiveness,
consideration, understanding, love and sacrifice failed to make sense. In our failures to minister to them, often we
questioned our own intelligence thinking whether we are delusional in
attempting to Pastor a people that does not contribute anything toward our welfare. Instead of the church taking care of our material
needs, we had to work hard to meet the needs of the church and yet these
members would manage to find reasons to complain and murmur about one thing or
the other in the church. By serving the
church freely, we thought the church members would see the kind of sacrifices
we were making, the kind of unconditional love we demonstrated toward them by
bringing them to Christ, being there with them in times of happiness and
sorrow, and teaching them to become the kind of people God wants them to
be. The Bible says that the one who
labors for the gospel must eat from the gospel and the pastors and teachers of
God's word are to be paid better. But we
were doing it all freely and yet these church members always managed to find
something wrong either with the church or with the leadership and decided to
walk away from it. We hardly forget
these members who have walked out of the church; a great sense of loss from all
sides remains in our psyche. By God's
grace, a few years ago, we were able to handover the leadership of this church
to our fellow pastor, knowing that the church is now self-reliant, able to feed
its shepherd and is birthing many new churches.
Nearly four years ago, after we moved to Korea, we took over the leadership of our current International Church, and of course the church is not able to pay us the required pastoral salary and thus our bi-vocational nature of ministry continues. Just like in the past, it is our desire that some of our members would see the kind of commitment it requires to be a follower of Christ from our example. If we are followers of Christ, then, we are called to serve and not to be served; we are called to give than to receive. Our contract with the church is limited to our Sunday preaching and we can say "Why bother for Bible studies, counseling, visitation and so forth; just go for Sunday sermon because that is all the church requires of us". But no, we are called by God to minister regardless of whether we are paid for it or not. We are to lay down our lives for the cause of the kingdom of God and his people. When we see a fellow believer encouraged, a backslidden returned, a sinner saved as a result of our ministry; this becomes our greatest reward in this world. And, in fact, we are grateful to the Lord for the growth of our International Church and the commitment of many volunteers. We are grateful for our worship team, serving team, ushers and Sunday school teachers. All of them are doing what they do freely and for the cause of the kingdom of God. Many of them invest their own money, time and talents into what they do. Some of them have been doing it cheerfully for many many years. It is wonderful to see that from a handful of members, today we are numbering into many scores who join us every Sunday for worship and fellowship.
But along with the growth comes the challenge of practicing our Christianity. We have people from many nations, cultures and languages. There is going to be confusion, miscommunication and misunderstanding. With such diversity, an international church can have the greatest potential for either healing or hurting one another. Our spirituality is going to be tested severely. If we don't take our personal discipleship very seriously, we are going to find so many reasons to complain and murmur about our church, about our leaders, and about any and everything. If we allow our feelings to dictate our decision making process, its going to steal our joy and peace that God has freely given to us. It's going to rob us of the love of God that he poured in our hearts. And if we don't take preventative actions, we may eventually either walk away from the church or make others to leave the church altogether.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, as a fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Listen to his words and consider the price of discipleship he has laid out for us to pay. Let us pick up our cross daily and let us ask God to pour out divine love in our hearts, let us ask God to give us the joy of the Holy Spirit, let us ask God to give us the peace that surpasses all our understanding. Let us ask God to give us patience, kindness, and goodness so that we can tolerate members who are difficult to deal with; love the unlovable. Let us ask God to give us faithfulness, meekness and self-control so that we continue to grow in the knowledge of God in bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
We live in a broken world among
the broken people and the church is also comprised of broken members. Although we hope for the church to behave
better, let us not walk way from it just because some members demonstrate their
brokenness. The church is still the body
of Christ and as members of his body; let us do our part in healing and
restoring even when people keep hurting us.
April 21, 2013
April 15, 2013
April 6, 2013
April 2, 2013
Arms Of Grace: Cheerful or Painful Sermon?
Last Sunday after the sermon, a member of our church made a remark about my preaching that is still stuck to my mind; I wish to forget it ...
April 1, 2013
March 27, 2013
March 18, 2013
Matthew 13:22 The Deceitfulness of Riches
Sermon from March 10, 2013
If not Jesus, at least Paul. Following Paul's example in living for God and specially for marital holiness. Marriage is a means to holy living
March 4, 2013
February 16, 2013
Arms Of Grace: "The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of Prosperit...
Arms Of Grace: "The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of Prosperit...: Aside the American involvement in Korean War, a few people in the world knew about South Korea. Even the industrial revolution of 70s ...
February 11, 2013
February 7, 2013
Arms Of Grace: Eureka! Have you got what you are looking for?
Arms Of Grace: Eureka! Have you got what you are looking for?: In every culture, we all remember as little kids playing "hide and seek". Being able to locate the hidden member brought a sense of wond...
February 3, 2013
January 24, 2013
Welcome to Onnuri English Ministry in Daejeon
Welcome to Onnuri English Ministry in Daejeon: Daejeon OEM is an English-Speaking Int'l Church for People like yourself. It is a community that helps you to deepen your faith, ...
January 20, 2013
"English Worship" in a Korean Church has become a Cliché
English speaking
believers who have stayed in Korea a longer period of time gradually lose the
taste for "English Worship" in a Korean Church. Although there
are some good English Ministries in Korea, but generally the state of
"English Worship" in a Korean church has become ineffective in
meeting the needs of English speaking population. There may be many
reasons for such a low view of "English Worship" and one of the
primary reasons is I think the desire for every Korean church to have English
Worship as a fashion to show off their edge over other Korean churches.
If the Church is big enough for money and manpower, it must have
English Worship at any cost. The purpose of such English worship is not to
provide worship experience to the English speaking believers, but to use them
as a means to attract the English desiring Korean young people to the
church. God, worship, and the spiritual needs of the foreigners are not
the purpose of English Worship; it is the English language. Because the
purpose of English worship is English language instead of God, then, the
emphasis is not on hiring a godly pastor, but a native English speaking
individual (preferably a white male in his twenties), regardless of one's
pastoral qualities. Once such a new "pastor" arrives, the
church shows great interest and enthusiasm, people fight to get a chance to
volunteer in the English worship. Even the non-English speaking members
join the worship service. But alas, the native English speaker is not a
magician! Foreigners move on because their spiritual needs are not
met. Non English speaking members stop coming because they cannot
understand the language, and the volunteers get tired by the end of the year.
So, the native English speaking pastor too is told to move on and the cycle
repeats all over again. This is how I think the English Worship in Korean
Church is loosing its relevance for the foreigners who truly want to find a
place of worship and fellowship. There are other churches who want to
keep the foreigners coming to their churches at any case by providing free
lunch, free pickup/drop facilities, free retreats/sightseeing activities, and
free medical and other services. But these are also not the best alternatives
for a genuine worship experience for those of us who don't understand Korean
language.
Therefore, English
Worship in a Korean Church has to reconsider the way it has been
functioning. The purpose of worship has to be God and the focus has to be
in meeting the needs of English speaking believers instead of using the English
speakers as bait to attract the Korean youth. The leadership of English
Worship has to be spiritually authentic and experientially stable to meet the
spiritual needs of the believers instead of just focusing on English language
ability and visibility. In doing so, English Worship can become a great
mission tool in the hand of Korean Church to reach out to many foreigners who
come to Korea in search of their destiny. By providing an authentic
worship experience, the believing foreigners will be strengthened to be the
living witnesses to their fellow Korean and foreign friends.
With right motives
and strategies, Korean Church has great potential in serving the English
speaking foreigners and expanding the kingdom of God around the world instead
of letting "English Worship" become just a cliché.