News > Europe

God’s work in Freiburg began when Missionaries Noah and Deborah, along with their three children, arrived in the city in May 1994. At the time, Johann was 9, Josef 4 und Hanna 3 years old. M. Noah took 70 chairs with him believing that 70 participants shall join his service; later, 12 of whom were/would be sent to Düsseldorf with their own mission.

They started out their life of evangelization based on their personal watchword from Mark 1,1: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God”, because they considered  the  Freiburg Campus a spiritual wasteland. At first, they struggled for viability in Freiburg. They went to the university, accompanied by their children, prayed together for God’s impact on the students and worked among them. M Noah served as preacher at Sunday services and M Deborah helped with prayer and vocals. The initial period was hard and matters were complicated further by Josef’s falling sick. He had to be treated in the hospital for months on end. In this difficult situation, Jesus spoke to M Deborah through John 21,4et seqq.: “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them: Friends, haven´t you any fish? … He said, Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” M Deborah decided to no longer just fight for sustainment and coping with everyday life but first and foremost serve God and His purpose with a new heart. As a result, M Deborah wholeheartedly prepared her Bible study material anew and went to the dormitories and the university seeking young people thirsty for God’s word.

Subsequently, the Lord sent a Chinese student to the Bible studies, who embraced God and met Jesus! To this day, she works in one of Hong Kong’s UBF parishes.  Later, in May of 1994, the Lord led M Deborah to Helene on the Campus. She was a “beautiful student”, as M Deborah once said. She was thirsty for God’s word and attended Genesis Bible studies even though she had already been a faithful Christian. God’s word fulfilled her everytime newly with grace and love. At her first Conference in De Bron, Holland, she was profoundly touched by Peter 2,9. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” She wanted to belong to this royal priesthood with all her heart and heeded God’s calling to serve the Campus mission and live for many juveniles as Jesus´ disciple and shepherdess.

On December 6th 1998, she was appointed as the first shepherdess in Freiburg. For some time, she served 12 students weekly with prayer and Bible studies even though she had to finish her degree, in the belief that God’s word wouldn’t return to her empty. For her studies, the Lord guided Helene to the university at Mulhouse, France as well, where He led a French student to her Bible study. M Deborah had already prayed for Mulhouse and Basel, Switzerland, several years ago to reach the tri border region with the Gospel. Therefore, it was God’s providence in that time to pray for neighboring countries, such as France.

In the fall of 1999, M Deborah and Helene decided to invite students from the university´s administrative office and prayed with all their hearts for the first year students.

At that time, God led me to the Bible studies. I wanted to get to know the Bible. As a matter of principle, I did believe in God but I was reading the Bible personally and delve into it as something very intimate. Above all things, it was magnificent to experience that God is my God, too, that He leads me personally, and takes an interest in me.  Helene always imparted great enthusiasm and encouraged me to embrace God’s word, to grow in faith, and assisted me in life with studies and practical matters. Through her I learned much about helping the fellow human beings - not by being condescending or indifferent but by accepting people for who they are and taking them into one’s own heart.  Many prayed for me cordially, in Freiburg and also shepherd Mark Yang and others in Cologne. Thanks to their prayers and God’s guidance I participated in the GUS- Conference in Moscow in 2002. Every sermon there touched my heart, though the auditorium was just about overcrowded.

For the first time, I thanked God aloud and prayed along with others. It was pleasant and liberating. I wanted accept Jesus as my Master over my life and I wanted to desist from living my old life. I wanted to start a new life and – though I was still on earth – I already live in God’s kingdom as well as belonging to the holy people and the royal priesthood. Mark Yang, M Deborah, and Helene encouraged me to live as Jesus’ follower. A disciple of Jesus’ is he who learns from Him and follows in His wake. I no longer I wanted to follow my own thoughts and myself, but Jesus. Hence, I resolved to live as a disciple and be a shepherdess to help and serve others. After the conference, I also decided to stop chasing men. I wanted to await God’s guidance regarding family inception. With a new heart I wanted to partake in the services to personally meet God and serve Him. By way of my own story, I experienced that God answers the prayers of those who pray jointly for the salvation of another human’s soul. On October 13th 2002, we celebrated my shepherd’s installation with guests from Heidelberg. My personal watchword was John 4:14: “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

At Christmas 2002, we hosted our first independent conference and celebrated Jesus’ birth with messages, statements, choral pieces, and two Russian dances.  Following this, we kept arranging the conferences ourselves. Although we were not great in numbers, the conferences always have had a gracious effect on me. Usually, we had several tasks at once: we preached, we conducted Bible studies, prayed, wrote spiritual statements, sang, and danced. I always returned home strengthened to live as a precious daughter of God and to fight the good fight in this world. We kept going to nationwide and international conferences as well, and M Noah’s old VW bus was a most trusty tool. On the road, we sang a good many hymns of praise. Coming back, the bus failed us a number of times and we stood out in the boondocks waiting for the German Automobile Club. Still, those were good times. We prayed for the bus as well, being the means of transportation, the mission’s vehicle if you will, so we would make it at least to the conference sites.

