they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds
..... fearlessly. The activities and events served as avenues for the students to ...
in 2013
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were [Acts 2:42-47] being saved.” Ever since HMCC began eighteen years ago, our church has continued to build our community upon this foundational passage. God has been so faithful, and we were able to see amazing growth this year. Every LIFE group of every life stage, individuals, teams, and leaders alike bore witness to a truly generous God. In the Global Access (international students and single adults) ministry alone, we invited 29 new believers into God’s Kingdom! More encouraging numbers that remind us of God’s power and faithfulness to our church:
praise god for all He’s done in 2013. At Harvest Mission Community Church, we have had the great privilege of witnessing lives being transformed and through those lives, a world transformed. This is a collection of stories and updates about some of those testimonies of transformation in 2013. Our hope is that these stories will allow us to reflect on God’s faithfuless and goodness throughout the past year. May we also be reminded to stay focused on the vision, mission, and values of our church. Everything you contribute and sacrifice for God’s kingdom work impacts all of the lives you will read about. Be encouraged and reminded to keep faithfully giving and serving!
308 in 2012
Average Sunday Celebration attendance
348 in 2013
93 in 2012
New covenant-signing members
People sent on missions
New believers
People baptized
106 in 2013
40 in 2012 62 in 2013
31 in 2012 59 in 2013
32 in 2012 55 in 2013
!gnite Conference
Missions Testimonies As Christ has called us to ‘make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28:19), we value the importance of the local church making an impact in its surrounding community for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2010, HMCC developed the 2020 Vision. By the year 2020, our aim is to... Plant 10 churches Leverage 1,000 students and adults to be sent on missions Address global issues through 100 missional initiatives Network churches, birthing 1 Harvest Mission International Institute
HMCC church plant and short-term missions project locations in 2013:
Why in the world do I seem to have no urgency to participate in missions? That was the question I came into !gnite with. I doubted whether or not God really worked through missions. But throughout the conference, I started to see that God has been active, even if we might not see it at first.
By the last session of !gnite, I saw that I desired to follow in whatever He is doing. There is no time to wait for “I feel like going” or “I’m ready to go on missions.” Rather, I saw that God just wants my available hands, heart and mind. Through these, He will show me what HE can do.
Detroit Ann Arbor
Pastor Jong Park, guest speaker
Austin
Hong Kong Honduras
Cambodia Singapore
Papua Jakarta
Not just the people who were reached, but the many who were sent have powerful stories of the gospel advancing forward. The following five pages contain testimonies from the student missions conference (!gnite) and fall outreach program (Operation Campus Reach), short-term missions projects, and updates from the HMCC sites around the world.
new 73 freshmen
In the Church Movements seminar I saw that God is sovereign through all of history. He has been writing this expansive story of his Church - beginning with the Christians in Jerusalem, then bringing them to Europe, then America... then the rest of the world. Now the Church is global and missional in scale. One of Pastor Jong’s sermons then reminded me that God is faithful to what He says He will do. I remembered the value of God’s promises. If He says “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), then not only is He doing it now, but He will do it in the future as well.
Josephine Tan, Senior Chicago
College Kick-Off BBQ
298 !gnite participants
OCR I didn’t really know what to expect coming to Operation Campus Reach (OCR). One of the main reasons I did OCR was because I was reached through it so I really wanted to reach students like I was. Coming into OCR, I was scared because I didn’t know how to share my faith with new students, but God had different plans. During New Encounter, I met a junior transfer student from South Korea. After a basic discussion, I asked him if he went to a church and he said his parents did but he didn’t. He also mentioned his parents would like him to. I told him that it was sort of like me because my parents also wanted me to be plugged into a church so I guess God really brought us together. I also told him how LIFE Group really helped me guide my faith and how important God was in my life, and to come out to the Sunday Celebration. We exchanged numbers and decided to meet before the first Sunday Celebration. I am truly thankful to God that I was able to start a relationship with a person like him and how I was able to open up. I realize that God has a plan for all of us and that He is truly working in each of our lives. Meeting new people and beginning new relationships is truly God’s work in our lives. David Chang, Sophomore
Honduras Missions Project
community summer missions project
On our church’s first Honduras missions project, we visited a school/orphanage for children in poverty called Plan Escalon. We spent time with the children and helped with manual labor needs. Our team also participated in their “Life in Action” project, which aims to build relationships, share the Gospel, and start churches by helping remote villages with practical needs such as clean water.
