One word. Community!
We were designed and made for community. It’s not just about meeting together.
It’s about sharing our lives together. I have never experienced a greater feeling of ‘family’ or ‘belonging’, than during my time at MIC. It was so enriching to be part of this Christ-centered community; encouraging me, building me up to a point where I could encourage others and help build up others! Christianity is not a solo journey. We need each other to move forward in worshiping God. And wow, the fun we had! The music, the games, the performances, and of course the sermons. Ultimately though, it was about standing together, as one body (the church), in complete adoration for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And I can not thank the Lord enough for the amazing people at MIC that stood beside me….. daily!
”And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
-Daryl & Jayne, New Zealand-
At Minoh International Church the environment was so warm, even though the number of the attendees were not that many, they were consistant, and quite international. Everyone was so special. I have really nice and warm memories of you. I have been hearing about the church from the weekly emails. Lots have been changed since.
For your encouragement, I would like to share Philippians 4:7, Psalm 18:1-2 and say ” Don`t give up! 🙂
May God Bless you all!
-Hishige, Mongolia-
‘We are all one in Christ.‘ (Galatians 3:28) This is a wonderful truth which we really felt we could experience in Minoh International Church. In a small church there can be no separation based on culture, race, interests etc. It was wonderful to be able to share both during and after the service together purely as people who love Christ. In a big church this is a challenge as it is so easy for separation leading to perceived separatism to occur.
In the same way there is something special about sharing a meal together, Jesus chose to share his last supper with the disciples, in Acts the believers in the early church ate together. There is a wonderful atmosphere when you share what you have in a Potluck meal, people bring and share what they can and in this sharing friendship and humility develops.
Minoh International Church has an unwaning heart for the community. People may come to a church service and then not again but that doesn’t discourage or stop the church’s mission into the community. When Jesus preached thousands followed him but only a few were genuine believers but this didn’t discourage Jesus – he still fed them all (Jesus feeds the five thousand). When only one leper of the ten that were healed came back to say thank you Jesus didn’t give up on us. It is a real encouragement to have unconditional love for those around us to love without expecting anything in return.
In the same way everyone is welcome at Minoh International Church. Christian Life is real, it is not a performance. We really appreciated the way the church service mirrored this. Children were welcomed in the service just as Jesus said “let the little children come to me”. Everyone had a genuine love of Christ.
-Ross & Dale, New Zealand-
My fondest memories of Minoh International Church are the wonderful friendships that we made with people from all over the globe and realizing that we were indeed brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of ethnicity, language and denominational background. This gave us a perspective that allows us to now minister with more confidence to all sorts of people. I hope that we can stay connected to those wonderful friends that we made. We really enjoy reading the weekly sermon notes and are thrilled to know that the church is still going from strength to strength. We do pray consistently for you.
When I look at the photo made shortly before we left Minoh International Church it is difficult not to just stop and sit down with it remembering each person pictured. The people I got to know there are my greatest memory. We were all so different in most ways, bringing our different expectations of a worship service and never finding it quite like what we were so familiar with “back home.” I learned a lot about myself and my cultural expectations of “church.” When I couldn’t recreate the familiar experience that I missed, I had to drop away all the behaviors of my previous church experience and just concentrate on my relationship with God. I often tell people here what a blessing it was to finally realize that what we all had in common was our love of Jesus. What we agreed upon was that we needed to pray, to read and study His word and to try to share His love with others around us. I loved the feeling of being a sister of someone from another continent that looked only a little like me, and even though talking or singing together might be a challenge, I could really sense our kinship because of Jesus. This is a message I frequently find myself trying to express to people here. Often our churches are just composed of people who look and think pretty much the same way. My time with Minoh International Church forced me to peel away most of the cultural expectations of worshipping and concentrate on Who we worship.
-Bill and Brenda, United States-
Minoh International Church was an oasis for us during our time of stay in Japan. The fellowship proved that God is the God of all nations regardless of the place and environment you are in. The families and friends that we met were sources of strength and encouragement especially as we were isolated from our comfort zone. Minoh International Church became a family to us. We are also grateful for the opportunity given to us to serve the Lord while we were there.
-Alvin and Jo, Philippines-
