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THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND MADE HIS DWELLING AMONG US

By Dr. James Han

Key verse: John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

In the beginning of 2017 God gave me his word from John 1:14. God also  gave me spiritual direction that I should not look at the Austrian ministry itself and the people, but to turn my eyes on Jesus Christ and follow him who gave up his glory and holiness and came to this world in the flesh to bring world salvation. I struggled to have faith in God to follow Jesus who became flesh in the Austrian ministry and maintain financial independence.

First, God gave us the life-giving word.

In 2017 God was faithful and worked in our ministry. He gave the Austrian brothers and sisters of faith the word from Luke, Ezra and Nehemiah abundantly, so that we could serve the Sunday worship service in the Spirit and in truth. In the past year, we heard the gospel regarding the kingdom of God through the study of God’s word from the book of Luke. After that we wanted to be spiritually encouraged by the word of God written by the man of God who was also a layperson and lived by faith in God in the foreign country of Persia and Babylon. The continuous word of God was in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. We were greatly challenged by Ezra and Nehemiah and their historical works of faith to live a life of faith as well as doing the works of God.

Vienna 1 UBF Sunday worship service

God blessed the work of disciple making. In this year the 2nd gens who are studying at the University of Vienna grew as disciples of Jesus. Lydia Han who is currently studying medicine at the Vienna medical university stood strong in faith as the oldest daughter and built a spiritual surrounding of God´s ministry. She has served the Sunday worship service and conferences with piano performances and leading the worship. By the leading of the Holy Spirit she was able to organize a Christian medical student bible group and has prayer meetings with them in the Vienna UBF center. She is in the third year of medical school so she is very busy with her studies and with her many exams, but even though she struggles Lydia always searches for Gods guidance and trusts in him only by faith and with the continuous prayer to become a shepherdess and bible teacher, she experienced God personally many times. Her bible students are Anita Moso und Naomi who were her classmates in the high school and Hyunwoo Park who is a member of Vienna boy’s choir.

Another disciple of Jesus is Sarah W.  who came from Cologne UBF, Germany and has grown spiritually in the past year. In the end of May 2017 she passed the entrance exam in the Viennese Academy of fine arts. She received a great blessing from God because she prepared for this exam by faith in God. After her first failure in the entrance examination last year, she started searching for the will of God. She made a decision of faith to break up with her boyfriend and stand on the side of God, loving him wholeheartedly and following only Jesus Christ. Every morning she attends morning Prayer at 6 am and is eager to become a good bible teacher in the eyes of God. She is praying for the Vienna Art Academy to serve students as her prayer for God to raise up Christian art student disciples. She is serving Susie with the word of God who came from Hungary and is studying German literature.

God has been with Sarah Han Junior during the preparation for the medical university in Vienna after her high school graduation. She did her best to receive the grace of God. She failed in the second medical entrance exam. But God already prepared something better for her. God opened the door to enter pharmacy school at Vienna University, and then she found the will of God and followed his direction laying down her own wish and dreams and following only Gods guidance and trusting in Him. God lead many middle school and high students to study the Bible with her. God also brought several Korean members of the Vienna boys choir who are tutored by her also study the Bible with her. She lived a self-supporting life and taught them the word of God. She serves the Sunday worship service and conferences by playing the Cajon and the violin. Her prayer topics are to build a vessel of prayer in the pharmacy faculty. She has helped Julie Park who is the sister of Hyunwoo Park, with the word of God. She attended the Children Bible conference of Germany as the Bible study leader serving the children of missionaries.

The special thanksgiving to God is that Hungil Chang who stayed as a project student in James Han’s research company experienced Jesus personally and was saved after 6 months of Bible study. He suffered from severe depression and from demon possession. He could not communicate normally with others. But he humbly  opened himself to the word of God. He came every Saturday to study the Bible and attend the Sunday Worship Service. Before he returned to Korea, to Hanyang University he confessed his sins of his hatred of his old friend in middle school and accepted Jesus Christ who died for his sins and forgave his enemies. Currently he is staying in Hanyang UBF and is served spiritually by a Korean shepherd. Shepherd Epaphroditus Kim who grew up in Vienna UBF did not spiritually recover yet after leaving UBF. We are praying for him day and night believing that he will return to God again.

Third, God blessed the Bible conferences.

