Friday, January 27, 2017

Asia-Pacific Regional Communications from The Asia Pacific Region of the Global Church of the Nazarene's Around The Region... WMC News Now in English AND Korean! Rendezvous 2017 Highlights, The Grace of Dying Well, VNBC Inaugurates 9th President, Freedom Sunday Details and JFHP 20th Anniversary, These and SO MUCH MORE! in Kaytikling, Taytay, Rizal, Manila 1920 Philippines - Volume 5, Issue 4 for Saturday, January 28, 2017

Asia-Pacific Regional Communications from The Asia Pacific Region of the Global Church of the Nazarene's Around The Region... WMC News Now in English AND Korean! Rendezvous 2017 Highlights, The Grace of Dying Well, VNBC Inaugurates 9th President, Freedom Sunday Details and JFHP 20th Anniversary, These and SO MUCH MORE! in Kaytikling, Taytay, Rizal, Manila 1920 Philippines - Volume 5, Issue 4 for Saturday, January 28, 2017




Please Pray for Mother of PNG Missionary
Papua New Guinea: Please pray for Garnet Beam, mother of Kathy Beam Radcliffe who serves with her husband, Jim, in Papua New Guinea. Garnet has a recurrence of cancer and will receive a third round of chemotherapy. Please pray that the treatments could be tolerated and effective and that the Lord will direct the Radcliffes in how to honor and bless their parents at this time.”[See Also: Prayer Requested for Father of Missionary Doctor (Jim Radcliffe).] 
Prayer Requested for Father of Missionary Doctor
Please pray for David S. Radcliffe (age 87) who is a retired Nazarene elder living in Mount Vernon Ohio with his wife, Hellen. David is currently going through tests to evaluate multiple tumor masses in his body and biopsies reveal the tumors to be a type of lymphoma. Please pray for the cancer treatments to be effective, helpful, and able to be tolerated.
David is the father of missionary Jim Radcliffe who is serving in Papua New Guinea with his wife, Kathy, at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital.See Also: Please Pray for Mother of PNG Missionary (Kathy Radcliffe).[Request from NMI Prayer Mobilization Line] WMC-AP Welcomes New Team Members!
Mireu, on the other hand, was welcomed by the WMC-AP team just last week! He is from South Korea and in 2014 finished a Bachelor of Theology in Christian Education with a double major in Broadcasting and Digital Media at Korea Nazarene University (KNU). He worked with Open Hands, an NGO providing water purifiers and other school supplies to children in the Philippines.Manila, Philippines: Meet World Mission Communications Asia-Pacific’s (WMC-AP) newest team members- Ingrid Kiper and Mireu Kim!
Ingrid first joined WMC-AP during the second half of 2016. Prior to her assignment, she worked with the team in the Philippines for a month in 2015. Ingrid comes from the US, with American- Guatemalan heritage. She graduated in 2014 from Trevecca Nazarene University, where she majored in BA in Intercultural Studies (with English as a Second Language as her minor course). While in college she served as an intern missionary in a Creative Access Area for three months and after her tertiary studies spent a year in Northern Thailand as a Volunteer with MissionCorps.
Ingrid’s and Mireu’s stories of their call to missions are very interesting and compelling. Mireu was studying at KNU when God began to call him during a visit to India with a group of friends from a Nazarene Church in Korea. He felt an interest to know what missions was all about and how it could help him see the world. He asked God and felt Him saying, “Come, I will be with you.” He thought he was being called to go, but didn’t respond at the moment. It was while on a short-term mission trip to Thailand that he finally accepted that God was calling him to go. Keeping in mind Philippians 3:14, Mireu took the plunge.
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 3:14 (KJV)
Ingrid, on the other hand, was heartbroken when she felt that God was calling her into full-time ministry! She didn’t want to go. She thought being a missionary meant to be a preacher overseas, and speaking in front of crowds wasn’t exactly her cup of tea.
“I had a Moses-like experience where it was painfully obvious that God was calling me into full-time ministry. I had my whole life planned at age 8. My passion was for visual narratives like animation and graphic novels. God was wanting me out of the drawing board and into the jungle, and it terrified me.”
Ingrid ran away from God’s call for years and it wasn’t until she went to school at Trevecca, that she learned that ministry didn’t just have to be on the stage; she could still serve while working behind the scenes! Her bicultural heritage, gift for learning languages, and overall love for learning naturally brought her to overseas ministry.
