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Heidelberg UBF, Germany
May 1, 2014

From April 18-19, 2014 we had our first Children’s Bible Conference in Heidelberg. We planned this conference in the awareness that besides our mission to serve students we also need to support our children to have personal faith in Jesus and follow him throughout their lives. For this purpose we wanted to give them a good chance to hear the gospel personally and to become friends with other children in the ministry, which can help them to overcome many temptations and remain in God when they are teenagers. So we decided to renounce on our regular spring conference and to have a children’s conference instead and to invite also children from other pioneering chapters. We had no experience for the preparation of a children’s conference but we all prayed for God’s blessing on the children’s conference and tried to bring our five loaves and two fish.

We thank God for blessing the conference beyond our expectation. In total 18 children aged 8-14 from Heidelberg, Darmstadt 1+2, Frankfurt 3 and Berlin attended the conference including some of the children’s friends. They all came with an open heart and expectation. Even though not all knew each other they got to know each other quickly when we started with some games and singing and developed good fellowship during the conference. On the first day we studied Luke chapter 23 in groups according to their age. Then Shp. Markus Abel gave a graceful message on this passage with the title, “Jesus died for our sins.” He emphasized that Jesus did not try to help himself but helped us and died for all our sins. The children followed the messages carefully and actively contributed to the end. After lunch the older children met for memorizing Bible verses, sharing their testimonies and had fellowship watching a Christian movie. The smaller children went out to see sculptures of Jesus’ sufferings in a church and had fellowship in a park.

On Saturday we had Bible study on Luke chapter 24:1-35 and afterwards heard a message entitled “Jesus’ resurrection” from Reiner Schauwienold. He emphasized the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead and how the Risen Jesus helped the women and two disciples to believe in his resurrection. The atmosphere became bright and joyful. In the afternoon the children could chose among various programs like playing soccer, visiting the famous castle or adventures in the woods. All children seemed to enjoy the fellowship so much. When they had to depart in the evening, some were so sad that the conference was over and asked when there would be the next conference. We thank God for blessing our first children’s Bible conference beyond our expectations. We were encouraged to pray more for our children and offer Bible conferences for them regularly to help them grow in faith and develop deep relationships and become a blessing for their generation.