Kicking Off the 12th Year

Greetings, HMCC family and friends around the world! Whether you were once a part of our church community or you are simply interested in hearing how God is working, we are excited to fill you in on all that God is doing at the different HMCC sites. We have realized that there is an increasing number of alumni and friends around the world with whom we would love to stay connected. It is our prayer that as you read these regular updates, you will be encouraged to see that the vision of transformation is alive and well!

As we've kicked off our twelfth year in Ann Arbor, we praise God for His faithfulness to us for all these years and want to spread the news of His work in our ministry. In this first edition of our newsletter, we hope to show a glimpse of the many ways that God is moving in our church community; from multiplying ministries to a new church plant, we have much to thank God for.

In Ann Arbor alone, God has been bringing hundreds of people to check out and experience the community at HMCC. Throughout the month, we have seen over seventy newcomers check out our worship and community on Sunday mornings. We were also thrilled to hear that a few people have received Christ and begun their new life in Him through our Sunday Celebrations and small group ministries!

Our small group ministry is also in full swing. There are over twenty small groups to cover all the different life stages represented at HMCC: middle school and high school youth, undergraduates, graduate students, single adults, married couples.

Church members have taken greater ownership of their gifts for the purpose of ministry. HMCC students in the Ross School of Business have joined together to host a pre-business workshop for freshmen, and our doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists have held seminars for pre-medical field students. We are anticipating all the lives that will be touched and transformed this coming year as we continue to build God's Kingdom in the context of biblical community!

The Transformasphere Movement

The September 23rd Sunday Celebration unveiled a new movement and a new word: Transformasphere. This first part of the Ethos series unwrapped key elements of God's mission and mandate revealed in His word. From God's reign to His mission for restoration of the world, we saw how His purposes involve us engaging in our culture - a cultural mandate (Genesis 1:28). We revisited the 7 general spheres of our culture through the CHARGED acronym and were exhorted to be faithful in the opportunities God has given us through our studies and our work for the purpose of transformation.

We hope you will take the time to listen to the message and check out the website to learn how you can get involved in this movement.

www.transformasphere.com

Students Start the New School Year

The fall started with a bang for college students with OCR. This year the theme for the training conference was "Being Missional" with an emphasis on incarnational ministry and students being intentional in their relationships with others. The 101 OCR participants helped to host various welcome week events including outreaches within 7 dorms that attracted approximately 800 students!

Several new students attended the Newcomers' Barbeque, New Encounter, and other welcome week events hosted by Finish Line, HMCC's sports ministry. Increasing numbers of newcomers and returning students checked out ACCESS and the 15 undergraduate and graduate small groups.

After the initial "How to Survive at U of M" ACCESS series, we've recently begun "Rebuilding the Community", a series on the book of Nehemiah. We hope to see life change happen among our undergraduate and graduate students through our times of corporate worship and equipping, and through community in small groups. We are eagerly anticipating the upcoming Undergraduate Retreat.

Covenant

Covenant, our married couples ministry, has experienced much growth and new changes as a result. Within a few months they have grown from one small group to three, with a total of twenty participating couples.

The groups now consist of mothers, engineers, teachers, pastors, doctors, etc. They have been growing in family sizes too; in the last year, 6 children have been born and 2 more are on the way.

A recent praise has been the increasing number of international couples, Christian and Pre-Christian, who have been participating the ministry. Therefore, one of the three Covenant small groups was designated for international small groups and is being led by Pastor Andrew Jun and Nickey Jun.

The first married couples mission trip was to Kenya in last December, and they are planning to continue sending missions teams as a Covenant ministry, even family missions trips that will include their children. Please pray for this and other opportunities in the future, that God may work powerfully in the married couples and families in our church.

Latitude Births Velocity

Latitude, our youth ministry, has experienced a fruitful year. This past summer they sent their first missions team to New Orleans. Approximately 16 youth have been involved every week, and students have been inviting their friends to various events.

As the new school year started, Latitude has added a new branch to their youth ministry specifically for junior students: Velocity. It's name represents the speed at which many experiences come at junior high students, from identity to friendships, and how they are to be equipped to move at God's speed rather than the pace of the world.

Students come from a variety of local schools including Clague and Tappan middle schools, Pioneer, Greenhills, Huron, and Saline High Schools. They have been strategizing ways to reach their surrounding community and want to begin incorporating ministry through mercy. They are looking ahead to a year of outreach and growth.