Ingrid hopes that her first passion of visual narratives and art will create effective ministry during her stay. Meanwhile, Mireu aspires to learn effective communication techniques with people from different cultures, incorporating his knowledge in Broadcasting and Digital Media.
WMC-AP is very delighted to welcome Ingrid and Mireu to their growing family! Their amazing talents and passion to serve are wonderful additions to the pool of expertise that exists in the office.
Please pray for Ingrid and Mireu as they follow God’s call to missions. We admire them for taking that leap of faith, despite challenges of being away from home, apart from their family and friends and out of their comfort zones.
Ingrid and Mireu have simple yet meaningful words of encouragement to those who feel God’s call to missions: “Go! Trust him and He will make a new way.”
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”[Isaiah 43:19 (KJV)][Check out the Mission Corps Profile for Ingrid and Mireu!]
Bicol Region Recovery Underway from Christmas Day Typhoon
Linao Church of the Nazarene
Bicol Region, Philippines: Christmas Day is typically a day of peace and joy as families gather together. This past Christmas was anything but peaceful in the Bicol Region as Typhoon Nock-ten, locally known as Nina, made landfall. We have received reports of at least 6 people that lost their lives, with another 19 still missing.
1.5 million people were affected in Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Region 5 and Region 8, with 246, 586 families displaced. The Department of Social Welfare and Development statistics show that there are 68, 304 families staying in the 657 evacuation centers for a total of 316, 714 people.
Bicol District Assembly December 30, 2016 Legazpi Church of the Nazarene
The Bicol District Assembly, with more than 70 in attendance, was held December 30th just days after the storm passed through. They were able to report on the damage to church structures and to church families that were affected as well as non-members that are under their outreach. They also reported that a total of 248 Food packs along with as many Crisis Care Kits have been handed out through four different churches. Thankfully, the only report of major damage to church structures was to the Linao Church that was totally destroyed (see picture above). Other churches such as San Ramon Church (shown below) sustained damage, but were not destroyed.
Pastor Jackson, the Nazarene Disaster Response Coordinator for the Philippines, will be traveling to the area to help coordinate the relief efforts with partnering organizations. The focus will be shelter kits for those that had homes destroyed and also the re-construction of the church building. Livelihood programs will also be addressed during this time.
San Ramon Church of the NazareneWith the number of typhoons this field has endured, the Crisis Care Kit (CCK) inventory in the Philippines is quite low. When disaster strikes, CCKs are an invaluable resource, and bring a measure of relief in the midst of a crisis, and when given through our churches, it is received as from the hands of the Lord.
Prayer
Please continue to pray for the recovery efforts, for the churches and church members affected and that outreach into the surrounding communities would be facilitated through the recovery process as we seek to be the hands and feet of Christ, using all possible means to reach the lost.
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NOW AVAILABLE IN TWO LANGUAGES!
You read it right: WMC News is not only available in ENGLISH,
We now have a KOREAN version as well!
Joining the WMC News Team is our Korean correspondent Mireu Kim!
Here are the headlines for this week's news:


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Asia-Pacific: Earlier this month, an excited group of high school teens from the Asia-Pacific Region gathered for Rendezvous 2017!
What is the program about? Derived from the literal meaning of the word "Rendezvous," which is "to present yourself," similar groups come together to 'present themselves' to the Father so He can shape their identity and direction, preparing them for the cultural transitions they will make in the future.
Rendezvous happens every two years and this year the event was full of challenges, discussions, coaching, worship and opportunities for relationship building. The focus of Rendezvous events is to help the teens re-enter their passport cultures, and transition well into their adult lives.
Find out how Rendezvous 2017 impacted the lives of the participants as well as their parents! Thank you for the prayers and efforts of everyone who made this event possible!
Preparing for Re-Entry: Asia-Pacific Rendezvous 2017!
Earlier this month, an excited group of high school teens from the Asia-Pacific region gathered on a remote beach with 5 adult facilitators for Rendezvous 2017! The participants were teens whose parents are ministering cross-culturally on the region. “Rendezvous” is from a French word which literally means to “present yourself.” It happens every two years when a similar group comes together to ‘present themselves’ to the Father so He can shape their identity and direction, preparing them for the cultural transitions they will make in the future.
Rendezvous is a high energy 5-day Nazarene event that includes challenges, games, discussions, small groups, StrengthsFinder coaching, worship, and lots of opportunities for relationship building. The focus is on helping the teens re-enter their passport cultures, and transition well into their adult lives.
