East Asia Conference
September 2025
Our East Asia region consists of two ancient empires (China and Japan) which over the centuries have traditionally been at war, plus the Korean empire which has usually been trapped in the conflicts between China and Japan. Any joint gathering of people from these ancient empires is a miracle in itself. In June about 70 SM Mobilizers from East Asia gathered in Korea to celebrate the miracle of what God is doing in this part of the world through mobilization.
With only 3 conference delegates focused on Japan, this was the SM team which was least represented. Not surprisingly, Koreans made up the majority of our delegates. SM Representatives from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China made up the remaining delegates. Unfortunately some SM representatives could not join us, after being stopped at their border.
Ken Chua and myself along with our wives (Charlene and Marion) and Ken’s daughter were there. We had the opportunity to share in some inspiring and thought-provoking plenary sessions.
One of the unique challenges which our region constantly faces is our linguistic diversity. The conference program was therefore run in three languages (Mandarin, Korean and English). Fellowship during meal times and breaks were also mainly in these three languages.
The conference organizing team arranged for us all to enjoy a half-day tour and dinner. This allowed all delegates to get a break from information overload and together enjoy aspects of Korean culture.
For me, one highlight was James’ devotional message, in which he focused on ‘open doors’. He used the example of China to show how new ‘doors opened’ whenever ‘doors closed’. This complemented the mainland China’s report. We are not able to share the details of this report, except to say that the report beautifully showed God at work in mobilizing Chinese churches.
Please pray for mobilization in the East Asia region, especially for doors to open for mobilization in both Macau and North Korea. During the conference there were special prayer times set aside for the mobilization of churches in these two countries.