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.

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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!

The Call - Resources

It was so encouraging to come together again from across our Relational Mission churches for our recent leaders conference!

God has given us a bold and courageous vision, calling us to be globally fruitful, to cross all the boundaries laid before us, making disciples and planting locally led churches.

In October 2023, over five hundred leaders from across our family of churches gathered together to worship Jesus, enjoy fellowship with one another, and be freshly envisioned for what God wants to do among us and beyond us.

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The Call - main session recordings

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Audio

Relational Mission · The Call 2023

Bekka and Jordan in San Francisco - May / June update

The last couple of months have been pretty full-on in ways we could never have imagined. The leadership in the church is going through a huge transition as the Shaw family, who currently lead the team here, are moving back to the UK and we have largely been helping the Church to walk through this and the leadership team to prepare for the next season.

Initially, when this news was delivered to us we struggled a bit to understand why God had held off making a way for us to be here until this point however the last couple of months have shown us he really does have purpose in his timings.

Being here through this season has meant that we have really been able to grow deeper and more intentional friendships as we have been able to share in the processing of the next season with members of the Church here. It has also enabled us to really lean into the things God has grown in us over the last 5 years in terms of Church knowledge, wisdom and other gifting's he has been building within us both as we help the core team build a plan and a vision for the coming months.

We love this Church and the people in it and feel blessed to be able to really dig into seeking what God has for them in the coming months. San Francisco needs the Church more than ever and we are confident that God will use Sanctuary in so many wonderful ways.

In May we had to come home briefly to sort out our VISAs and, what should have been an easyish process, turned into a real 'God this is in your hands' time for us.

The original VISA we were here on was a visitor VISA and we needed to apply for a volunteer VISA. We were told by legal advisors that the wait time for that was only 21 days so we didn't need to rush, HOWEVER, when we applied, the next interview date was the 24th July – Jordan returns to work on the 7th August so we would not have been able to get back here at all.

In faith, I sent an appeal to the embassy, we did not even slightly meet the criteria for expedition but God is bigger than the criteria!. Around a week later we received confirmation that our interview would take place on the 4th May!!

So, we got home. had the interview, and were approved!! We were told we would have VISAs in a week so booked our flights back. Sorted! So we thought...

The day before our flight we still had no VISA and were faced with having to forfeit our flights, book new ones and miss a lot in SF. We just made the call to try and change the flight when I received the email that our VISA was ready to collect! So, we headed to Heathrow that evening and Jordan rushed into London at 6am the next morning to collect them before our flight! God kept us on our toes but really did remain faithful!

Prayer Request

• The Church here - that we will be able to support them and build them up in the best possible ways to be ready for what God has next for this Church.

• Sending the Shaws - that as a Church we are able to support and send the Shaw family well and that they are able to enjoy their last 6 weeks in San Francisco with a smooth landing once they are back in the UK

• Future Plans - for God to make clear to us what he wants us to dig into for the future, we do not feel that our time here is done yet but we need some clarity and firm answers on this so we would love some prayer for guidance and wisdom on this

• Accommodation back home - there have been a few changes in what our plans had been meaning that when we land in July, we currently don't have anywhere to live. Our house is rented out until December so we need somewhere to live for around 4 months.

• Finances - As mentioned above, we are a little stretched as we come into the last few weeks of our time here. God has kept us going so far and we know he will sustain us but we could do with some prayer in this area.

May / June Highlights

• Experiencing Gods blessings andprovision whilst back in the UK getting VISAs

• Increasingly deepening friendships with people here enabling bigger and more challenging conversations

• Both helping to run, and being able to attend Alpha Marriage Course

• Growth in the Worship leaders that we are spending time alongside

• Celebration California Camp with other NF churches in California

• Yosemite trip with friends

Adventures

Whilst the majority of our time here is spent helping with the running of the Church and volunteering with the homeless, we have been so blessed to be able to experience some amazing things while we've been here.

We've been to Ice Hockey Games and Baseball Games, visited Alcatraz and Angel Island, watched adults roll down hills on kids tricycles and eaten ALOT of food!

Also, most recently, we got a chanced to visit Yosemite National Park with some friends from the Church and WOW what an incredible example of Gods INCREDIBLE creation!

Bekka is also still enjoying her times with the homeless community here, spending time making pancakes in the park for them and also working with food banks to help them put together grocery bags for people to collect. Getting to speak to them and support them in their journeys has been a real privilege.

Final Months

We are looking ahead now at what is the last 6 weeks out here and whilst we are very much looking forward to what God will do in this time, we are incredibly sad that our time here is coming to an end. God is really at work here and we are loving watching him move and grow in the Church, having to say goodbye to that feels very heavy on our hearts right now.

The Parkers and Nijmegen – the story so far.

Last June Redeemer said goodbye (sniff sniff) to the Parkers as they were sent to plant a church in Nijmegen, in east Netherlands, close to the German border. Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands (remind you of anywhere?!) and has a population of about 180,000. The Netherlands is an affluent country and most people are comfortable financially. This means comfort can be a big idol for the Dutch. As a result, there is an ambivalence to the church and Jesus. Like much of Western Europe, if people think about God at all, it is simply to think ‘why do I need Him?’

Plant Nijmegen, as it was originally called started life as four families called by God to step into this setting of ambivalence to show the people of Nijmegen the beauty of the church and their need for Jesus. To start with the focus was on the four families getting to know each other, building a team and getting themselves settled into a new country and city. Moving to a living in a foreign country involves a lot of life admin and logistical challenges. However,this allowed the team to all pitch in to help each other and strong personal bonds were built in this time, creating a strong foundation as a leadership team.

The church started life in September as small mid-week life groups and since the end of March has been meeting on Sunday under it’s new name, Novio church. There are approximately 20 adults and 20 children, which includes a core team of 18. The church is made up of a mix of Dutch and international families and includes some students. Services are led in Dutch with an English translation.

Traditionally, Dutch churches are more word focused and heavy on tradition so one of the challenges Novio faces is encouraging people to step into using the gifts of the spirit, both by modelling this and providing solid teaching. There is a mix of cultures, nationalities and life stages in the church and leadership team which has meant there is a real focus needed on building unity and church culture. An additional challenge for the Parkers is that they are planting a church at a very different life stage from when they planted Redeemer.

But it isn’t all challenges, God has been blessing the Parkers and the Novio church team abundantly. The Parkers moved to the Netherlands as a family of three, but are now a family of four, welcoming baby Eliza at the end of December last year. Jasper is as proud a big brother as you can imagine, gladly telling anyone within earshot that he has a little sister. Ben and Mikka have also both been blessed with the provision of jobs that they are both enjoying and feel fulfilled in. Rather than just being a means to get them into the Netherlands, both feel that their jobs are a part of the reason God has called them to Nijmegen.

They have also been blessed with great relationships with their fellow church planters. There is a strong team dynamic, but also a strong bond of friendship has already developed.

Please join us in praying for the following:

• For Eliza’s passport to come through quickly so the Parkers can visit the UK in the summer.

• That the church would see salvations early on and show the beauty of the church, to Christians and non-Christians alike

• For the good leadership team dynamic that has developed to remain strong and continue to build.

• That the Parkers would continue to learn how to balance to family life and church life well,

• For their jobs to be extended beyond current contracts

Ben and Mikka would like to thank everyone who has supported them with prayer, financial gifts, encouragement and practical help. They were greatly blessed by how well they were sent by Redeemer. Well done church!