Rendezvous 2017 went well, and clearly had a great impact on participants. One teen wrote: “Thank you for your support in allowing this event to take place. It will help me re-enter my passport country after a long time away. You have made a difference in my life and in the lives of many others.”
Parents were blessed as evidenced from recent emails. One parent wrote:
“Thanks so much for everything. They arrived home safely with refreshed and enriched spirits. They shared a lot of good things, appreciating new friendships and leadership of good leaders. Thanks to many devoted people for this treat!”
The event would not have been possible without the prayers, support, and tireless efforts of many. The team of five facilitators did a fantastic job, selflessly giving of themselves in service to the teens during these days together. Regional Director Mark Louw wrote: “Thanks to the awesome leadership team who planned, prepared, and facilitated this Rendezvous.”
Please pray for these high school teens as they prepare for the cultural transitions ahead.
The biennial Rendezvous event is made possible by your partnership. If you would like to partner with us for Rendezvous 2019, click HERE! Your giving is an investment in families who have been called and are faithfully serving outside their home countries.
In a note to a support partner, one teen echoed the sentiments of all the participants:

“Thank you so much for blessing us with the opportunity of being involved in Rendezvous. The time spent with really amazing teens that live like I do, and with incredible leaders who care and love you, has been absolutely fantastic. I learned many valuable lessons that I will carry with me forever. Thank you for your [support] and caring thoughts. On behalf of everyone who attended Rendezvous 2017, it has been an amazing experience!”
[Submitted by: Dave Hane/ Andrew Tarrant, A-P Rendezvous 2017 Team Leader][Photo Credits: Hayley Tarrant Be inspired! Continue reading this story for more details and photos!
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Cebu, Philippines: Rev. Larnie Sam Tabuena, the recently elected president of Visayan Nazarene Bible College (VNBC), will be inaugurated as the 9th president on February 10th, 2017. The inauguration will be held on the VNBC campus in Cebu.
Please pray for Rev. Tabuena as he makes this move and begins his ministry in Cebu. Pray that the Lord would give him wisdom and guidance to lead the faculty, staff and students of VNBC. Pray that together they would make an even greater kingdom impact.
Congratulations once again to Rev. Tabuena!
VNBC to Inaugurate New President
Cebu, Philippines: Rev. Larnie Sam Tabuena, the recently elected president of Visayan Nazarene Bible College (VNBC,) will be inaugurated on February 10th, 2017 as the 9th president. The inauguration will be held on the VNBC campus in Cebu.In case you missed it: VNBC Elects New President
Please pray for Rev. Tabuena as he makes this move and begins his ministry in Cebu. Pray that the Lord would give him wisdom and guidance to lead the faculty, staff and students of VNBC. And that the together they would make an even greater kingdom impact.
Learn more about VNBC- click here!Follow the link to read the story on our website!
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New Zealand Pastors Strive for High-Quality Theological Education
Engage Magazine: With tears in his eye, Pastor Felix, an immigrant from Africa, said, "I never thought I would be able to earn a bachelor's degree. You are making this dream possible."
Pastor Felix is among a group of pastors who are seeing their dream of theological education come true, thanks to a new partnership to bring bachelor's and master's degrees in theology to Nazarenes in New Zealand.
Over 30 years ago, Neville Bartle, district superintendent of New Zealand, who was then a missionary in Papua New Guinea, wrote in his master's thesis about the church in New Zealand's need for a means of educating pastors.
"Without this education, the church will continue to limp along, becoming increasingly weaker with each passing generation."
Thirty years later that warning still rings true.
Find out how God answered the need for affordable and accessible theological education in New Zealand!
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Churches Invited to Unite Against Human Trafficking on Freedom Sunday
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries: Over the past three years, more than 400 Nazarene congregations in various countries around the world have participated in Freedom Sunday. The event is a day set aside for prayer, worship, and support around the issue of human trafficking. According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, as many as 45.8 million people are enslaved globally.
This year, Nazarene churches are encouraged to participate in Freedom Sunday on September 24, 2017, the last Sunday of that month.
Churches Invited to Unite Against Human Trafficking on Freedom Sunday
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries: Over the past three years, more than 400 Nazarene congregations in various countries around the world have participated in Freedom Sunday. The event is a day set aside for prayer, worship, and support around the issue of human trafficking, which enslaves as many as 45.8 million people globally, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.
This year, Nazarene churches are encouraged to participate in Freedom Sunday on September 24, 2017, the last Sunday of that month.
