Ophelia De Visser is one of the unsung heroes of the Asian Access family. She was the solid, steady support behind her well-known and renowned family, ensuring they were grounded while they served Christ on a national and global scale.

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.”
— Isaiah 50:15

Sri Lanka (MNN) — On July 9, Sri Lankan protestors stormed the president’s official residence in the capital, Colombo.

Sri Lanka (MNN) — Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says the island nation is bankrupt. He does not expect an immediate bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The inflation rate will soon reach 60 percent.

June 5, 2022 is the International Day for the Unreached

A third of the world still lacks access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are no local churches, no Bible in their own language, and no local believers.

Hello Friends!

It is Easter week here, and I am in Warsaw, Poland where we've been meeting with leaders representing the Persecuted Church.

Hi, this is Mary Jo Wilson with Asian Access, and I just wanted to give you a quick update. This week we're in Warsaw and you're wondering, "What's Asian Access doing in Poland?".

I wanted to pass along this important message from our colleagues and partners in Asia. Let's join in prayer.

Rev. Dr. Joseph W. Handley, Jr., Ph.D.
President, Asian Access

A call to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to pray for peace!

Evangelical leaders in Asia condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for an immediate end to the attacks. We call on the church in Asia to pray for reconciliation and peace between Russia and Ukraine. We call upon churches around the world to pray for restoration and long-term peace.

Join us in sharing your prayers and concerns for Russia and Ukraine!

Happy New Year, Dear Friends!

This post is a little later than I had hoped because our family was hit with the coronavirus variant over the holidays. We are deeply grateful for your prayers and appreciate you for the way we journey together in life and mission.

Real life examples

As I was watching the Olympics that happened in Tokyo where I live and minister, I was struck by each and almost every athlete who performs at these Olympic games—different team sports or individual sports or new and old or many different things. But as you know, the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were supposed to happen last year in 2020. and then people discussed their opinions about a possible postponement.

Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
— Lamentations 3:22-23

Former Asian Access chairman Ron McMahon shared the classic hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness with the Asian Access board last week during our recent board meetings.

Takeshi Takazawa, VP for Innovative Initiatives for Asian Access, thanks our prayer and financial support team for coming alongside us in prayer to impact the people of Japan and the athletes during the Olympics...

Hello Everyone!

We want to thank you for your participation and support for our work in Japan.

As you probably know, all the work with the Olympics that we tried to do didn't happen. However, the last few weeks, God has done some amazing things, and that's still ongoing. People are praying. We're signing up people for a million hours of prayer! Can you believe that?

"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps."
— Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)

In our hearts, we were confident that God was calling us to serve him in Japan. But we couldn’t do it without a significant team of supporters behind us with faithful prayers and financial gifts. It was hard to imagine how he would do it. It was 2016. Josh and I hoped to be in Japan within a year, but God had other plans.

နိုင် ကြရန်အ လို့ ငှါ ဆုတောင်း ခြင်း ဖြင့် ပံ့ ပိုး ပေး ကြ ပါ ရန် အကူ အ ညီ တောင်း ခံ လိုပါ.သည်။. 
 
“We ask your help in praying for us!”

CHRISTIAN ATHEIST: Is a person who believes in God but lives as though God doesn’t exist or is largely irrelevant to the everyday business of living.

The term CHRISTIAN ATHEIST is a figure of speech called an oxymoron in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. Other examples of oxymorons that perhaps you have used are:

Last week our Global Team met for our monthly gathering of worship, praise, sharing and prayer. The focus was on the persecuted church as you have likely heard the news of what is happening in Myanmar and Nepal recently. The situation in other countries is challenging as well – for one situation that my colleagues face, see this article from the National Review: …Religious Americans Must Lead the Way

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
— Hebrews 10:24-25

A2 Prayer Meetings

This past year, our Asian Access family has been meeting monthly for prayer in addition to our online cohorts and those few countries who are actually able to meet in person. In the face of the pandemic, we are learning to live out the wisdom of this passage from Hebrews as we are such a community-driven ministry.

Perhaps you've resolved in 2021 to read more Scripture or to pray more consistently. If so, I think you’ll enjoy this new prayer app that a friend recommended to me. It helps me do both—to actually pray the Scripture every day!

It’s a short, simple, daily reading and prayer prompt that I’ve found to be helpful in my devotion times recently: LECTIO 365 is a daily devotional app for your mobile phone or tablet.

My friend has been using it with a few of his prayer partners as a way to share what God is doing in their lives each day.

Here's more information about LECTIO 365 from its website...

Dear Friends,

As 2020 wound to a close, the Lord impressed on me the following passage:

"In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." —John 1:4

LOOKING BACK ON 2020

2020 was such a disruptive year. Yet the life of Christ is the light of the world. That gives me hope heading into 2021. I pray that your Christmas and New Year’s celebrations brought joy and the reminder of what is most important, even in the midst of the challenges from 2020, some of which continue to persist.