The OMEGA to JAMA's Alpha!

hmm...have you worked the title out yet? hehe

Anyways, JAMA is back on! With a change of name and format!

It'll now operate under the name OMEGA - Operation to Mobilise and Equip the Generations in Australia

The OMEGA Jr conference will be January 22-25 2007, and the OMEGA Sr conference will be July 16-19 2007. Put those dates into your diaries now! :)

Here's the article that will be published in the Christian Review this week...

For the past 4 years, the Korean Christian 2^nd Generation community in Sydney has been well served by the ministry of JAMA. In particular, JAMA Jr has had an incredible impact among the youth in the Korean Churches. So often unable to connect with the wider adult congregation, not for lack of trying but especially because of the language barrier, JAMA provided a platform where the Gospel could be preached in the heart language of our youth.

The response was literally hundreds committing their lives over to Christ. A blessing far exceeding our expectations when we first met to plan for the movement itself.

Each succeeding year, the same outpouring and response was witnessed again and again. But among the leadership group, questions were raised. In particular, as we witnessed the miracle of saved lives before our eyes, we couldn’t help but ask, “Lord, to what end?”

This was because the Bible everywhere reminds us that salvation is not an end in itself, but an introduction – an introduction into the subsequent life of a committed follower of Christ. And so we felt the ever-increasing need to help equip and mobilise these young people for God’s work now they were saved.

The obstacle of language that prevented the Gospel being preached effectively to young people in the local churches was also limiting the rate and depth at which these lives newly turned over to Christ could be equipped and mobilised. Specifically, the lack of English speaking, ethnically Korean, Australian raised pastors and leaders meant that the local churches were limited in the scope and impact on their young people.

Historically, JAMA has its roots among 2^nd generation Korean-Americans. It is a movement of prayer and repentance, seeking God’s favour in pouring out revival amongst His people. This is something that all Christians should be engaged in and we should be reminded of that once more. However, as an ongoing ministry, the focus was too broad. Especially in the Korean-Australian context where, simply put, there are just not enough English speaking pastors who understand the Australian cultural context to link up in training and equipping God’s people at the level of the local church.

To this end, some 2^nd generation pastors assembled together to pray and lay the foundations for an ongoing ministry that would connect with and continue the JAMA ministry of years past, but move onto a more focused and specific ministry goal – to train and equip a generation for God’s work in His church. To be the culmination, the end-point of what God has begun and blessed through the ministry of JAMA in Australia.

And so was born OMEGA.

Operation to Mobilise and Equip the Generations in Australia.

Our name is long. But in our name, we carry with us the very reason for our existence. Our name points at once to the vision of the ministry – to mobilise and equip the generations in Australia. In fact, our name IS the vision that God has planted in our hearts for this ministry. In our functional role, we seek to be a ministry which links with the work that was begun through JAMA in the past, yet gives a particular emphasis to training and equipping and mobilising young Christians to be effective workers in their local churches for the future, be that as Sunday school teachers, members of praise teams, or even simply as members of a Bible study group.

As you read this, we thank you for all your prayer and support in making JAMA Australia such a fruitful and blessed ministry. And as you have prayed and supported us in the past, we ask that your continued prayers and thoughts and support be directed to this renewed ministry – OMEGA.