News > Europe

Annual Report of Austria UBF Ministry 2015

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life

John 14:7 "Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“

I thank God that he granted us to attend the salvation ministry in 2015. Especially I thank God that he let the Austrian campus ministry grow this past year. We started this year based on the word of God in John 14:7 in order to follow Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life. I want to look back on the works the Holy Spirit has done and give all the glory to our God. Thus, God may help me to find the prayer topics and an orientation for 2016.

• The ministry of God’s word   

On the 26th of July, we finished the book of Isaiah, which we began to study since June 2013. We based our questionnaire on the Korean version of Chunahn UBF (Korea) and we redrafted it and studied this book in depth for each chapter. We learned how God poured the Holy Spirit on the prophet Isaiah in the middle of a dark and chaotic age to use him as the servant of God, who preached his word to the Israelites all over the land. Our God is not dead, he recovered the sinful world centered on Israel, and he raised his kingdom and prepared us with for perfect kingdom through Jesus. The book of Isaiah taught us the right attitude we should have towards Austrians and the world.

Since August 2015 we started studying the book of Hebrews. (I) Missionary James Han attended the Sunday worship service in Chicago UBF during an electrochemical society meeting and was moved by the word of Hebrews, therefore deciding the subsequent book after Isaiah. Based on the Old Testament the author of the book of Hebrews testifies Jesus deity as the messiah. Including he shows us that Jesus became the high priest and completed the salvation through his blood on the cross, opening is the doors of the kingdom of God. It was not easy to understand this book, but only through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he taught and let us understand the word and furthermore led us to Jesus Christ. 

• The Bible conference and –school

At the beginning of the year we held our yearly “New Year Conference” in our church, by dividing into two separate groups (Adults& Young Leader Team). During the conference we based our orientation on 2. Corinthians 4: 1-18 to find our personal prayer topics and our yearly key verse. In April (3-5) our Easter Conference was held in Gutenstein with the title “Jesus Resurrection is also my Resurrection!” Thus we studied 1. Corinthians 15 divided in 3 parts in- depth. For the first time Sarah Han (2nd Generation) served as a messenger and Missionary Daniela Yang and Epaphroditus also delivered the messages during the conference. The Morning Devotion was held by Missionary Daniel Yang and Lydia Han by starting the day off with prayer and the word of God. Since it snowed during the conference, we could feel that the resurrection of life was obstructed by such bad conditions but we knew that this grace will surely come to us when we put our faith in it.

At the end of the year, we again visited Gutenstein for our Autumn Bible Conference with the title “My Faith and My God”. This time Lydia Han served as the first messenger with Galatians 2 and Epaphroditus Kim preached from Genesis 1 powerfully. Especially Lydia Han passed her 2nd medical entrance exam and started visiting the Medical University in Vienna since October 2015 and hence served the word of God with a thankful heart. In the conference the participants shared their personal life testimonies each in a different form: Missionary Daniela Yang shared her testimony in a form of a poem, Sarah Han (2nd Gen) with a violin play and sharing her testimony in her reflection verbally and I (Msn. James Han) shared my personal testimony with a power point presentation. This conference helped us to meet our God personally and shape ourselves in faith. Our “escape” into the beautiful nature and mountains, we had a chance to communicate with our God personally and see our living God and his working hands in all things.

On 20th of December we held our annual Christmas Sunday Worship Service by inviting our sheep and friends. We chose Luke 1: 28-39 about how the angel Gabriel came as a messenger to Maria to tell her the good news. Classmates and friends came to attend the Christmas Sunday Service learning about how Jesus birth blessed Marias life. Especially we observed Marias faith and how Jesus could be born in our personal lives. At last we celebrated Jesus birth by sitting down together for lunch and sharing our thoughts and getting to know each other.

During this year we regularly held our monthly bible circle based on the gospel of John. Therefore the new sheep could receive the word of God and meet Jesus personally. Lea and Anita attended this meeting at regular bases and this awoke their interest in the bible. Especially Little Sarah Han received God’s grace through this bible circles since due to her faith, her high school life was hindered by classmates and teachers who prosecuted her at every chance they had. Despite her problems she prayed for her class and friend with faith and through God’s grace, 5 of her classmates attended the bible circle. Therefore we continue to pray for her friends that they may come to bible study and accept Jesus personally.

• Disciple training    

In particular the faith of the 2nd generation became strong and influenced their school and university life practically. Our two missionary families try to start our daily life with daily bread and morning prayer so we receive the word of God day by day and so we can have a personal prayer life, that our faith becomes a part of our daily lives, from a superficial and dependent faith, to a god-centric and individual faith in God. The 2nd Generation serve Gods ministry with stewardship and sincere prayer for the Sunday Worship Service, conference and bible circles. The missionaries support their activity of faith by giving the word of God and by praying. Shepherd Epaphroditus has grown to a servant of God’s word by delivering the message in absence of (me) M. James Han. He changed his major to economics and business management in the winter semester after the bachelor study of astrology. He became a staff member in KOTRA, Vienna. We pray for him, that he grows into a spiritual man of God by faith and personal prayer time and to build up a missionary family when God think the time is right

World mission

On the 29th September,  Shep. Abraham Omoding (Uganda, Africa) visited us to attend his medical conference in Vienna. Two times (March and Nov.) Shep. Tony King (Chicago UBF) joined the Sunday worship service due to business in Europe. In April, Josef Ahns family visited Vienna UBF because Josef Junior had a liver medical conference in Vienna. We had an amazing time while having spiritual fellowship. In particular a polish doctorate student named Raphael visited us regularly. The Holy Spirit guided me to help him with the gospel of John in English bible studies. Through this experience I realized that we can help students who come from other UBF chapter in our mission field, when God allows it and when I give him my 5 bread and 2 fish, by practicing my English.

Prayer topics for 2016

• Bible Study in the gospel of Luke
• Disciple making
• Fishing new sheep through Bible study in Matthew
• That Austria may be a holy nation and holy priesthood