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“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” (John 4:23)

We were overwhelmed to find 170+ people at Nettersheim, seeking to learn about “True Worship.” They were from Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Portugal, Canada, USA, Mexico, Korea, and Germany. The conference was well prepared by Sua Kim (Mannheim), Jesin Yu (Cologne 2), and Paul Lee jr. (Athens 1) as “orga team” with many young (and older) people coworking whole-heartedly.

Wednesday night Samuel Ryu (Mainz) delivered a message on John 4:1-10 (10) – “Encounter with Jesus.” Jesus overcame so many barriers in order to meet one person. With the same urgency, Jesus wants to encounter each person. God's gift is the best we can ever receive, and it is also essential for our lives. Sending his one and only Son Jesus to live among us and even die for our sins is the greatest expression of love. We receive this gift of God freely, undeserved. – Maria (Bern) shared her life testimony. She grew up in a spiritually protected environment. But in high school time, she was influenced by a classmate and started drinking alcohol and smoking. She was discovered as a model. But she despaired about her weight and her looks to the point that she suffered a breakdown. By God's grace, at ISBC 2013, she came to God, responding to the altar call. She received John 3:16 as her life (saving) key verse. She also realized that God has personally called her by name and made her in his image. Esp. young women were touched deeply and thanked God over her for taking a stand.

On Thursday, Natalya (Kyev) led the morning devotion with Matt. 4:1-11. She pointed out that in times of persecution and temptation, we always have a choice to stand on God's side. And we have Jesus as our forerunner and supporter, plus the living word of God. After breakfast we had Bible study in teams; it was gracious and allowed for deep talks. Then we heard the message “The Living Water” on John 4:10-19 (14) from David Shin (Prague). The things of this world may be necessary, like the water in Jacob's well. But they are not enough to quench our real thirst. As humans, we are born with a longing for God in our hearts. While this longing may be suppressed by many visible things, the void in our souls can only be filled by the living, loving God. David's application was open and prayerful, underlining the Bible passage. After lunch, we wrote and shared our reflections which led to encouraging, prayerful team meetings. Afterwards, we had group games.

After dinner, we separated into Ladies and Gents where the participants got the chance to talk about relevant topics with older people in small groups of their age. Later on, everyone came back to the hall where 8 senior members, including P. Mark Vucekovich (Chicago), were ready to answer from among the written (thus anonymous) questions of the participants. The most wanted questions were related to marriage (how to) and married life. The seniors answered the questions well, but time did not allow to handle them all in public. Following that, we watched the intro movie for ISBC 2018 in Louisville, KY, and P. Mark added some invitational comments. Then Hara (Athens 1) shared her life testimony with Gal. 2:20. She comes from a broken family and suffered much from the feeling of not being truly loved. She searched for love in different kinds of relationships that only left her empty. Eventually she joined a Korean language class by Lydia Lee. By an interesting twist, she came to SWS and later Bible study with the missionaries. In Jesus she found the love she had been longing for. Now she prays to become a blessing for others by sharing the love she has received.

After Bible study on Friday morning, Sarah S. Youk (Wuppertal) served the key message from John 4:20-26 – “True Worship.” She pointed out that true worship is living according to the Scriptures. We should know the true object of worship (God), the right way of worship (in the Spirit and in truth) and the reason for worship (God seeks true worshipers as he created us to be most blessed as such). In conclusion, true worship is only possible through Jesus. Sarah's vivid examples from her everyday life really helped us to understand God's desire for us to live as true worshipers. Like the day before, reflection time was encouraging and prayerful.

In the evening, we had 3 life testimonies and 2 reports. Rebeca (Guadalajara) shared her LT on Psalm 23:1-3. Her parents are Mexican pioneering coworkers with M. Timothée Rhee. Her father also served as a missionary to Costa Rica for one year. When her father became seriously ill, Rebeca suffered under the power of death; she also suffered from a lack of meaning in the world. She felt abandoned by God. Because of her mother’s pushing she watched a video of a truly suffering young man who overcame everything by holding on to Jesus. Through this, Rebeca learned to also hold on to God's love and promise. Presently, she stays in Cologne for a year of studying German language while continuing her courses of Spanish literature. – Nada (Budapest) shared her LT on 1 Peter 2:9. She was born in Belgrade where her parents lived as lay missionaries. Due to the Balkan war, the family had to leave and settled in Budapest, having to conquer a completely different language. At school, Nada was alienated. But she overcame and is now studying at Budapest University, coworking with her parents and sister and two more missionary families. She has a blessed identity as a holy nation and royal priesthood. – Isidora (Athens 1) shared her LT on John 8:12. She was born as a twin, but from the outset looked completely different. For years she suffered from being mocked at. Many doctors failed in finding the reason for her illness. Only in her teenage years she was diagnosed as suffering from too much insulin produced by her body. Her father left the family which made Isidora suffer even more. God opened a whole new door for her when she started her studies and met Pauline Lee. She came to meet the family of M. Paul and Lydia Lee, started Bible study and SWS. God's word dispelled the darkness from her heart to see God's love even in her adverse situation. In that way, Isidora could learn to love others, even her father, and also her fellow students.

One report was from Nantes UBF (France). Sarah, Joseph, Céleste and Deborah shared a lively presentation about this ministry. For a long time there was only Shp. Bruno's family of three. Now, the meeting room they rented a few months ago, is already too small. We praise and thank God for the faithful, prayerful service of 2 missionary families with growing young people who have learned a lot by attending Encounter conferences faithfully. Their key verse is about the mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32). – The other report was from Podil UBF (Ukraine). Anna shared how God has used John and Maria Peace who have come as missionaries from the USA. Beginning with Shps. Natalya, God has raised several young women of God. For years, there were hardly any men. But recently, by coworking with other Christians on campus, several young men have joined their ministry. They are looking forward to establishing the first house church in Podil UBF - between Roman (Romeo) and Yulia; they will marry at Lviv (near Poland) on 14 October. The key verse of Podil UBF is also about the mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32).

M. Little-Sarah Kim (Chicago) closed the meeting with prayer, thereby revealing how we can pray for one person to listen to God's word and eventually follow it. This prayer time gave us an opportunity to pray for one soul with a clear decision and purpose.

On Saturday, we studied the John 4:27-42. Before the message, Joy Vucekovich (Chicago) played a beautiful Bach sonata on her violin. The message “Life of Worship” was given by M. Matéus Singh (Lisbon). He declared that worship is the purpose (meaning) of our lives. A life of worship is a life of obedience, as we see from Jesus' own example. And this life is full of joy and strength – at a certain point even beyond the need for physical food. A life of worship is also a life of vision, seeing God working mightily, using us as sowers and as reapers.

We thank God for blessing 170+ young people through the study of not even a whole chapter of the gospel over 3 days. We pray that God will be honored and glorified by seeing true worshipers spread all across Europe and share the joy of deep godly fellowship with their peers.

Thank you for all your prayers.