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Columbus UBF
April 14, 2014

JESUS’ CHANGING POWER

“This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” (John 2:11)

I. 2013 Annual Review
Throughout 2013, God blessed us to study Ephesians, the last part of Matthew’s gospel and mainly Acts. The main event in 2013 was the ISBC on August 1-4. 27 attended from Columbus. The ISBC was heart-moving and eye-opening experiences for those who participated. Many accepted “Jesus is the way” and “Remain in me” messages and was moved by the invited lady speaker who demonstrated the importance of “show and tell” evangelism. By God’s grace, I served as the translation coordinator and supported the foreign delegates’ visa interviews with Senator Rob Portman’s personalized letter of support. God blessed it to contribute in helping more than 95% of them to receive their visas. Among them, Shepherd Gustavo from Venezuela received the visa along with his whole family though in the past his visa applications were rejected three times. On December 8, we had the Christmas worship service at the student union of OSU with 40 attendees.

2013 began with helping my daughter, Pauline, and my grandson, Joshua, to move to Philadelphia after Pauline’s delivery and resting three months in Columbus. God granted Dr. John Jeong’s family green cards in 2012 and Dr. John Jeong a job at GE Global Research at Albany, NY in April, 2013. We thanked God for granting him a good job and at the same time we were sorry to send him away to Albany, NY.

Right after the ISBC, we decided to do discipleship workshops at our Friday leaders’ meeting. I thank God for Jeff Gathergood who helped serving Sunday messages and also men’s devotional meeting every Thursday so faithfully, studying Nehemiah and Matthew with Michael, Doug and Msn. Joshua Bang. His wife, Erin, supports him and our ministry in various ways. Jeff delivered Sunday messages once a month. Thank God for this precious family.
Maria Potter, a graduate student at OSU, took stewardship over praise and worship at our Sunday worship service, after Pauline’s moving to Philadelphia, forming a team with Joshua, John Jeong Jr., Andrew and Zun Lin. She serves as the president of the UBF club at OSU.
Zun Lin is from China. Zun Lin grew up as an atheist. He is changing slowly, accepting the gospel in his heart. Andrew grew up as an orphan under foster parent. He is passionate but not disciplined. He wants to do great work of God but cannot handle his job and control his personal life well. I believe that Jesus is working in their hearts and changing them slowly and steadily. They are preparing Genesis Bible study notes in the hope of growing as Bible teachers.
Xumei, a visiting scholar from China to OSU, and her daughter, Angel, are participating in the worship service faithfully.
Grace Onuma came to Columbus from Maryland in order to prepare herself to get into the OSU medical school. She was introduced to us by Msn. Ruth Kim of Washington UBF. She has been a blessing to us through her sincere attitude toward the word of God.

II. 2014 Vision and Strategy
John 2:11 “ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”
First, discipleship workshops. In 2013 every Friday we studied the Sunday passage together and covered different topics of discipleship such as what it means to be a disciple and prayer. This year we want to cover several more topics such as daily bread, evangelism, offering and so on.

Second, on campus Bible study and yoga class. We also have a plan to offer on-campus Bible studies at the student union for students every Wednesday 5-6 pm and a yoga class every Friday 5-6 pm by Dr. Faith Bang. We want to continue to carry out our one-to-one Bible studies and discipleship ministry based on the word of God.

Holding on to John 2:11, I repent my unbelief and believe in Jesus’ changing power, his power to change people into new creations just as he changed water into wine. May God change each one of us into his new creation in Jesus.

May God bless Great Lakes Region to raise disciples of Jesus and missionaries to the world. May God bless the European Bible conference this year.

Henry Park