The Church of the Nazarene’s participation in Freedom Sunday began in 2014 in coordination with other denominations within the Wesleyan Holiness Connection (formerly Wesleyan Holiness Consortium). In the same year, the Church of the Nazarene’s Board of General Superintendents endorsed the Declaration for Freedom, a document drafted by the Wesleyan-Holiness leaders, including Nazarene representatives.
In the past, the event took place on the first Sunday of Lent. This year, the Wesleyan Holiness Connection’s Freedom Network decided to move the date to the last Sunday in September. In part, the change was to allow churches that plan traditional Lenten services to participate, and in part it was to create greater momentum and unity as additional churches and organizations have begun to participate in Freedom Sunday events.
Congregations are encouraged to plan a Freedom Sunday at any time that works in their calendar. Freedom Sunday planning resources are available as free downloads through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries at ncm.org/freedomsunday.
Spread the word! Click here for the full story!
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JFHP Shares New Year's Update to Kick Off 20th Anniversary
JESUS Film Harvest Partners: JESUS Film Harvest Partners is celebrating 20 years of service and partnership with the Church of the Nazarene in 2017 - transforming hearts and lives across the world.
In two decades, teams have reported nearly 15 million decisions for Christ, with more than 6.7 million of these new believers receiving initial discipleship follow-up. Teams have planted in excess of 65,000 preaching points.
More than 600 JESUS Film teams continue to serve in 47 countries, focusing on evangelism, discipleship, and church maturation.
We congratulate JFHP for 20 years of service and ministry! We pray that this ministry will continue to touch lives all over the world!
Follow the link for more details!
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The Grace of Dying Well
Holiness Today: It was the phone call no one wants to receive. The words I heard hit me like a sucker punch: "Your father has suffered a stroke."
To that point, my dad had enjoyed an unusually active, vibrant life into his late eighties. He embraced each day with an energy beyond his years and a contagious joy. He seemed indestructible. Dad had served tirelessly and without complaint as caregiver during the extended illnesses of both my mother and stepmother. Now suddenly, he was the one who was vulnerable, his future uncertain.
Hospitalization and tests quickly followed. Then a barrage of dizzying, increasingly unwelcome reports. Spots on the brain image. Possible tumor. Biopsy. Cancer but probably treatable. No, a highly aggressive, stage-four tumor. The prognosis: months, perhaps weeks.
Lord, I'm not prepared for this! I prayed. He was not only my father but my closest friend, confidant, mentor, and spiritual example.
I didn't realize it at the time, but God, using my father as His teaching assistant, had just enrolled me in a crash course. The title: Lessons in How to Die.
The Grace of Dying Well
It was the phone call no one wants to receive. The words I heard hit me like a sucker punch: “Your father has suffered a stroke.”
To that point, my dad had enjoyed an unusually active, vibrant life into his late eighties. He embraced each day with an energy beyond his years and a contagious joy. He seemed indestructible. Dad had served tirelessly and without complaint as caregiver during the extended illnesses of both my mother and stepmother. Now suddenly, he was the one who was vulnerable, his future uncertain.
Hospitalization and tests quickly followed. Then a barrage of dizzying, increasingly unwelcome reports. Spots on the brain image. Possible tumor. Biopsy. Cancer but probably treatable. No, a highly aggressive, stage-four tumor. The prognosis: months, perhaps weeks.
Lord, I’m not prepared for this! I prayed. He was not only my father but my closest friend, confidant, mentor, and spiritual example.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but God, using my father as His teaching assistant, had just enrolled me in a crash course. The title: Lessons in How to Die.
I remembered that John Wesley famously said of the early Methodists, “Our people die well!” I had always affirmed the concept, but it was not until I journeyed with my father through his final weeks that I truly began to understand what Wesley meant by dying well.
The closing act in my dad’s earthly life profoundly shaped my own perspective on dying—and living. I offer these reflections on my father’s story, in hope that they might speak a needed word in a culture that works hard to avoid the reality of death…
Such an entirely different and rousing perspective on dying by Dean Flemming! Read the rest of the story and see how Floyd (Dean’s father,) embodied John Wesley’s famous saying of the early Methodists, “Our people die well!”[Feature photo: Floyd and Dean Flemming][Feature photo credit: Dean Flemming]
Read the rest of the story and learn how a grateful son received his father's final and most important life lesson.
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Asia-Pacific Regional Communications
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Kaytikling, Taytay, Rizal, Manila 1920 Philippines
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