God is at work in the Pacific Rim - David's review
Recently Hugh travelled to serve at the Relational Mission conference in Seoul. The ‘East’ is a place we carry in our hearts due to prophetic words we have had as church, relating to the ‘east opening up with the move to Colchester.’ This blog is a re-post from David Bareham who serves as a Community Hub leader in Relational Mission. You can find the original post HERE.
The Pacific Rim Conference was the third conference that I have been to in East Asia. The first, in Japan, was with Community Church Nagoya and we gathered around 15 people in Toyota. The second was in Hamamatsu, Japan, where we gathered 35 people from several nations including a group from Yeonnam Community in Seoul. This time we were in Seoul, South Korea where we joined with other Relational Mission churches and pioneering situations all around the Pacific Rim, up to 50 people at some of the sessions! This growing momentum is a real encouragement to all of the churches in the region.
The Pacific Rim Conference was hosted by Yeonnam Community Seoul who did a great job in organising and blessing us with generous hospitality. Great teaching from Mike Betts, Stef Liston and Hugh Pearce to encourage the churches, incredible praise and worship times, and loads of prophetic ministry, some of which was very directional.
Coffee and Bible
Yeonnam Community Church was built on a foundation of friends meeting in coffee shops and reading the Bible together. We had the privilege each morning to join this tradition and we split into small groups to meet in different coffee shops in the area. This is a simple, but powerful way of encouraging one another in our walk with Jesus and doing life with each other. This was modelled so well to us by our hosts from the Yeonnam church, and we can learn a lot about this regular, unhurried time in the Word together.
Searching for the one true God
It was a privilege to hear Yueka’s testimony again. Yueka is from Community Church Nagoya, and I first heard her testimony when she was baptized in November 2023. The second time of hearing was just as powerful! Yueka was searching to find out who the real God was. She tried other religions, including Islam where she read the Koran, and attended mosques. She then had an incredible encounter with Jesus and was convinced that He was real. She decided to follow Jesus and connected into Community Church Nagoya where she was baptized and discipled. That was nearly 6 months ago, and it was great to see her again and to know that she is growing in the Lord.
Families on a mission
We had two families share about what it means to be in a pioneering situation with young children. Firstly Nilesh and Risa shared about pioneering in Nagoya with their two young boys, Aaron and Izaac. They shared the joys and challenges of family life when planting a new church, and gave some real encouragement to other families in a similar situation.
Then Mim shared about pioneering with her husband Pete, and their two young daughters Annabel and Lydia in Taipei, Taiwan. There were some real gems of insight into a Christian family and their daily discipleship habits and how they engage their daughters in the mission.
These two reports were of real benefit for all those with children or those that might be starting families soon.
Renewed and new friendships
It was lovely to see friendships renewed from our previous conference last November, and new friendships being formed. It is part of our DNA as a family of churches that we enjoy one another’s company. So we spent much time in coffee shops, often around the word, meals out together for lunch and dinner, and just hanging out together. These growing friendships are the sign of a real family, i.e. putting the relational into Relational Mission!
Commissioned to go
When we came to the end of our conference time together there was a time of commissioning. It was great to pray for one another and send each other out to continue the work that God had called us to.
Prayer
I believe that the success of the conference was a result of much prayer. I was so grateful to a group of prayer warriors and prophets who daily prayed for our ministry while we were away. The battles won in prayer saw breakthroughs and victories at the conference. It was such comfort to know that the prayers of the saints were being offered up on our behalf. Thank you to all who gave themselves to prayer for this conference.
It felt as if this conference was a marker in the ground. A time when Relational Mission recognised its brothers and sisters from other nations, and set our course for global mission.
If you would like to know more about the Relational Mission family of churches you can visit our website on www.relationalmission.org or message me at hugh.pearce@redeemerchurchcolchester.org.
From Mim in Taipei, Taiwan
Hi all, thank you so much for praying for us at the RM Pacific Rim conference!
I joined the conference from Taipei, Taiwan, where we’ve been living for almost 7 years. It was so wonderful to meet people in different pioneering and church planting contexts in this part of the world. I felt so encouraged and blessed hearing their stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness and it really strengthened my faith. It was so refreshing to worship and pray together and we had lots of really helpful teaching on building good foundations and thinking about strategy moving forward. As the conference was small, we had lots of time to get to know different people and share meals together, which was a really great way of building relationships and encouraging one another. I have come back to Taipei feeling encouraged and with more faith to step out and see what God will do here!