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JESUS SAID, “FOLLOW ME”

The Midwest and Missouri Valley Region UBF chapters held a joint summer Bible conference with the theme, “Jesus said, ‘Follow Me’” from July 16-19 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Illinois. A total of 604 persons attended from 28 USA chapters, as well as guests from Russia, Malaysia, China, Ukraine, and Canada. God answered the prayers of his people and poured out his blessings from beginning to the end.

The four main messages were delivered with the conviction of the Holy Spirit; they were heart moving and powerful. Speakers were Dr. Spencer Luebben (Minneapolis)—“Jesus Calls us to be with Him” (Mk 3:1-19); Steve Stasinos (Loyola)—“Follow Me” (Mt 9:1-13); Dan Bockenfeld (IIT)—“Follow Jesus’ Gospel Lifestyle” (Lk 9:18-27); Dr. John K. Lee (Springfield)—“Follow Jesus by Feeding His Sheep” (Jn 21:1-21). We were deeply moved that Jesus, the Almighty God, came to be with sinners like us and that he wants us to be with him. We learned his great hope to use us as his servants to bring his reign to the hearts and lives of people and ultimately to bring us to his kingdom. Jesus not only gives us deep grace, but also life-giving truth that guides us to deny ourselves and take up our crosses to follow him. Jesus promises resurrection victory and eternal glory for those who do so. Finally, we found that we can follow Jesus best by feeding his sheep. The main messages are available on the conference website http://followme2015.ubf.org.

There were 24 morning devotional speakers on three different Bible passages. Speakers on Mark 4:1-20 were Rita Mirza (UIC), Michael Mark (IIT), Tim Sagel (Triton), Jack Magardician (Oakton), John Dang (Milwaukee), Paulina Lee (Toronto), Moses Kim (New Jersey), and Tom Guihan (Truman). Speakers on Luke 5:1-11 were Joshua Perez (Triton), Matt Groters (Truman), Jason Perry (New Jersey), Ilya Ushomirsky (NEIU), Jeff Cummings (Milwaukee), Bamidele Taiwo (Triton), Ike Ukeka (Triton), Carmen Tedeschi (Morraine Valley CC). Speakers on Matthew 7:24-27 included Joe Hester (NEIU), Daniel Shim Jr. (NEIU), Jacob Kim (UIC), Christian Misurac (Columbia), Bradley Tetzlaff (Milwaukee), Grace Yang Park (UIC), Joel Park (New Jersey), Carlos Ocasio (DuPage). Each of the speakers were full of the Holy Spirit and delivered meaningful, well applied messages. Many testified that they received grace through them.

We learned God’s heart for the world through mission reports by Heather Kumanichliev (Bulgaria), Ruth Thompson (St. Petersburg, Russia), John Peace (Podil, Ukraine), and two others whose names cannot be mentioned, as well as a short-term mission report to Mongolia by Stephanie Polvi. Life testimonies were shared by Yaejin Park (UI), Vin Nguyen (Milwaukee), Ben West (Minneapolis), and another person who cannot be named. Amanda Giampietro (Dupage), Angela Salamone (Indianapolis), Samuel Kim (Milwaukee), Karina Bautista (UIC), and Joann Ismael (UIC) shared discipleship testimonies. KC Ikeka (Triton) and Kristin Weed (UIC) shared campus reports. There was also a special lecture by Pastor Stephen Lutz based on his book “King of the Campus,” and a special performance by the Vertical Church Band (associated with Harvest Bible Church in Chicago).

We thank God for the prayers of many of God’s servants, especially Pastor Abraham and Sarah Kim, Mother Sarah Barry, Grace A. Lee, Dr. John and Sunji Jun, and all of our elders and leaders. We thank God for the labor of the messenger team: Mark Yang, Kevin Albright, Augustine Suh, Teddy Hembekides, Paul Dang, and Noah Rhee and I. I am personally very grateful to the planning committee members who met together regularly for over one year to prepare this conference: Bradley Tetzlaff (Milwaukee), Michael Mark (IIT), John K. Lee (Springfield), Steve Stasinos (Chicago), Paul Choi (St. Louis), Little Sarah Kim (Chicago), Faith Grady (Chicago), Joshua Perez (Triton), Sam Lee (UI), and Bob Henkins (IIT). We are all deeply grateful to Mark Vucekovich for his prayer, spiritual advice, and practical labor for this conference. He worked harder than many younger men in planning and preparing the many logistical elements. He has served as a conference planner for UBF conferences for the last 30 years. As he has publicly announced, this was the last conference he will serve in that capacity. He will be succeeded by Edward Papabithini as a conference planner.

From the beginning of conference preparation, we have prayed for 120 undergraduate students to attend this conference, hear Jesus’ voice, and follow him as his disciples. All together 136 came, including exactly 120 from the Midwest region. As we listened to their testimonies during and after the conference we learned that the word of God has worked in their hearts and the Holy Spirit lives in them. They are the hope of God as a new generation of spiritual leaders. We continue to pray for them and want to work with them to make disciples of Jesus on their campuses in this upcoming fall semester.

By Ron Ward