This past summer, the CSMP team served in Ann Arbor and Detroit, truly seeing how missions is not only around the world, but even here in our community. Early on, we adopted the phrase “Ride Together, Die Together” as our slogan. From eating, running and training, to praying and fasting, we learned to partner together; no one was left behind. We struggled through hard days and also rejoiced together as a family.
This trip allowed us to see what it might be like to use our vocational training to participate in overseas missions in the future. We saw the great need for prayer, therapy and interpersonal work in the children, many with broken, abusive pasts. Amy was able to see how her studies in social work could connect with this type of work. David, who works as a programmer, was also inspired when he saw the computer classes Plan Escalon offers to the students. We were inspired to see how Plan Escalon disciples so many young people through different means. Our team believes God will be faithful in growing the seeds He planted through our Honduras trip, and by His grace, we hope to faithfully obey whatever His plans are for us in the future. Amy and David Jsa Amy with girls from Plan Escalon
David with brothers from Plan Escalon
Papua
Puppet show at Excel
Half of the team saw the power of God at Excel Academy, a summer English program for children, where many accepted Christ as the gospel was shared! The team built relationships with many parents to keep them connected to our church to continue to experience the love of Christ.
Meeting students at NUS
Asia Missions Project During our month in Jakarta, Papua and Singapore, the Ann Arbor team partnered with Chicago, Jakarta and Singapore. In Papua, the team stayed in three different villages, where we held various seminars. Beyond simply teaching, these became an opportunity to share vulnerably about the ways God was working in our lives. Through this we saw many people open up for the first time and even accept Christ as their Lord and Savior! In Singapore, we partnered with HMCC of Singapore to pray and prepare for their OCR. God opened doors as we met several students at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and we invited them to our game and sports night. Our team was so humbled, because many people showed up and also brought along more friends. This missions trip changed our lives in very drastic ways. As we traveled across the world (some of us for the first time), we were able to meet brothers and sisters in Christ who were from a completely different country and culture. This trip expanded our perspectives and most importantly gave us a deeper understanding of God’s love for the nations. We saw that in the midst of our many differences, God made the same sacrifice for all of us. Asia Missions Team 2013
The other half of the team served in Detroit at Cesar Chavez Academy (CCA). They tutored high school students and led Fusion, an enrichment program with classes ranging from art to engineering. There were many “Praise God” moments as the team built relationships with students and shared their lives and the gospel. CSMP is done, but God’s work is not finished! Today, we can look back and see how together, we were links in the chain of God’s work that continues on. We learned that missions is a life-long process of surrendering to God and living out his Great Commission. CSMP 2013 Team
Fusion at CCA
Liberty Mission Human slavery is not a thing of the past – today, an estimated 30 million people are enslaved as sex workers or labor slaves. Liberty Mission believes that God is calling our church to take a stand and to proclaim liberty to the captives (Luke 4:18). In the spring of 2013, a missions team went to Hong Kong and Cambodia, where they were able to meet with those on the frontlines of the abolition movement. They saw ministries that work to restore rescued slaves and visited and prayed through districts where trafficking is rampant. Liberty Mission began partnering this Fall 2013 with Price of Life, a cross-campus initiative comprised of several ministries. We joined them to kick off with the “Human Trafficking 101” event and the Fair-Trade Shopping Party, and we’ll continue to build momentum to a campus-wide Price of Life campaign in October 2014. Then in December 2013 to January 2014, we sent the Global Band Missions Team back to Hong Kong and Cambodia. Worship leaders from HMCC of Ann Arbor, Chicago, Austin, and Jakarta joined together to minister to these areas through music, worship, teaching, and street evangelism.
HMCC of Austin
HMCC of Jakarta
It has been a very exciting semester of growth for our church. Through God’s faithfulness, many more have committed to the vision and mission of our church. We formed five LIFE groups this semester: four undergrad and one Focus/Impact group – the most we’ve had to date. Not only did we have high turnouts to our kick-off events, but we have also experienced growth in our Membership class, retreat attendance, and congregation size.
In Indonesia we have LIFE groups in Karawaci and in the city of Jakarta. Our church has become very diverse, and despite the challenging differences, we praise God that every life stage ministry has a core group that is committed to developing and growing the community. It’s been amazing to witness our first baby dedication, the expanding men’s/women’s ministries, a renewed spirit of evangelism, new believers at our first U.Nite Retreat, and even the expanding of the ministry into new universities!