The weekly “Bible circle of fire”, guided by Helene, was a steady source of grace.  Mostly, M Deborah and I participated. It was like an oasis in the midst of a busy week. God’s word refreshed and empowered us, and granted us guidance. We presented our statements and prayed for one another. Through this, I came to know God on a deeper and more personal level as well as His will for myself and the entire world.

During my studies I was encouraged by M Deborah, M Noah, and Helene to  always live by faith and learn through faith,  to study for the honor of God and to do my best. This liberated me from some self-centeredness and helped me finish my degree. It was only by His grace that I managed. Then I was still wondering about having a family or if I rather serve God by myself. In 2006, we partook at the world mission report in Seoul, South Korea. The day before last, we decided to join the early prayer, which was pretty early indeed, even though we still were exhausted from the previous exciting days of travel. There I prayed too for the continuing direction of God regarding me and the foundation of the family according to His will with whom I may best serve God, with a husband who loves Jesus the most. Before long, M David and I were introduced to each other. We exchanged our life testimonies and many servants of God prayed for us and the Lord’s guidance. We celebrated a small engagement in the library of the Anam-Center. It was all quite unexpected and surprising. And miraculously we managed to successfully converse in English which was astonishing since both of us lacked practice. In the meantime, I reflected if what I did was right. Then, however, I decided to simply place everything into God’s hands. In August 2006, God founded our house church as the first of its kind in Freiburg. M David chose John 25, 15 as our key verse. “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

God blessed us and sent me as a short-term missionary down south to the city of Constance, where I studied for a semester. Being a pioneer and to pray for university and city was a special experience for me. At first, I didn’t know how to invite students as there was no Bible center. But then God sent Marija or Olesja to gracious Bible studies in my living room. God also answered the urgent prayers of all the contributors and granted me an internship and later a teacher’s position in Freiburg, which is nothing short of miracle, really. That way we could continue to serve God’s work in Freiburg.

In September of the same year, Johann You embraced the call to live as a Bible teacher and was appointed shepherd. In October 2007, he began his studies in business informatics in Villingen-Schwenningen and also became a short-term missionary. After M Noah and M Deborah had provided their apartment for 13 years, by faith they decided to buy another suitable one to make it the center. Presently, God granted us a single room apartment as our own Bible center right next to the one owned by missionaries Deborah and Noah.

In September 2008, two years after our family foundation, M David was sent to Freiburg on His own mission. By his joining and service, he encouraged all contributors: Every week since his arrival, he prepares the room for service and writes a huge banner displaying the message title.  God gave his word to him plentifully and used him as a wonderful preacher at services and conferences, by which everyone was heartened. Even though he had finished his law studies in Seoul, he resolved to complete nurse training in Germany first to better serve World Mission self-sufficiently. I can bear testimony to the working of God’s grace in our house church. While we didn’t have much initially, God provided all things necessary, i. e. an apartment and finances. Simultaneously with M David’s immigration, a Korean restaurant opened temporarily where he could work and have plenty Korean food. This made for a marvelous transition. God helped M David learn German quickly and not only gave him a trainee position but also a good certificate and a job at a local hospital.

In spring 2009, God sent Thorsten Preg to us by invitation of M Deborah. He felt great joy about it and first joined the Bible circle and later Bible study as well. Before long, he participated in the European Summer Bible Conference, where he received much grace.

Later that year, on November 15th, a thanksgiving service was held for UBF Freiburg had been in existence for 15 years. Many guests from Cologne, Wuppertal, and Stuttgart were in attendance. Several presented their testimonies and Josef was instated shepherd. Thorsten Preg, having been a Bible student for some time now, decided to live as a bearer of hope in this time.

By 2010, the Lord had us serve not only at the university but also the Freiburg conservatory and the teachers college.

In the very same year, Hanna was blessed particularly. First, she was appointed shepherdess by God’s gracious guidance in July. Afterwards, He granted her a summer stay in Chicago, which lasted 50 days. She lived with M. Sarah Barry and M Anna Yang and studied the entire book of Genesis with the latter in English. By this she was spiritually strengthened and returned with the desire to keep growing in that regard.

