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The Hope of God 

(After attending mission center dedication and 35th Anniversary Thanksgiving Worship Service of Bonn UBF) 

Ezekiel 37:10 “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

UBF Bonn celebrated Mission Center Dedication on Sept 19th, and 35th Anniversary Thanksgiving Worship Services on Sept 20th, 2015 in Bonn, Germany. Msn. Grace Park, Sh. David Gates and I were mostly welcomed by Shepherdess Heidi Grigoriadis at Frankfurt airport. Upon arrival to Bonn UBF, we met Missionary Birgit Pierce, Daniel and Deborah Yang from Chicago, Isaac and Rebecca Kim from Akron and David Kim from Indianapolis, Missionary Dr. Peter Kim from Kiev, Missionary Dr. John Joo from Sweden , Missionary Paul Chang from Slovakia. From Germany, Missionary Abraham Lee, Shepherd Walter Nett and many missionaries joined together. The next day on Sept 20, Sunday early morning, Dr. John and Sunji Jun and Dr. Abraham and Sarah Kim from Chicago joined all together. It was always joyful and happy to share the spiritual fellowship with the soldiers of Christ from the world. 

First, let us start rebuilding! The message for mission center dedication service was supposed to be delivered by Missionary Dr. Abraham T. Kim from USA. But he could not make it due to a technical aircraft failure. The feast of celebrating mission center dedication had been perfectly prepared. But the messenger was missing. On the breakfast of the day of the dedication service, I was appointed to deliver the message. I felt like becoming Simon from Cyrene who came to Jerusalem to enjoy Passover but was caught by Roman soldiers to carry out the cross of Jesus to Golgotha. I prepared the message of Dr. Abraham T. Kim and delivered the message as my own with the spirit, following Dr. Peter Chang’s direction of delivering the message. Even though this happened unexpectedly, I was much blessed by the faith of obedience through his servant. The title of Dr. Abraham Kim’s message was “Let us start rebuilding!” based on Nehemiah 2:18. For rebuilding for spiritual awakening and revival of Europe, the message emphasized on three action items. i) believe in the great and awesome God and pray. ii) build up a community and work together. ii) devote to the ministry of the word. Especially, knowing the spiritual hunger for the truth in Europe, we need to renew our conviction and commitment to the words of God. If we do not have our renewed commitment to the words of God, nothing can be built for spiritual awakening and revival of Europe in our generation. Bonn UBF mission center building is fully dedicated to their renewed commitment to the words of God in Europe and mu - nations in midst of spiritual war against the rampantly growing humanism and relativism in Europe. 

Second, decoration of the mission center and construction history. The new mission center is built as an extension of the existing center. Upon entering the newly built center, I could see that all spaces and rooms are decorated very well and meaningfully. The quality of decorating in the new center is highly professional in terms of design and full of spiritual meaning, aligning with the prayer topics. Two walls in the new center are decorated with two maps; one map of Europe along with European pioneering chapters and prayer topics and the other with a world map along with all UBF chapters and prayer topics. The walls decorated with maps visualized the moving and active work of world mission happening all around the world. One side wall of the old part of the center is decorated with the historical pictures of Bonn UBF pioneering work and its visions and prayer topics. These historical pictures with main characters in each period of the work of God in Bonn UBF reveal the vivid work of the Holy spirit in each period and enable us to see the work of God with the deep sense of God’s history. All this decoration of the new center and the architecture of the new buildings proclaim the deepest concerns of God and God’s servants in Bonn UBF. I could see the identity of UBF ministry as a kingdom of priests and the clear direction for world campus ministry with the spirit of giving from generation to generation. The presentation of the new center construction history shows the sacrificial cooperation among mission co-workers in Bonn UBF; native shepherds and missionaries, men and women, young and old, generation to generation. The architecture of the new center building was done professionally. But many parts of construction which did not require professionals were all done by coworkers together day and night. Once in summer, there was a heavy flood after the foundation of the heating system was laid down in the basement. All co-workers in Bonn, including third generations, gathered together all night to draw water from the basement. The whole process of building new center construction was the very active way of building up community of love and working together. Building up community and work together is the second secret of rebuilding for spiritual awakening and revival of Europe which is emphasized in the message of Nehemiah. 

Third, all programs are well orchestrated to reveal God’s vision and spiritual strategy for building up a spiritual army out of dry bones. The main message Dr. John Jun delivered for 35th anniversary worship service based on Ezekiel 37:10 revealed excellently the hope of God of raising up a vast army of God who can fight a good fight for spiritual awakening and revival of Europe. He planted God’s vision in our heart that European campuses which are like a valley full of dry bones will come to life again and a vast army of spiritual soldiers will be established. He encouraged us to work hard and sacrificially for this vision through one-to-one Bible study and discipleship training. In this way he clearly outlined God’s vision as we looked back on 35 years of God’s mighty work. In the programs of mission center dedication, the following programs were included. i) Bonn UBF pioneering ministry, ii) Discipleship ministry, iii) 2nd and 3rd generation ministry with Senfkorn music ministry, iv) Cooperation ministry as our vision. These programs reveal what God has done through Bonn UBF in the past 35 years and what God is going to do through Bonn UBF ministry for the next generation. I thank God who put God’s vision and his strategy in the heart of Dr. Peter Chang for the last 35 years in pioneering Bonn UBF ministry. While serving European UBF as Director, Dr. Peter Chang served the native discipleship ministry and at the same time, he laid the foundation of raising up second generations and each of the house churches scattered here and there in Europe. It was his primary vision and direction in his heart. Thanks to his early action of executing God’s vision and direction for Europe, I did see the abundant spiritual fruits of many second generation’s leading European Summer Bible Conference. Through new mission dedication and 35th anniversary worship service, I could see God’s vision and direction for Europe through our 3rd generation and cooperation ministry. 

One Word : A Vast Army of God for Europe and Muslim nations

By M. John Park, NJ