Last night our global community met for our monthly prayer gathering and I was so impressed as we prayed through the passage listed below from the prophet Joel. While our world has been through so much, Pastor K reminded us that we have been meeting repenting and praying, seeking the Lord’s direction. He challenged us that now is the time to pray for the healing of our nations from the pandemic and for revival. So, we prayed and the prayers were...

A Silver Lining in 2020's Dark Clouds

What a year this has been!  As most of us look back on 2020, I’m sure it’s been challenging—whether it’s the impact of COVID-19, the economic collapse or the ongoing polarization in our society and world. It often feels crazy to me. One of the silver linings in the dark clouds of this year for us at Asian Access though is the blessing of going digital. I’m sure you’ve heard of our Digital Platform project and the corresponding matching gift by now. Through your participation, we’ve been able to start three new countries in what we are calling a soft launch. In one of those countries, we are starting both our pastor and business cohorts simultaneously... 

sur·​ren·​der | \ sə-ˈren-dər – “to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand” - Merriam-Webster Dictionary Earlier this year, you may recall that I sensed God giving me the word breakthrough for the year. 2020 was due to be a year of promise for Asian Access and our retiring Asian Access/Japan board chair sensed revival was on the horizon: breakthrough. Interestingly enough, my wife Silk sensed her word for the year was surrender. I thought, “How in the world do those two words—breakthrough and surrender—fit together?” Earlier this month, it all dawned on me...

We are gripped with the current protests going on in the U.S. and also now in other countries. With the strain of COVID-19 still evident, the protests against racial injustice have created an important conversation. We welcome this conversation and long to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ lived out in our midst. Yet, during this season, we have a responsibility to report on the mission God has called us to serve—developing leaders who first experience personal transformation and then extend the transforming power of the gospel to those communities around them. We strive to change the few who change the many. And you help us do that!

“I sense God is moving us toward home churches in the coming days.” (Adrian De Visser) Right before hearing these words from my colleague Adrian who leads a church movement in Sri Lanka, another colleague, Herman Moldez, shared a similar sentiment as he watched the church changing in the Philippines during COVID-19. While many have shared concerns about having to close their church doors for a while, these two leaders see a silver lining in the dark clouds. Like John Wesley led in England in the 1700s, church is being re-thought and re-considered at least in terms that we may know it as in the modern era. The church was always simply the body of Christ gathered—not a building on the corner where people gather. 

"With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand."

I trust you remember the story (read Judges 7). Israel was facing a formidable challenge from the Midianites and God had called Gideon to lead them. As Gideon worked to select those who would serve in the army, God kept whittling the numbers down, to a level most would consider absurd for battle. Yet, God said: "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me." Interestingly enough, God gave me this passage coming out of my quasi-sabbatical, a season focused on finishing my dissertation and a degree of rest. Throughout that sabbath season, the Lord was reminding me to...

1. Rise and fall of religious cults

In the past ten years or more Japan has seen a rise in the number of "New Religion" cults especially attracting Japanese young people (college through young career age). A common draw is the promise of inner fulfillment through a variety of techniques of meditation, yoga, mind control and asceticism. In 1995 the exposure of the Supreme Truth (AUM) cult behind the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway and other parts of Japan shocked the nation. Mind control methods used by the cults have received wide attention from the media. This is an opportunity for the church to declare the Truth of God's Word.

2. Scandalous politics

It seems that every month for the past five or six years a new scandal...