Monday, December 21, 2015

HOPE TOKYO 2015 RETREAT



We recently had our church retreat from 21st to 23rd November 2015 at a charming, secluded resort located in the picturesque vicinity of Nikko, famous for its hot springs and autumn landscape. 17 of us, with Pastor Kwong Lie and Pastor Swee Min as our guest speakers, travelled by bus/train from Tokyo to the resort. With “A Visionary Church” as the theme of our retreat, we were looking forward to be refreshed, enlightened and re-energized with God’s vision. 



Throughout the retreat, it wasn’t just God’s vision for His church that we were taught but we were also reminded of the significance of passion for God’s kingdom and the people around us. We were also challenged to ask ourselves what it really meant to be visionary people, whether it was something we understood as knowledge alone or something that was changing us from inside out and driving us purposefully forward in God’s plans.

It was something that we had to answer if we wanted to build a solid foundation upon which the church would be able to grow in the days to come. Taking into account that just a day prior to our retreat, some of us had attended the “Celebration of Love – Tokyo” evangelistic crusade where we witnessed hundreds of Japanese responding to the message of the gospel. The harvest is ripe but the workers few. Indeed, we need to die to self and rise up to the challenge on hand.


Please pray along with us for Hope Tokyo: 

1. Pray for greater unity and bond of love among brothers and sisters in Hope Tokyo. This is crucial to forming a team that will be able to withstand challenges to come.

2. Pray that God will add to us more “workers”, both Japanese and non-Japanese, whose hearts will embrace God’s vision and will be able to fight a good fight together with us.

3. Pray that God will enlarge our territory in reaching out effectively to the university students, namely, University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Pray also for our working brothers and sisters to rely evermore on the Holy Spirit’s guidance in outreach, especially since matters of faith in Tokyo are usually considered private, personal and not usually discussed even among friends.

 
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