As we reflect on 2022 and prepare for 2023, several highlights come to mind:
Family Updates —
Becca enjoys her work as the social media manager at 4b. She’s been central to their re-branding process which has their big reveal in the next few months. Her husband, Lowell, took a new position closer to home a few months ago automating the LA Harbor docks with APM Terminals.
Rachel loves her work as a visual journalist for McClatchy illustrating key stories for several newspapers around the nation. Her husband, Quan, serves with Kite Pharma in the South Bay and does freelance concept art on the side.
John graduated with a master’s degree in political economy from Oxford University and started his first job in London as a graduate economist at Ofcom.
And, Silk and I enjoyed celebrating our 32nd anniversary in Croatia and Macedonia this fall. It’s been a joy having all of our children around for the holidays!
Ministry Highlights —
Joe’s thesis was published last summer and is receiving quite the praise… Check it out on Amazon if you are curious.
Asian Access did pilot projects in North Africa and Europe this year so soon we’ll be doing our own name change and re-branding. I hope you enjoyed hearing the story of the Imam who came to Christ who hopes to lead other Imams to Jesus.
We’re serving several global bodies to better equip the Church worldwide as well. Joe is serving as a co-catalyst for the Lausanne Movement which is preparing for their 4th Global Congress in Seoul in 2024. Perhaps most encouraging is the progress we are making developing a new curriculum for the persecuted church which will be utilized throughout the Religious Liberty Partnership and beyond.
And, after several years of digital connections, we held a number of graduations for our Pastor and Young Professional tracks this past summer and fall: Young Pros, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines and Vietnam. Altogether, Asian Access is now serving among 26 nations and venturing beyond the continent of Asia for the first time.
It was also a huge blessing being able to hold our annual Global Summit which had been on pause for 3 years due to the pandemic. We devoted time to lamenting our losses, but also celebrated being together again and are eager for the next phase of equipping leaders for the rapidly growing Church worldwide. This includes forms of church (biblical ekklesia) which serve in the marketplace, education, government, etc. and look very different than the churches you and I are accustomed to.
To cap off this incredible year, our team is currently at Urbana mobilizing young people to serve Christ in Japan. This past year saw the largest influx of missionaries to Japan during my tenure and Japanese pastors are preparing for the Japan Evangelism Congress next year with a huge goal to double the Christian population.
As our little thank you for your friendship and support, the disciple-making course Joe and his colleague Mary Jo produced for BiblicalTraining.org is available to you for free. If you take it, let us know what you think! You can take the course here: https://www.biblicaltraining.org/learn/academy/em520-disciplemaking
What an important year 2022 turned out to be and 2023 looks even more promising!
Thanks for all your support and prayers,
Joe and Silk
As you consider year-end giving these last few days of the year, please keep us in mind:
- To support us, you can follow this link: https://www.asianaccess.org/handley
- And, to give to Asian Access: https://www.asianaccess.org/give
Joe & Silk Handley
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@jwhandley
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