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Matthew 24:45,   “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?”

  Faithful and wise servants are those who feed people at the proper time with the Word of God as Bible teachers and shepherds. These are disciples of Christ. When we grow as disciples of Jesus, we can be preciously used as faithful and wise servants. By God’s grace, in the last year, São Paulo UBF could pray and participate in the disciple raising ministry through serving a discipleship program and hosting the Young Learders' Conference.

1. Chapters Unification.

  On December 20th of 2015, USP, Consolação and Mooca chapters had a joint Christmas worship service and later unified as one chapter, São Paulo UBF. And so, during the year of 2016, with the purpose of establishing a beautiful church of God, each and everyone prayed for and made great effort to work as one body. We keep praying that our church may grow as a family and that through this environment many Brazilian sheep may listen to the word of God and grow as disciples.

2. Latin America’s Directors Conference in Ecuador.

  On January 27th-30th, we held the Latin America’s Directors Conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador. From São Paulo, missionaries Elias Park, Noé Jeong and Timóteo Han attended the conference. We could visit our coworkers, missionaries Andrew and Anna Kim (sent from Brazil) on their mission field, being a heartwarming and comforting time for all of us.

  Through the messages of shepherd Gustavo Prato from Venezuela and missionary Abraham Kim, we could be renewed in God’s love and in encouragement. The main message based on 2 Corinthians 4, gave us the clear direction to live a Jesus-centered life even in difficult and hopeless situations. During GBS and discussion groups, we could exchange experiences and Biblical advices on solving practical problems faced in our mission fields.

3. Fall Bible Conference.

  On April 21st-24th, we had our Fall Bible Conference with the theme, “Come now, let us settle the matter.” We earnestly prayed that many would listen to Christ’s invitation and experience His wonderful forgiveness and power. 53 persons attended the conference and through the main passage and listening to the testimonies, our hearts were opened and accepted God’s love for us sinners. Roberta, Jeanne, Ataiena, Noah, Manoela, Grace J, Grace K, Eun Hae, Debora and Joan shared their testimonies and each of them confessed how Jesus’ love and forgiveness came into their hearts. 

  We also had a joyful special program with praising, dancing and watching the movie, “The Mission.” The movie made us think how a person, indebted for Jesus’ love and mercy should live throughout his mission life. We also prayed altogether for Daniel Kim’s full recovery. We believe that only God’s power can fully recover him and we pray God may use him as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.

4. Young Leaders Conference.

  During our winter break, we had our 2nd Young Leaders Conference (July 12-15th). God blessed us with 36 participants including international guests (Brazil: 17, USA: 1, Germany: 4, Chile: 2, Argentina: 1, Bolivia: 10, Korea: 1). All messages and programs were held in English. The main theme of the conference was, “Let us be Faith Warriors!,” based on Hebrews chapter 11. We had special lectures, GBS, messages and testimony sharing.

  2nd-generation missionaries Samuel Kim, Joshua Park, Moses Park and Isaac Kim delivered the messages. The special lectures were presented by missionaries Timoteo Han and Noah Jeong. Especially, Dr. Peter Chang from Bonn UBF attended our conference, serving us with prayer and with the word of God.

  After SWS, we visited Arraial do Cabo, in Rio de Janeiro, as a vision trip, admiring the beautiful creation of God. All the participants were amazed and praised God, having a wonderful time. Through this conference, we learned that when we have faith in Jesus, we are greatly blessed by God and by faith, we can please God with our lives. We pray each of us may shine as a faith warrior, being preciously used in God’s salvation ministry.

5. São Paulo CME.

  On September 19-25th, during 1 week, missionaries John and Sunji Jun visited Brazil and served us with the CME program. Without resting even one day, missionary John Jun served us through the entire week with Bible studies, special lectures and with a memorable Sunday message, delivered with power.

  Missionaries studied Galatians 5 and Ephesians 1, 2, and had special lectures on children education and marriage by faith. On Saturday, we wrote testimonies and shared in groups. All missionaries could renew their calling for their mission through the CME program. We learned that the secret to live victorious missionary life is to repent daily and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And so we prayed. We are truly grateful for missionaries John and Sunji Jun who served us with love and companionship.

6. Discipleship program.

  During our 2016 ministry, the Discipleship program was the topic we most prayed for. Noah, Sam Jeong and Abel volunteered as candidates to participate in the program, and by faith, they received training during the first and second semester. But the main feature of this discipleship was that 2nd gens, alumni from previous discipleship, served the whole program. 2nd-gens Moses Park served as the leader and Isaac Kim, Joshua Park, Peter Park and Samuel Kim co-worked altogether, as a strong rope.

  In fact, all of them were challenged during this discipleship, struggling to understand and love each other, trying to practice Jesus’ commands and teachings and setting a spiritual value. After finishing all the program, we held a conference on December 3rd-4th. All 3 candidates shared their life testimonies and took an oath as new disciples of Christ. All participants prayed and blessed them to be good disciples of Christ and fruitful servants. After the oath, Noah and Sam Jeong were baptized.

7. Prayer for a new Bible center.

  After uniting our chapters, we started looking for a new Bible center with bigger capacity. On February we formed a committee (2nd-generation, Joshua Park as the leader) and started praying for it. The members of the committee visited more than 50 houses near campus throughout the year, making a list with all the possible houses.

  And then, after selecting a few with the higher possibilities, we looked for God’s guidance. Currently, we are interested in one building and we are in the process of negotiating with the owner. We pray we may have our own Bible center in 2017.

8. 2017’s key verse and prayer topics

  Key verse: Mark 3:16a, “These are the twelve he appointed.”

  Following last year’s direction, in 2017 I pray that our gospel ministry may focus on spreading the gospel and raising disciples, by faith. I also pray that our co-workers may be participate in prayers and that I may serve with Christ’s love all the discipleship candidates, raising them as His disciples.

Prayer topics:

 1. To raise 12 disciples.

 2. For Evangelizing and to serve 1 soul.

 3. Graceful Sunday messages.

 4. Acquiring a new Bible center(Dr. Elias Park).