Focus

Focus has also been more active in the local community. They have hosted various service projects and a monthly discussion gathering at a local coffee shop called "The Night Life." Many friends and coworkers have participated in this coffee shop gathering and they are excited to continue this into the fall.

With the arrivals of Google and other new companies in Ann Arbor have come a flood of new single adults into the community. They are trying to connect with these single adults through new avenues such as a book club and golf outings. There have been a number of new additions to the Focus community, many who are actively exploring the faith. Please pray for Gospel centered ministry where believers will continue to grow in their faith and the unchurched will find faith in Jesus Christ.

Focus is exploring ways to help undergrads find practical ways to incorporate the CHARGED mandate into their lives through seminars, networking opportunities, and various applications. Pray for innovative ideas and approaches to help undergrads see their education in light of the Kingdom. Also, pray that the single adults will really live out the CHARGED mandate in their everyday lives.

Global Access

With the influx of students from all across the world descending upon the University of Michigan, HMCC's international ministry responds to the overwhelming need to reach out to this particular community. In line with the overall vision of the church, Global Access seeks to share the gospel with students from all over the world, disciple them to be Christ-followers, and send them back to their home countries to be effective witnesses. Global Access is also growing its network as many students head back to their countries and continue the relationship globally.

In the past 5 months they have witnessed three new believers, 5 baptism, and their small group double in size.

This fall they targeted international students through various welcome week events and have reached numerous new students with great success. A diverse group of 85 newcomers participated in their International Photo Scavenger hunt, and 30 people signed up for small groups after this single event. Please pray for fruitfulness in their outreach.

HMCC of Chicago

HMCC of Chicago is still in the thick of our New Student Outreach to the Northwestern University campus. Since Northwestern operates on a quarter system, we seem to lag behind in schedule to other semester based institutions. Students started trickling in around two weeks ago and we had the privilege of being some of the first people to meet new students on campus. Whether through our personal outreach on campus or through different OCR events that we hosted, we've been having new students, grad students working adults checking us out on a regular basis. Though we closed off our welcome week activities with a bang this past Friday (9/28) with our worship through the arts event - "Coffee House", the best is yet to come.

We'll be forming our small groups soon, and entering into another year of building up the spiritual community. To add to the momentum, we also started a small group on the UIC (University of Illinois in Chicago) campus and the group has already begun to meet on a weekly basis. It's truly an exciting time, if not a challenging one as well, as each of us are feeling the continued call to be missional wherever we are. Recently we changed our Sunday Celebration time to 11:00 and have been viewing some of the Sunday sermons via video thanks to the Ann Arbor site's new video ministry. The messages have been just as powerful as before and we've sensed a greater unity with the Ann Arbor site as we share the same direction and spirituality.

Perhaps the greatest highlight for our site, is being able to celebrate one year of God's faithfulness. This past Sunday (9/30), we recognized our one year anniversary as a church community. It's a special time to celebrate, particularly when we recall how the church first began last year. God has been faithful and we are seeing the evidence of his faithfulness as we continue to see lives being transformed, whether here in Evanston on the NU campus, or in Chicago on the UIC campus.

Alumni Spotlight: Louisa Halim

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
Profession: Manufacturing/Operations; Restaurant/Food Service
Company: JJ Multi Utama Indonesia

What do you do in your current profession?
The company mainly operates within the Food & Beverages industry: we source, process, manufacture, and market our coffee brand, JJ Royal Coffee; we operate 2 cafés in the Jakarta International Airports, and we work with several international brands for their entry to the Indonesian market. My main job is to manage the running of the company.

What did you take away from HMCC that has impacted where you are today?
The send-off prayers that everyone had for me on my last week at Ann Arbor, changed my perspective about leaving - I wasn't leaving HMCC, but I am carrying HMCC to other parts of the world. Its very difficult for me to adjust to Indonesian way of living, and this perspective reminds me of my greater purpose in Indonesia.

Looking back, God has prepared my coming back here by putting me in the Global Access small group, where I was able to interact with various people of different cultures, spiritual levels, and languages.

I hope I'd be able to make wise decisions in my work, and still abide to the principles that God wants me to follow. At my current position, the decisions I make have a big impact on many people, and I don't want to risk making mistakes. I am slowly realizing the limitations of my capacity, and I need God's grace to help me progress.