Our spring Bible conference was held on April 12-14 in Gutenstein with the title, “Where, O death, is your victory?” We divided 1 Corinthians 15 into three parts. Three university students, Sarah Han, Sarah Wieland and Lydia Han, served the conference messages. We refreshed our faith in the resurrection and the hope of God´s kingdom during spring where all things are awakened by our Creator. Timo Bonell who is 13 years old attended the spring conference alone, received a lot of grace from the message and the work of the Holy Spirit, so that he presented these spiritual experiences in his German class in his school. His parents called me to praise God for his changed heart and new faith.

Five CBF children from our ministry attended the European children conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on July 6-9, 2017. Our Austrian UBF team prepared a dance praising God according to “Superbook (=the Bible)” and showed the glory of God. M. James Han was raised as a messenger for six adult missionaries and delivered the word of God based on Mark 11:22. In particular Lois Han became spiritually very weak, that she did not want to take part in the children conference. But she was encouraged by Sarah Han Junior before she went to the conference. She struggled very much before God but wrote a life reflection repenting of her sinful life. She opened her painful past and brought it under the cross of Jesus. I thanked God that he helped her who was falling down in the sinful world and saved her soul through the work of the Holy Spirit in this children conference.

We also had an Autumn Bible conference on October 13-15 in Gutenstein, the outer suburb of Vienna. The title of the conference was faith, hope and love. In the beginning of winter we focused on three spiritual virtues not only to learn but also to obtain them in us. Before we had this conference, we were aware of this problem; even if we believe in God, we did not have a practical faith; even if we had hope in God´s kingdom, we lived in the world in the middle of the worldly hopes; even if we had the love of God, we lived a selfish life. We found the sins of our hypocritical lives and repented of them before God. A Russian sheep named Olga who has studied the Bible with Missionary Sarah Han attended this conference and received the word of God and his grace. The word regarding faith delivered Sarah Wieland on the basis of Romans 1:1-17. Sarah Han Junior served us with the word of God from Matthew 6:1-34. Finally, Lydia Han delivered the message of God on the basis of 1Corinthians 13. On the foot of the beautiful Alps, which, God created, we found the faith, Hope and Love which we had lost, and returned to the mission field.

Fourth, God’s blessing on laypersons.

“Both the work place of missionaries and the college studies of our student disciples and the children of our missionaries are also considered mission fields.” I prayed so much to live as a man of God and as a preacher of the gospel in the mission field. I emphasized in the messages and in Bible studies that our lay missionary life should be blessed by God like Joseph in the Old Testament and Daniel who were a great influence in the world. I prayed every day that my working place may become a net to catch people and to obtain them as children of God. God gave me his helping hands so that I could finish two research projects regarding new battery materials. In addition God worked in a research project that I could catch a Korean student from Hanyang University. God guided the

master student who had suffered from serious depression which was caused by hatred against his old classmates. But he came to Jesus Christ, receiving the invitation to the bible study and to Sunday worship services. He accepted the grace of Jesus who forgave the sins of those who were crucifying Him. He returned after 6 months of work to Vienna to Hanyang University especially to Hanyang UBF. He is growing as a man of God and as a disciple of Jesus in Korea.

In November 2017 M. James Han received a PhD-student from South India in his research company. He accepted the invitation of joining the Sunday worship service and after that having German Bible study with a humble heart. He is learning the word of God and is growing as a man of God. It is important to publish a scientific paper, patent and to write the research report in the company. In this year there were some advances and good results in this works. In October there was a major shake up in the research company. A research coordinator who had been invited by M. James Han was dismissed from the company. Her dismissal gave me a big shock. But I saw this event from God’s point of view. I prayed about it humbly before God. I learned that all things, which I see and have can disappear in God’s  timing of God based on his good will. I pray that God may show me his glory in the mission field of the company and continually entrust his sheep for me to minster his word to them.

Prayer topics:

1. To see the living glory of God in the Austrian ministry.
2. To study the gospel of John.
3. To hold monthly Bible schools.
4. To grow YLTT (Young Leader Training Team)-university students as a disciple of Jesus.
5. To pioneer the academy of fine arts, Vienna medical university and Pharmacy in Vienna University and to find a holy seed.
6. The ministry of Vienna UBF II led by M. Daniel Yang.