The theme for our church this year is “Walk By Faith, Not by Sight.” One way we want to live this out is through evangelism, where our church will grow via people accepting Christ through experience rather than through transfer growth. We also want to invest in Austin through our response to the Missions week theme, “God of the City.” We especially pray that our Focus/Impact ministry would utilize open doors into the city. We want our prayers to lead us to take action, whether through missional initiatives or building new relationships. Please pray that we will grow in our love for God and take greater risks in following Him. We also hope that God would give us a greater love for Austin and the people in the city. Finally, please pray that our Focus ministry could grow in both number and influence. Summer Excel Program
Winter Retreat
68
participants
Fall 2013 Baptism
HMCC of Chicago Coming into the 2013-2014 school year, we felt that God was pushing us to “love one another deeply from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22), thus giving rise to our theme: From the Heart. We have been meeting separately as men and women to discuss what it means to practically live as disciples in our everyday lives. It has been a great time of sharing vulnerably and growing in Christ-like characteristics. In addition, we have always felt a burden to reach out to the city, but with all the needs in Chicago, we have had a hard time determining where to start. Through several prominent missional leaders in the city, we were connected to ministries already in action, leading to serving opportunities to work with immigrants. Despite our thankfulness, we have to constantly bring ourselves before God, relying on His providence, grace, and power to build and sustain the ministry. One of the huge answers to prayer has been Pastor Josh. Now that God has provided another pastor, Pastor Jimmy can focus on the downtown site, while Pastor Josh can develop the Evanston site. Both sites are difficult ministries, but God has given us a greater sense of purpose as we move forward.
68 participants
One of our greatest challenges is the Indonesian view of religion: tolerant but lacking desire for radical commitment or action. This immense pushback and spiritual battle requires much prayer and discipleship. But God has never given us a vision and mission without providing adequate means. Not only has God brought Muslim people to hear the Gospel for the first time, but we have also steadily grown as both sides build trust and friendship. Please continue to pray for growth in faith and a living relationship with God despite being surrounded by a culture that is filled with materialism, lukewarm Christianity, and self-centeredness, as well an active desire to pursue lost people around us. We ask for prayers believing that God will respond faithfully, keeping His promises and building His Church. Thank you for your partnership and God bless! First All-Night Prayer
Band of Brothers, men’s ministry
We continue to covet prayers and encouragements. Please pray for our ministries, leaders, and members as we move forward into 2014. Undergraduate Retreat
Missional Initiative with underprivileged children
SOUL Sisters, women’s ministry
58
ministry team members
Sunday Celebration with the summer missions teams
HMCC of Singapore Since September, God has been moving in incredible and powerful ways in Singapore. The church has grown in new membership, especially during OCR and our fall retreat. Through it all, God has revealed Himself to several pre-Christians who have made the decision to accept Christ and be baptized! Recently, we have also been reaching the community at large. For example, we were able to help underprivileged children by hosting a day of games. We believe this is the beginning of something more, and pray for opportunities to serve and meet the needs of the locals. One of our greatest areas of prayer is for the student ministry. It has been difficult to reach out to students and to maintain momentum in the Access ministry due to lack of student leadership. Discouragement often plagues our gatherings when people fail to show up, so we ask for your continued prayers regarding our students. Beyond that, please pray for growing leaders and for God to build us on a solid foundation of surrender. Despite our small size, we have personally seen how God can use so little to do so much. We want to continue in that vein of faith, not trusting in our own abilities or works, but on how God is leading us through prayer. Thank you for your continued support and God bless!
Winter 2013 Baptism
Snapshots from churchwide events
baptism, winter & fall 2013 The two baptism services in 2013 were a huge reason for us to celebrate with all of our new brothers and sisters in Christ. We saw the largest number of baptisms in our church to date, and we were able to have our first service in our very own Transformation Center.
Congregational Retreat, January 18-20
Praise God for every single story of transformation shared with our HMCC family! Fall 2013 Baptism One Desire Fast, January 20 - February 2
327
participants
Missions Week, November 4-10
55
baptisms
1 prospec-
tive church plant Easter Celebration, March 31
Churchwide All Night Prayer, November 8
730
26
in attendance
LIFE groups participated
h-games
Commissioning new pastors and staff, June 28
H-Games this year was so enjoyable. It was nice to be able to partner with other LIFE Groups for the games. I felt inspired by the energy and enthusiasm displayed by all the LIFE Groups. During the tug-of-war final, my ear drums almost exploded, but the cheering lifted us to overcome and win! H-Games is a wonderful celebration of our community spirit. It’s beyond winning and losing. When we come together like that, we all win. Lloyd Chia
15 accepted Christ
Life Stage Updates HMCC began with a focus on reaching college students because it’s such a pivotal time in life, but over the years our ministry has expanded to encompass people from different walks of life – from infants and youth, to single adults and married couples, to international students and families. It’s not too often that we have the opportunity to hear updates across life stages, so we hope you will be encouraged by this collection of updates and stories from every life stage.
