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"I will be joyful in God my Savior" (Hab. 3:18)

Thank and praise God for blessing 2017 CIS Directors New Year Conference with heart moving words of God! We held our conference in a humble hotel in Moscow. We thank God for CIS leaders, P. Abraham Kim, other overseas guests and S. Alexey Belykh and the coworkers of Moscow UBF who served this conference with much prayers and sacrifices! We were all filled with joy in God our Savior! Praise our living God!

• Conference Preparation 

For this conference, our CIS leaders independently and prayerfully prepared the messages and all the programs. Since September 2016, our CIS leaders prayed together and had much discussions for the messages and programs. God moved our hearts to decide to have deep Bible study on the Book of Habakkuk. We decided that the native leaders and missionaries would have separate special lectures according to their special needs. Due to “Yarovaya Law” which is a legislation of anti-terrorism and religion, many hotels did not allow us to have our conference. But God answered our prayers to find one small and humble hotel where we could have our conference! Over 90 attended the conference and received full of grace and truth! Praise God!

• The Work of God’s Words

Our conference programs had a main focus on studying and listening the words of God. We assigned enough quality time for Group Bible study. The Holy Spirit moved the hearts of all the attendants to be full of inner joy through the deep Bible studies. The words of God through the messengers were powerful and filled our hearts with unspeakable joy, love and grace of God! The first lecture was delivered by S. Alexey Belykh, with the title of “The Righteous will live by faith” from Habakkuk 1:1 – 2:20. We learned God will judge the wicked when the world is full of ungodliness and violence. Therefore we have to live by faith in God. This message led us to decide to live by faith and render victory to God in 2017! The second lecture was delivered by P. Abraham Kim, with the title of “Look forward to the Day of God” from 2 Peter 3:1-18. This powerful message led us to sincerely repent our petty earthly desires, such as marriage, success, nice house and wealth. God helped us to look forward to the Day of God from our hearts. We expressed our new decision, by saying “Maranatha” which means “the Lord is coming.” The third lecture was delivered by S. Abraham Staas (Almaty UBF), with the title of “I will be joyful in God my Savior” from Habakkuk 3:1-19. His message well expressed the overflowing joy of Habakkuk because of his unwavering faith that our Savior God will surely save his own people.

Throughout the conference, God moved our hearts with the Holy Spirit and filled our soul with full of grace and joys like fountain! M Isaac Choi (Moscow) witnessed his son’s face shining with joy and grace, coming from the conference. All our coworkers felt hot with inner burning joy, even while we were embracing each other tightly for our separation to leave for our mission land where bitter cold (minus 20 C or 0 F) await. The cold weather and the cross of mission could not take away our joy. We all decided to live by faith in God, overcome the world and give God great victory in our campus gospel work in 2017!  

• Special Lectures

At the evening of the second day (Jan 3rd), native shepherds and missionaries divided into two groups for special lectures. S. Changwon Kim (Gwanak I) gave a special lecture on “the Holy Spirit” for the missionaries and P. Ron Ward gave a special lecture on “Discipleship” for the native leaders. Both groups expressed that two separate special lectures were very effective and educational to meet their specific needs. Missionaries could learn more about the work of the Holy Spirit in depth and native leaders had a great opportunity to learn about discipleship through the lecture and discussion with P. Ron.

Personally I (Caleb Han) learned several things through this conference. First, God blesses those who want to please God and learn from God more and more. We are chosen by God to glorify him. We are not seeking worldly glory or pleasure, but we are seeking God’s glory in CIS. When God is with us and we get to know God deeper and deeper, we are joyful and strengthened to overcome all the hardships. When we prepared our conference with our utmost desire to please God and to know him better, the Spirit of God has filled our hearts with great joy. Secondly, I learned that we must let the Holy Spirit, not our human efforts, lead us. Many nights, I could not sleep well, worrying how or by what message or by what programs I can move the hearts of our great coworkers during the conference. God gave me his words, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22) and “live by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). With these words of God in mind, I tried hard to hold the words of God and follow the leading of the Spirit. Then I experienced that the Spirit of God blessed all the preparation and conference, inspiring all the attendants to have full of grace and joy during the conference!

Lord, I am weak and helpless. I lack spiritual discernment, power of God’s word and power of prayer. And I speak poorly. But I believe in God and I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit! God is living and he is with our CIS coworkers always. May God be with our CIS coworkers who long for the Kingdom of God and live by faith in 2017! May God give P. Abraham Kim the words of God and the spirit of Prayer!

CIS Prayer Topics

• May God grow our native leaders and 2nd Gens to become spiritual leaders
• May God help S. Moses Alexey to serve independent ministry in Yakuzia, Russia and establish a house church 
• May God send pioneers to Gruzia (Georgia) and Azerbaijan 
• May God give a favorable decision to the Moscow UBF for its Bible Center, from the Supreme Court (Feb 21st, 2017)

One Word: “I will be joyful in God my Savior”   

by Caleb Han (CIS Cordinator)