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Key Verse Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

I thank God who blessed 2015 Canadian Summer Bible Conference abundantly at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada from July 9-12, 2015.

I believe that God was pleased with our conference. I thank all the servants who worked very hard to prepare the conference with all their hearts: messengers, group Bible study leaders, tech team, and all those who served behind the scenes.

We began to prepare the conference from October 2014 with the appointment of the summer Bible conference committee: Joan Lee, James Seo, David Jumeau, Isaac Kim, Sara Lee, Matthew Jun, Anna Sung, Scott Byers-Lane and Henry Kim. We agreed on the theme, “Faith that pleases God,” and we decided to study what faith is, focusing on what we believe, based on the Apostles’ Creed.

More importance was placed on group Bible studies. We allocated 2 hours each day for 3 days for group Bible studies, and helped group leaders to prepare their notes through Google Hangout Bible studies 3 times before the conference. As a result, many people said that the highlight of the conference was the group Bible studies. They enjoyed fellowship in studying God’s word. In order to have 2 hour Bible studies, we had to sacrifice special programs. But several people said that they were able to participate in the conference without the stress of preparing special programs.

We were committed to mentoring and training young disciples to be messengers. They gave their best in preparing their messages. We gave them strict deadlines to finish and upload their messages so that there would not be any last minute preparation at the conference. Many revised their messages many times, and they were fully ready by the conference, and we felt that their messages sprang from love for Jesus and for the word of God. Messengers were Luke West (opening); Marcel Rodney (Friday morning devotion); David Chang (Friday main); Joseph Minielli (Friday evening); Mark Lee (Saturday morning devotion); Sara Lee (Saturday main); Philip Wong (Saturday evening); Scott Byers-Lane (Sunday main); Andrew Christopher (closing). In order to respect the bilingual nature of Canada, we had one French message (Philip Wong).

There was a gracious life testimony by Ian Agard. There were 5 faith symposium speakers who testified how they learned faith in their practical lives: Wade Morrison, Samuel Mukwedeya, Jennifer Stumpf, John Giesbrecht, and Grace Hong. There were 3 mission reports by Luke Hong Jr. (Uganda), Curie Lee (USA), and Johannes Lee (Germany). There were 3 Bible testimonies by Anna Sung, Charles Kim Jr. and Esther Kim (Toronto), which encouraged others to write reflections on the Bible passages.

We had a panel discussion on faith, where we discussed questions on faith we collected through our conference web site. We had worship and prayer night on Saturday, led by Johnny Lee. A united band from several chapters led worship and many young people were moved by the songs.

It was the first Canadian conference where every chapter in Canada participated by sending at least one person. We had 288 registrations. I thank western Canada coworkers who came from far away. It was our sincere prayer that each attendee may learn faith that pleases God, and 26 group Bible study leaders may grow as excellent Bible teachers. God indeed answered our prayers. They clearly testified that Jesus is the Son of God through their Bible study.

Personally, I learned that faith that pleases God is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. When we declare Jesus as the Son of God through our Bible study, dry bones will come alive. Canadian ministry is like dry bones. Many people, including myself, have been saying, “Raising disciples among Canadian students is impossible. Our strength is gone.” But at the end of the conference, I saw a vast army, raised by the Holy Spirit, to conquer 300 campuses in Canada.

You may look at the following conference web site for pictures and messages. It will be kept open for one year:

2015sbc.stgeorgeubf.org

Thank you for your prayers for Canada.

Henry Kim