Latitude/Velocity Youth, Grades 6-12 Every Saturday evening, youth from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Novi gather together to read and study the bible, build relationships with one another, and serve the local community together. Since 2004, Latitude/ Velocity has strived to be more than a fun gathering, but a place where young people are encountering God and challenged to develop a personal relationship with Christ. The themes “Fearless” and “Boldness” were prevalent throughout the year. The youth expressed a desire to learn what it meant to be bold in their faith and how to share the gospel with their friends. This curiosity leveraged bible studies and activities to focus on what it meant to live fearlessly. The activities and events served as avenues for the students to initiate building new relationships and reach out to the community.
Painting the Rock
Access Undergraduate Students Testimonies from the Undergraduate Retreat: Torrential Walking into the Undergraduate Retreat I felt confused, anxious, and regretful. But God clearly had a plan for me despite my efforts to run away from Him and the church. He gave me the strength to absorb the words preached at the retreat as I reflected on them. I thought back to the world of misfortune and depression I struggled through and that I would face upon return. Recalling Jesus’ promise to always be with us, I realized that the Gospel offers liberation from not only our sins but also our current struggles. Through prayer, worship and reflection I experienced peace: Peace of mind and spirit. Peace in the idea of living for the Gospel. Peace in knowing I am on a path to a growing relationship with Christ. Through the retreat, I now believe in my heart that Jesus is at my side as I work towards making disciples. Spencer Kim, Junior
“I’ve learned a lot about what it means to trust God, a lot more than what I knew originally. I know I keep focusing on trusting Him, but it was harder for me to trust Him before. Now I have a deeper understanding about it.” -Hannah Eitel, 8th grade
2013 Timeline February
Valentine’s Day outreach at Hope Clinic
June
Cedar Point field trip
July
Excel Academy / Bryant Community Center, Annual End of the Summer camping trip, Jesus Culture concert
August
Paint the Rock
November
Thanksgiving outreach dinner
Cedar Point field trip
In the new year, Latitude/Velocity will begin meeting weekly on Friday evenings and Sunday after the first celebration. Please pray for us! We want to see the youth continue to be bold and fearless by bringing out friends to experience Christ. Also pray for discipleship, spiritual maturity, and growth among our students.
This Undergraduate Retreat gave me a wake up call. I had never given much thought to how much God has done in my life and in ways that I never realized. Throughout my life, I’ve struggled and gone through so much pain, and I was selfish and blind from His good heart. Shame was what truly held me back from seeing that He hasn’t given up on me. But as I openly and shamelessly revealed my story, His presence was evident in that moment. I realized that He had a purpose with everything. His works are what builds our love for Him even further. This walk with Him isn’t over; I’ve experienced an overwhelming amount of hope in Christ. He does not set forth any obstacles that He knows we can’t face. He’s given us hope that this walk is only beginning. My faith has been stirred in so many amazing ways, and I have a much greater longing for His love. Yenny Hoang, Sophomore
Focus & Covenant Single Adults & Married Couples This year as we combined Focus and Covenant in LIFE groups, we have been able to build unity in worship, prayer, fellowship, and study of the Word. Our desire was to see a church where older men and women invest in younger and build a healthier church and healthier families. We’re hoping for even greater partnership as we do missional initiatives and use our work experience to serve others, as well as increase our love and ownership of the church. A testimony from Abel Torres: At LIFE group one night, one of the married women shared about the different struggles she was going through with her family. As a guy in his early twenties, it’s pretty easy to assume that people in her life stage have their lives “put together” or everything “figured out”. However, as she shared with tears rolling down her eyes, I realized that healing is for people of all life stages. This woman, in her brokenness and insecurities, shared not only her struggles,
but how Jesus set her free and loves her and her family unconditionally. Through her testimony, the power of vulnerability and healing became so real. As our whole LIFE group prayed for her and her family, James 5:16 came alive to me in a visible way. We were all able to lift prayers that came from God’s truth and our heart - prayers that were powerful and sincere.
Global Access International Students & Single Adults
Detroit LIFE Group
This past semester, Global Access (GA) has grown from three to four LIFE groups. God also brought an overwhelming number of newcomers, and we welcomed many new believers to our family. In addition, many returning members have taken greater ownership of their LIFE groups by becoming disciples who make disciples.
