Joe Handley

FROM THE PRESIDENT

 

Stories from Joe Handley, president of A3

image

Last week, the Asian Access family gathered for a rich community experience. We were in Jakarta, Indonesia for our Global Leaders’ Summit. What a fantastic week we had together. It was one of my all-time favorite summits!

What made it so special? - COMMUNITY! 

This is one of our three core values at Asian Access: We LIVE Community! You can learn more about our values here: Asian Access' Core Values.

LIVE Community

As we gathered together, we prayed and took a collection to help our persecuted friends in Bangladesh… Read their stories here:

summit 2016 public group shot

Some people in our community are turned backward because they need to be anonmyous. But we stand with these friends; they are members of our community.

image

At our summit, we prayed for our brothers from Bangladesh as they shared how they will come around the family who has lost their husband (the pastor) and how they have been a witness to Christ in the midst of the suffering. Their video stories will be posted later which you won’t want to miss… Stay tuned!

This wasn’t all we did together though. We spent time playing together—soccer, volleyball, plus racing across a ropes course and doing a zip line. It was a ton of fun, though the humidity was intense to say the least.

image

One of our colleagues from China, we’ll call "John" to protect his identity shared how he never takes breaks like this, preferring to study and be in isolation most of the time. This experience really profoundly impacted him as he enjoyed being with brothers from all over Asia.

We also spent rich times in the Word of God which I’m sure several of us may blog about later. C.B. Samuel, who serves on our Reference Council in India took us deep into our core values:

  1. ALL In with God,
  2. LIVE Community, and
  3. Accelerate Kingdom Leaders.

Wow, these sessions were nothing short of astounding and everyone enjoyed the interaction times we had following his sharing. We were able to process in smaller groups what God was teaching us and I particularly found the session on Community impacting. Others preferred the other sessions which was a sign of how deeply moving our time with C.B. proved to be. I found the sharing on Living Community so profound that I was sharing his insights over twitter throughout his presentation.

Here are several quotes I posted:

  • Jesus was walking with his disciples. That was his curriculum! — C.B. Samuel
  • How will my country look if the kingdom of God were active here? — C.B. Samuel
  • The church will have to go through major restructuring in order for us to embody the kingdom of God! — C.B. Samuel
  • How do we re-package church and ministry so that none of the leaders can be excused from the process of discipling? C.B. Samuel
  • A kingdom leader is he who lives the life of the kingdom, they don’t just teach the kingdom! — C.B. Samuel
  • Is your church full of people who want God’s kingdom in your country? — C.B. Samuel
  • When you follow Jesus, he changes the way you look at the world! — C.B. Samuel 
  • When the church becomes a community, then the church will be the church! — C.B. Samuel
  • If you are a pastor, you are like an artist. You are going to show the beauty of God! — C.B. Samuel
  • We need to shake up pastors to say you are not a CEO, you are a shepherd to create community! — C.B. Samuel
  • My prayer for #AsianAccess is that: When we train leaders, we will train people who lead communities! [Not programs or events] — C.B. Samuel
  • The apostle Paul would be confused w/ the statement, “I’m going to church on Sunday morning." — C.B. Samuel

Talk about rich wisdom!

image

As you can see, at Asian Access we strive to truly LIVE Community! We’re not perfect. We have our flaws for sure. But we seek to embody the kingdom through building capacity of kingdom leaders in such a way that we truly we be community together. As we walk deeply with Jesus “All in with God”, and seek to “LIVE Community”, we believe kingdom leaders will be enhanced “Accelerated Kingdom Leaders”. In this greater ecosystem, Jesus brings transformation: transformation of our lives, our marriages, our families, our churches, our communities and our nations!

How do you practice this kingdom value? LIVE Community… We’d like to learn from you!

image 
Joseph W. Handley, Jr.
President – Asian Access

imageimage This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
image @jwhandley

 

More Information

Related Posts

Downloads

Core Values  Mission, Vision, Values

All Stories

My Encounter with the Land of the Rising Sun

By Nicole

Truth be told, Japan was never a country that was on my radar. I had always known that at some point in my life I wanted to explore East Asia, but for me that meant South Korea.

Read more...

Missionaries to Japan choose new name

Japan (MNN) – Global workers in Japan have announced a new name to describe their role and vision.

Read more...

Aging Japanese businesses and churches seek successors

Japan (MNN) – A declining, aging population in Japan means both businesses and churches need guidance through the transition of leadership.

Read more...

This is Why We Go Together

Our value for community and the importance of partnership 

We often exhort one another at A3 with the proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” While the exact origins of this proverb are murky, the truth of it is undeniable: for sustainable ministry (and really, life in general), we need each other. 

And just days before departing with our 2023 Summer Short-Term Team, I experienced this truth in a profound way.

Read more...

Call to Pray for the Japan Congress on Evangelism

Hello Everyone! It's inspiring being here at the Japanese garden at San Diego's Balboa Park.

Read more...

Introducing A3.Missional Partners

Our Missionaries Have a New Name!

For several years, you’ve become familiar with new ministry streams such as A3.business and Young Professionals. But today, I am excited to announce that our missionaries in Japan have a new descriptive name. We are now calling them “Missional Partners”.

Read more...

Beauty Before Me

As much as I’ve tried to process, ponder, and pick stuff apart, I’ll simply say for now that the last seven years or so have been disorienting. I won’t go as far as to say I’ve been deconstructing, as that word is a bit loaded and a lot dramatic compared to what I’ve been doing. At the same time, I don’t want to understate the amount of disappointment, confusion, shock, anger (occasionally bordering on rage), and deep sadness I have felt toward certain branches of the stream of Christianity I’m a part of. Perhaps detangling is a better term. But I’m not wanting to go into that a ton here. Not yet anyway. 

What I am wanting to do is practice being more of a noticer—seeing people who don’t seem to be flailing around in choppy waters like me but instead are more like anchors. People like my mom: a woman who is stable and steady, who sees similar things as me, yet keeps on watering her flowers, making food for people, playing the organ at church, showing up for her friends, and volunteering at a thrift store that employs people in the penitentiary system. She keeps on making music, meals, and memories, keeps on listening to Reactionary, Big Feeling Me, and keeps on being her steady self. 

Read more...

After Three Years of Waiting, Finally!

Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020 Team Going to Japan 

A3 (formerly Asian Access) began decades ago with a thriving short-term summer program called Scrum Dendo. Every summer, multiple teams would come to Japan, partner with Japanese churches, and create bridges to each community through English language outreach. 

At the beginning of 2020, we had high hopes of reviving these summer mission teams, partnering with churches who wanted to do major outreach work surrounding the Tokyo Olympics. 

We had no clue what was coming that year.

Read more...

A Tribute to Dr. Reiji Oyama: A Legacy of Impact in Japan

BY DOUG BIRDSALL

Oyama-sensei was known and respected throughout Japan and across Asia—and beyond—as a brilliant scholar, prolific author, dearly loved pastor, and seminary professor.

Read more...

I Come Bearing Gifts

For over a decade, February 1, 2011, remained memorialized in my mind as my “Japanniversary,” the day God took me to Japan, one month before the Triple Disaster. Each passing year, I have acknowledged this date in some way—karaoke with friends, a Facebook post, or a quiet prayer to God. 

But 2022 was the year I wrapped up over a decade of life in Japan and moved “home.” In 2023, to recall my arrival date in Japan, I had to look at my 手帳 (techō, my pocket schedule book). I was too late! The day, March 16, had passed by me without so much as a wink.

Read more...

Follow this Site

Get new posts by email:

Login