Fountain of HopeChungdong First Methodist Church - English Minstry’s Monthly Newsletter

Our passion is God. Our motivation the love of Jesus Christ. Our power is through the Holy Spirit. Our mission is the world.

JULY2019

Casting our VisionEM is preparing for their annual Vision/Mission Trip in August 2019. This

year, during the first part of the trip, our ministry will visit Kazakhstan, followed by a special Vision Trip following the Silk Route in Uzbekistan.

According to Sebastien Peyrouse, a researcher from the French Center for Post-Soviet Studies, there are one or even several Baptist and Advent-ist churches in every town of Kazakhstan. Pentecostal communities are also widespread; the most ubiquitous being the community of Evangelical Chris-tians called “of the spirit of the apostles,” which has groups in Almaty and Karaganda. The Pentecostal movement is also well represented inside the Korean minority, in particular by the Sun Bok Ym Church.

Several Presbyterian seminaries have been built up, such as the Spiritual Presbyterian Academy in Almaty and the Kazakhstan Evangelical Christian Seminary. The Methodist Church is organized into parishes that also gather an important number of believers. The Novoapostol’skaya Tserkov’, which is independent from the Presbyterians and the Methodists, has considerably developed and could gather about fifty groups and about 3,000 believers. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are among the groups who have seen the biggest increase (at least 12,000 believers), managing to baptize almost a thousand people a year. Like last year, EM will once again minister at the Almaty Meth-odist Church.

In Uzbekistan the situation is radically different. According to Open Doors, Uzbekistan continues to be the Central Asian country with the most severe religious freedom restrictions. No religious activities beyond state-run and state-controlled institutions are allowed. Indeed, members of Protestant churches are commonly regarded as followers of an alien sect aiming to de-pose the government. Operating under this paranoia, police, secret service and mahalla (urban subdivision), local authorities regularly raid non-regis-tered churches and strictly monitor religious activities in various ways (bug-ging homes, tapping phones and infiltrating church groups). In general, the Islamic culture makes life for Christian converts particularly difficult, but indigenous Christians with a Muslim background bear the brunt of perse-cution.

All Christian communities in Uzbekistan are experiencing some form of  Christian persecution from the state and/or dominant Muslim culture. Because they don’t usually attempt to make contact with the Uzbek popula-tion, Russian Orthodox churches have the least problems from the govern-ment. It is the indigenous Christians who are most persecuted by the state, family, friends and the community. They experience pressure and occasional physical violence to renounce their faith and return to Islam. Some converts are beaten and locked up by their families (placed under house arrest) and eventually excommunicated. In areas with unregistered churches, Christians suffer repeatedly from police raids, arrests and fines.

Please keep EM’s mission team during their Vision/Mission Trip in your prayers this August.

EM’s annual Ewiha Foreign Language Girls’ High School Chapel Service

The Church in Waiting

July 7: Rev. SeHyoung LeeJuly 14: Rev. Johan ReinersJuly 21: Rev. SeHyoung LeeJuly 28: Rev. Johan Reiners

The July Young Adults lecture on Sunday, July 14th will be held at 10:30, Wesley Hall. It will feature Kiwoo Kang, who will be lecturing on Trade and Transportation.

During the early morning Contem-porary Services in July (09:30, Bethel Chapel) we are journeying through the book of James.

Central to the message of James is the practicality of faith and the idea of perseverance in the midst of trials and hardship.

William Barclay tells the follow-ing story to illustrate this: Sir Win-ston Churchill took three years; just to get through the ninth year of his education, (eighth grade). The prob-lem was that he had trouble learning English. So it was ironic that years later Oxford University asked him to address its students, body of lectur-ers and officials at one of their com-mencement exercises.

He arrived with his usual props. A cigar, a cane and a hat - these always accompanied Churchill wherever he went. As Churchill approached the podium, the crowd rose in apprecia-tive applause. He settled the crowd and stood confident before his ad-mirers. Removing the cigar and care-fully placing the top hat on the po-dium, Churchill gazed at his waiting audience.

Authority rang in Churchill’s voice as he shouted, “Never give up!” Sev-eral seconds passed before he rose to his toes and repeated: “Never give up!” He said it for the third time. “Never give up!” His words thun-dered in their ears. There was a deaf-ening silence as Churchill reached for his hat and cigar, steadied himself with his cane and left the platform. His commencement address was fin-ished.

That is what James is saying: “Nev-er give up!”

Join EM on Sundays at 09:30 for a time of contemporary praise and life changing studies on the Word of God.

2 JULY 2019Fountain of Hope

English MinistryContemporary Worship

Sundays at 09:30Bethel Chapel

Vibrant Traditional Worship

Sundays at 14:00Main Sanctuary

Wesley Hall on SundaysYoung Adults Fellowship

10:30Youth Fellowship

14:00Kids Worship

12:50

Pastoral TeamRev. Se Hyoung LeeRev. Hea Sun Kim

Rev. Chong-ah S. KimRev. Johan Reiners

Lay LeaderElder Jungsik Oh

Pastoral AssistantHangyoon Cho

Staff AssistantsHang Yoon ChoWon Young LeeDa Hoon JeongKi Kang Nam

Contact Uschungdongem@gmail.comwww.chungdongfmc.com

Like us on Facebook: “Chungdong FMC EM”

14:00 Sermon Schedule: July

Young Adults Lecture

Journeying JamesContemporary Worship

July AgendaOlu Olubusi, Sunny Usemeh and the

young Anjola in conversation.

EM’s Praise Team in action

EM’s Praise Team in actionOn the 27th of July at 10:00 EM will

welcome Hilton and Zenny Slamet from South Africa as guest lecturers four our 2019 Summer VBS Teach-er’s Training session.

Both are seasoned educators with a wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to teacher’s training. Their creative approach to teaching has made them sought-after teachers not only in Korea, but also abroad.

Two of their children are currently studying at the Catholic University of Korea.

VBS Teacher’s Training