The Detroit LIFE Group began in May 2012 with a gathering of five brothers and sisters. We started with a desire to be part of the 2020 Vision by one day birthing a young church in the great city of Detroit, MI. At the end of summer 2012, we took a step of faith and split our one LIFE group into two - one for working professionals and graduate students and the other for college students. God has been faithful to that decision as we now have 25+ people joining our LIFE groups on a weekly basis. We look ahead with faith and anticipation to how God will continue to grow, mature, and bear fruit in our ministry so that we will one day realize our ultimate vision for planting a church!
Please pray for greater life-on-life discipleship, providing a strong spiritual foundation for our new believers. Also pray for God to continue leading people to salvation and raising up leaders in our community.
All the GA LIFE groups at H-Games
Impact Graduate Students
At Impact, we believe that graduate school is a time when God can shape and give vision for the future. As Impact grows both in numbers and in spiritual maturity, we hope that the campus and surrounding communities will be shown the love of Christ. Impact strives to be a community where graduate students can be truly transformed to surrender their whole lives to Jesus, and be sent out all over the world to build God’s kingdom.
Large Group Meeting
A testimony from Emily Ho: I’m thankful to God because although there were many times throughout the year when I struggled with my faith, God always brought me back to Him through various events. As I served with other brothers and sisters in GA, God taught me what it means to love regardless of borders or cultures. I also took Freedom Class this year, and through it deepened my understanding of my personal struggles in growing in Christ. These strongholds reveal deep wounds in my heart that I’ve come to realize only God can heal. Though my walk with Christ does not get easier, I am blessed that God is with me in every step, and I’m also extremely thankful for the community that I have at HMCC!
Please pray that God will expand our vision for how to use our degrees and studies, and that we will have a greater love for our departments, classmates, and professors. Also pray for a deeper hunger for personal growth and strengthened relationships with one another! A testimony from Jeff Yeung: This year, I have seen God work in my life more than any other year of my 10-year faith journey. Though I reluctantly obeyed God leading me to U-M, I eventually realized at the Congregational Retreat that He wanted to do great things in my life as I experienced his love in a tangible way. I have also been so unbelievably blessed by my LIFE group investing in me, challenging me, and praying for me. Additionally, each instance of God taking my meager offerings to abundantly bless others gave me more confidence to obey His leading. God has been convicting me that my vision is too small - that I need to be caught up not only in my life but for His Kingdom. All this has grown in me a faith that God will provide all that is needed in my life because of who I have seen Him to be. No matter what trials may come, He will be faithful!
Thanksgiving Outreach
Prayer Requests 1. Clarity - Our vision for “clarity” this year is the idea that spiritual growth is not simply more spiritual knowledge, but greater clarity in areas where we did not have as much understanding and wisdom as before. Please pray for clarity in the Word, relationships, uncomfortable situations, and intercession. 2. Disciples with a burden - Please pray that the Lord will raise up people who feel a calling to join us in our ministry vision to build up the city of Detroit. 3. Breakthroughs - Please pray for breakthroughs in the hearts of pre-Christians who have been coming to our LIFE groups, and for the campus of Wayne State and the campuses of Detroit. Largest campus LIFE group to date after overcoming power outages / torrential rain / visitor swipe-in limitations!
H-Games
Testimonies from the Detroit LIFE Group Over the last 19 months God has been faithful. We have seen miracles of provision and protection, deepening relationships in each other and in Christ, increased clarity of who God is, a life proclaiming to follow Jesus through baptism, curiosity and thirst for the Word, deeper discipleship, reconciliation, physical-mental-emotional healing, a life given to Christ, transformed perspectives, and abundantly more. One prayer request is that more than desiring community, anyone, or anything, we would desire God, internalize the truth of his Word, and rest in the promises of Jesus Christ. Phil Morgan We praise God for how He has given us the opportunity to minister to diverse groups of people since coming to the city of Detroit. One group of people that has been a special blessing for us is four exchange students from China. We met them at a BBQ in August and invited them out to our community. They were very open to getting to know us and even getting into the Bible. Not having any religious background, we were amazed at the little ways God opened up their hearts and used the purity of their perspective to challenge our campus LIFE group throughout the semester. Though we did not see them accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior in their time in the US, we trust that the seeds planted here will bear fruit at a later time. For me personally, hearing a sister say something as simple as, “I want to know Jesus more” made the time spent more than worth it! David Lai
The best is yet to come
Harvest Mission Community Church
