Life Signs is designed to inspire you with brief reports on some of the exciting things that God is doing in Japanese- and Asian American churches and ministries. The purpose of sharing these signs of God’s presence and work, or “life signs” of the Living Rock, is to help you see a panoramic picture of what God is orchestrating in the Japanese- and Asian American Christian community.

The West Los Angeles Holiness Church is a small Japanese American church that ministers to Japanese and English speaking people in the West Los Angeles area. God has blessed our church with people who have a heart for missions. Last year, we sent eight students to East Asia and last month we sent a group of six adults to Ghana, Africa. This summer, we will be looking forward to having empty pews as we will send about twenty-five of our young students to Brazil. One of our goals is to see every person at our church have the opportunity to go on a short term missions project.

Last month, we offered an eight week course on Becoming a Contagious Christian. We pray with anticipation that the Lord will grow in our congregation a deepened desire to share the gospel in our communities and around the word.

First Presbyterian Church, Altadena recently initiated the Appreciative Inquiry approach to identify how the church has positively impacted the lives of our Nisei and senior members. Referred to as the Nisei Talk/Story, approximately 30 Nisei between the ages of 60-90 years old were interviewed one-on-one by a non-Nisei member. Some interview questions were:

~ Describe a time since you became a senior at our church when you felt most alive, most motivated and excited about your involvement?
~ When you consider our entire church, everything we do, all aspects of our congregational life, what is the single most life-giving characteristic for you as a Nisei/senior?
~ What is the best and most significant aspect of our church? Describe who we are at our best.

Presently, the data from the interviews is being compiled and will be used as a planning tool to ensure that our Nisei and seniors remain and feel a vital part of the church. Some immediate results are: The Nisei as a whole felt very pleased and grateful for the focused interview; a closer relationship has emerged between the Nisei and the interviewer, many of whom had previously only a casual familiarity with each other; there is a greater appreciation amongst the interviewers of our church history and the contributions made by our Nisei.

For more detailed information about the Nisei Talk/Story, contact Carolyn Iga, Pastoral Associate, at (626) 791-4271.

Anaheim Free Methodist Church’s new theme for 2003 is “Ordinary People – Extraordinary Calling.” Three laymen took the pulpit along with Pastors Nancy Wong and Carl Omaye in a series with this title. Then we had the whole church use The Purpose Driven Life in our small groups while we preached on the five purposes of the church during the 40 days of Lent. Our people responded enthusiastically. Many began to witness to friends and loved ones for the first time. We had our largest crowd ever on Easter Sunday. We fed breakfast to 525 people during and between our two services. There were eight individuals who gave public witness of their new faith by being baptized in April.

Our plans for the summer include teaching CLASS 301 and 401 (based on the Purpose Driven Church model) and also Becoming a Contagious Christian (with the additional resource Seeing the Contagious Christian Course with Asian American Eyes from Iwa).

We are so thankful for the new life and new vision that the Lord is bringing to our church.

Calvary Presbyterian Church in Stockton is one place where the Lord has been blessing our church family in ways that amaze even the most skeptical of non-believers.

We have been praying the Prayer of Jabez. Amazingly, things have been happening in the life of our church and in individual lives that show the incredible effects of this prayer!

Our church, like most Asian churches, is one that is slow to move, slow to come to decisions and taking risks is not characteristic of our church. However, several months ago, we not only were decisive, we were boldly taking a risk! Most of our church family desired to move into a larger church facility. Well, the Lord placed upon our hearts the desire to expand our territories and gave us a challenge to see His hand upon us. The Lord opened the door for such a property and allowed us to see how He can move quickly to cause us to pay attention! The task force committee not only saw God’s hand upon us, they moved with boldness and courage to step forward! We placed an offer on the property even though we had no idea how we would come up with the funds! The denominational powers that be, who are ultimately responsible for our church’s decisions, also moved with boldness and courage! Previously, our history with the denomination was a rather strained relationship and so the miracle also affected our relationship with them! God can move faster than I ever imagined! All we need to do is pay attention! Well, God chose our church to purchase this facility even though our offer was not the best offer. And lo and behold, we got the church property! Miracles keep happening in this process. The denomination gave us more money in a loan than we would possibly qualify for, and funds are coming in from places and people we don’t even know!