I doubted whether I could really ever have children. But all the contributors prayed wholeheartedly, and in the summer of 2010 we had yet another grand reason to give thanks. On 26th August, by God´s overflowing grace, our contributor Grace Anna Song was born. We were all very joyous. On 5th January 2013 (the wedding day of Curie and Samuel), Esther Sarang was born, and on 26th September 2014, Daniel Mose was brought forth. What an overabundant grace by God for us. It’s a great encouragement and a blessing, even though I couldn’t believe in said grace 5 years ago.

In April of 2011, God answered numerous prayers for a man whom the Lord has called to his work, and led Thorsten Preg to Jesus’ discipleship. He decided to live as a shepherd for others and grow by Bible study and ministry. Thorsten always stressed that public speaking wracked his nerves. But God blessed him and made him too a competent preacher. He did give sermons at two major Summer Bible Conferences so far. The first time, he preached about Ezekiel 37. It was a blessing for us that Thorsten served all participants with his message. (As an attunement, we performed a resurrection dance. Especially M David practiced often at nighttime in our living room.)

M Noah has been serving UBF Freiburg chapter as leader and preacher for 20 years. He prepares the message for every Sunday, praying and fighting the good fight through the week. When his employer demanded he work even more on weekends, he decided to resign in order to conduct the Sunday service. When M Noah fell sick unexpectedly four years ago and had to be hospitalized, all we could do was pray. God gave him good health and strength so far which we greatly appreciate. A year ago, M Noah rode his cycle to university when he had an accident resulting in a fractured hip joint. He told us that God broke his hip as He had done unto Jacob’s and that, being in the hospital, he would pray now and have time to come before the Almighty. 

Meanwhile, the Lord still affected Hanna’s graciously. In April 2012, she also had started nurse training to serve world mission with her work too. The Lord gave her wisdom and success, making her a model student with mostly straight As. Then, God gave Hanna His word, encouragement, and spiritual growth so that she has become a wonderful coworker and serves God with her gifts, with vocals, as a sitter, as cake baker, Bible study leader, and as a preacher. I am rather stunned: When I joined UBF Freiburg, Hanna was just 8 years old but the Lord had her grow in all aspects! She encourages us time and again by her faith and her fresh, new ideas. She wants to serve God’s work and love Him wholeheartedly.

Josef has grown up as well and serves as presenter on Sundays and also at the conferences as talented photographer and technician.

M David’s training proved to be a source of blessing for other people as well. First, God led Ben to us. Ben and David worked both on a ward with many older nurses that were rather strict and fierce and quick-tempered. Ben and M David grew closer, and soon the former visited us and later joined Bible studies. He also took part in our Fall Bible conference in 2011 - and enthusiastically too. When Ben came, it was his habit to get disheartened quickly. After three years of Bible study, however, we noticed he doesn’t think as negatively anymore and that God was at work in him.

Thorsten Kohlscheen was a fellow trainee of M David’s. From winter 2012 he joined the Bible circle and later attended the services faithfully. Soon he also had Bible studies with M David. Thorsten thanked God who had given him M David as a good friend. Thorsten rejoiced in God and thanked him also for help and salvation in his life. Not long ago he made the decision to be a follower of Jesus and be a shepherd for other people. We thank God much for his influence and his grace in Thorsten’s life.

When I heard that Birgit Steller from Heidelberg quite unexpectedly went home to our Father in Heaven, I thought about life. I realized that I took many things for granted. It is not entirely a given that we may conduct and attend divine service. I thank God and our coworkers for all siblings in faith, for the parish, for our house church, my parents and siblings, and everyone who joined us up until this day. I thank God who has been our good shepherd throughout the years and helps us in our weakness, consoles us, edifies us with his word, and grants us strength, guidance, and vision. 

We prayed for 12 female and 12 male disciples, 12 house churches in Freiburg.  In a sense, God already answered our prayers and has appointed 6 or by and by rather 7 shepherds. I thank God for He found and called me M Deborah says, we are never unemployed with God. I was glad about this fact - in the world we may lose our work, sometimes even the meaning of life but still have work in God.  But in God there is no hopelessness or sadness for we will find the meaning of life in Him and there will always be work in His service. Previously, we were like the unemployed people in Jesus’ parable, loitering about in broad daylight but now we have a wonderful calling: we live in God and for God. M Deborah keeps saying: it’s the healthiest way of living and simultaneously the best of all sports to pray, walk to university and help students. Consequently, there is no time to be desperate or to do futile things. We thank God with all our hearts for His graciousness, the Salvation through Him, and His call. Our prayer requests are 12 male disciples, 12 female disciples, 12 house churches, good cooperation, and that God’s benediction keeps on flowing.

By Rebekka Yaroslava Song