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On August 10-12 CBF had a Summer Bible Conference in Shipshewana, Indiana at the Brethren Retreat Center. Thirty-seven children and twenty-two adults attended and the conference went for three days and two nights, Monday through Wednesday. The theme of the conference and the messages followed the Midwest Regional Conference: “Follow Me” from Matthew 9:9. 

Most of the children came from Chicago, but also 1 came from Triton, 1 from Milwaukee, 1 from Urbana/Champaign and the family of David and Pauline Hwang from Shippensburg, PA attended with their 3 children driving over 9 hours. The response was good and more families from outside chapters want to attend and participate more next time. 

The goal of the conference was to have maximum Bible study and maximum fun-time. The secondary prayer topic was to build relationships among children. God has been blessing so many neighborhood children to come to Chicago CBF and it has been a challenge for our children to learn to get out of their natural groups and learn to embrace others from different backgrounds. We prayed that as they played and came before God, new bonds of friendship would be formed especially with neighborhood kids from outside UBF and we could welcome all the visitors from outside chapters. It was incredible to watch how God worked as our kids made close friends with all the visitors from Shipensburg, Milwaukee, Triton and Urbana/Champagn. As a result they really felt really welcome and everyone made a friend and had a lot of fun, it was an amazing work of God and by far the best blessing of this conference as we saw our kids overcome themselves and reach out. 

The messages were delivered by Sunny Wu (Mk 3:14-16), Hosea Lee (Mt 9:1-13), Sharon McEathron (Lk 5:1-11), Sarah Lee (Lk 9:18-26), Tony King (Mt 28:18-20), Orlando Ocassio (Mt 7:24-27), Art Miranda (John 21), Tim McEathron (Jn 15:5,15). The messages were all very practical, full of many illustrations and emphasizing one point of how we can practically follow Jesus in our life. Children were encouraged to listen for the small whisper of God’s voice and choose one verse to struggle with through writing a repentant conference report. In this way children struggled to find one practical way they can follow Jesus and make a plan of how to do so after. This was very blessed, and children listened well and wrote, for the most part, very practical repentant testimonies based on the word of God. 

In addition, children formed 4 World Mission Groups to prepare mission reports under the direction of 8th Grade leaders. They prepared a country report, creative flag and map made out of export materials of that nation and creatively representing something about that nation and a skit on the history of God’s work in that nation. They prepared China, based on the life of Philip Brown; Malaysia, based on the life of IH; Ukraine, based on the life of the Peace family; and St. Petersburg, Russia, based on the Thompson family. The skits were creative and fun and clearly illustrated the work of God in these places. 

The 3 graduating 8th graders Sam Rayas, Moses Magardician and Daniel King each shared life testimonies and their prayer topics for entering High School. They emphasized how they have personally experienced God during the time they were in CBF and how they pray to overcome temptation in High School and be a blessing. Teachers then prayed for them to commission them to live out their faith in their High School years. 

In preparation for the conference we had one week of Bible study on the 4 main passages. Meetings began with sharing testimonies from the previous day’s passage and then Bible study led by the messenger of that passage and ending with prayer for our conference. Children were challenged to write testimony in three parts: 1. Choose one verse and write what it means, 2. Repent about that verse personally not corporately or applying it to others, 3. Make a practical plan of how you are going to repent. Those who really struggled to apply the passage were then selected to share their testimony at the conference. In this way we were free to have more free-time at the conference, doing the Bible study and testimony writing beforehand. Children wrote sincerely, and their hearts were well prepared for the messages at the conference in this way.

The children also had lots of fun, swimming, boating, playing volleyball, soccer, basketball and making trips to the Amish Cheese Factory. The second day we did Olympic Games that emphasized team-work, with the prize being first in line for all meals for the remainder of the conference. Kids had a lot of fun and made good friends with many new people during this free-time. At night they roomed with and talked to many people they didn’t usually get to meet and on the whole it helped to strengthen the bonds of our community in CBF. 

On the whole, the conference was very successful and helped children to think about the way they are following Jesus and the foundation of their lives. It also helped them to grow in a welcoming heart and that is so important to our CBF as the Spirit is leading us in welcoming so many new community children. In many ways it helped all of us to broaden our heart and horizons. We are so thankful for all the messengers, many of whom travelled 3 hours one way  to serve their message. We are also thankful for Sarah Sohn who came just to lifeguard our children and for the many HBF and young college student volunteers who oversaw the boating and swimming, food serving, and generally making sure no one was left alone and bored: Lina and Rebekah Jeong, Jojo Yu, Apollo Dongas, John Robinson, Grace So, Helen Miranda, Kevin Albright and CBF Fellowship. It was because of God’s blessing and good coworking that we could have a successful conference. Thank you for all your prayers and continual support, may God continually help us to serve our children by his help and the help of our community. 

Amen