Our vision is to expand the territory for God’s kingdom as we reach more and more Asians in the community who do not yet know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Our church family is excited about this possibility that is becoming a reality! What a blessing! What an opportunity for spreading the gospel!

The other miracle happened in a Buddhist family whose kids live in Chicago. The parents happened to connect with our church in Stockton. The kids are evangelical Christians who have been praying for the souls of their parents. God allowed a miracle to happen with their parents. The opportunity came when the mom got critically ill and was almost not going to make it. In a moment of God’s grace, both the mom and dad prayed to receive Jesus in their hearts! Previously they had shunned Christianity and all talk about Jesus. The dad now comes to Calvary Church to worship, full of joy and love in his heart! And this happened to a couple who had both the keys and Costco credit card to the Buddhist church!

So God is doing all kinds of miracles in the life of our church and in the lives of our church family. He is extending His kingdom by allowing us to share the good news of Jesus with other Asians in our midst. He is giving us the power of the Holy Spirit to envision how we can touch the lives and hearts of those around us. All we are doing at Calvary is sharing Jesus with those we know. Those we love. Those we are connected to in our network of relationships in our community. Praise the Lord!

Cerritos Baptist Church recently completed a 4-week series on Sabbath. The series culminated with a challenge to our congregation to establish the Sabbath principles into their everyday lives, and make a commitment to observe Sabbath period once a week, Saturday through Sunday evening. The following list was given to be used as guidelines; 1) avoid work, chores, or homework, 2) no tv, internet, or video games, 3) attend worship service, 4) engage in spiritual conversation. The response to this series “hit home” because of everyone’s busy lifestyles.

Last year our evangelism thrust was patterned on “Contagious Christian.” The result seems to be that we have become more cognizant of developing relationships and the number of visitors has increased.

We recently held separate youth services for our junior high through college kids, and had a “Special Day” for youth baptism. This was geared for the youth to invite their friends. The result was they responded with a different energy and excitement and we found this to be our biggest outreach.

EPIC Church developed a new mission matrix and tagline to help our congregation understand what we’re all about: “A community of discovery, love, and service.” Discovery is about helping seekers and believers, young and old, discover the beauty and love of Jesus. Our services are designed to be the primary vehicle of discovery—through music, dialogue, messages, and the arts. Love is about community, it’s about learning to love God and others. We do this at Epic primarily through small groups. Service is embodying the life of Christ out into the world, primarily through social justice. This is how we understand and communicate the “radical minimum” for a follower of Christ.

For the first time in our short history, we are the main tenants of our own church facility. We have met in at least seven facilities in four years, setting up and breaking down each week. We are at the same location as a year ago, but now have A.M. services and classes and facility-use 24/7. Because the environment and experience of our worship space is so important to us, this opportunity has been huge—allowing us to transform our sanctuary to be more conducive to style, comfort, connecting, and the arts. We are currently constructing additional classroom space for our kids ministries and office space for the staff. We thank God for his provision and pray that the space can be utilized to benefit Epic, the community, and even other ministries.

We’re excited about our social justice ministry calendar for 2002-03. We have over 20 events lined up with our primary partners and recipients: St. Angela’s Brunch (serving meals here in Brea), the El Sauzal Orphanage in Mexico (we help the children, staff, and surrounding community), the Mixteco Indians in Mexico (a very impoverished and racially marginalized group that we have just begun to do ministry with), and Habitat for Humanity (projects in North Orange County).

San Fernando Valley Holiness Church unveiled our new Mission Statement in 1998. Since then we have been carrying out this mandate within the framework of the Great Commission and the two greatest Commandments. Realizing this journey would require vision casting and strategic planning, San Fernando's pastors and lay leadership participated in an all-day retreat in May 2001. The retreat was a time of worship, prayer, and discussion. The Holy Spirit moved in and through those who were present that day, and, as a result, the leadership discerned God's priorities for our church. These priorities generally include strengthening our outreach to the Japanese and Japanese- and Asian American communities, outreach to our immediate neighbors, and expansion of our existing campus.

As our church has been moving forward on these priorities, God has been working overtime at San Fernando. Growing adult attendance at our worship service has prompted us to add a second service. Children's Sunday School attendance has increased, along with the number of Junior High and High School students attending our Friday Night youth fellowship. We are excited that more newcomers are hearing the Gospel message.

We pray that our church will bear more fruit for the Kingdom. And that whatever we do, we do for His glory and in His name.

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