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by Peter L.

"The Lord is My Strength."

From September 28 to October 1, 2023, the Depok Center Summer Bible Conference was held in a cool and beautiful environment at the Grand Mutiara Hotel. The theme was "The Lord is my strength." Although Indonesia is already over COVID-19, the senior shepherds in our Center are now in their late 40s and 50s, and they are facing many economic difficulties due to worries and concerns about their future retirement after retirement from work, children, and rising prices. In addition, it is very difficult to get the wished-for sheep, unlike in the past, so the atmosphere of the Center has been depressed. God wanted to comfort us and give us new strength, so He allowed us to have a summer retreat that could not be held due to the coronavirus.

Session 1: "The Lord is my strength" (Isaiah 12:1-6, by Seto), Session 2: "Your Word is my strength" (1 Kings 19:1-18, by Iman), Session 3: "I will give you new strength" (Isaiah 40:27-31, by Franky), Session 4: "Prayer is my strength" (James 5: 13-18, by Rudy), Lesson 5: "The Cross is My Strength" (1 Corinthians 1:18-31, by Donald), Lesson 6: "The Fellowship of the believers is My Strength (Acts 24:42-47), and Lesson 7: "The Mission is My Strength" (John 4:31-39, by Cefas). The servants of the Word received the Word deeply and struggled with tears and repentance before the Word, so the Word worked powerfully in our hearts. In addition, God set up 3 life testimony lecturers and six testimony lecturers for this retreat and granted great inspiration and grace to those who listened to the testimonies, thanking Jesus for saving them from their sins and helping them to live a new life and deciding to spend their whole life with the Lord and serve the Lord. On the last night of the third day, CBF organized dances, special songs, games, dancing, and dramas prepared by the six fellowships, and we were able to become a living body of people praising the Lord with our hearts. We thank and praise God for giving us new strength and power through the retreat.

After the retreat, we want to imitate Jesus, who served a Samaritan woman who had no human hope in the Samaritan heat. Through the transformation of this woman, the barren land of Samaria became white and burned with the vision of the harvest. We fervently pray that Jesus' food and Jesus' vision will be our food and vision so that we can please the Lord and be used for His work through our life of serving "one soul."