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Sweden UBF
March 4, 2014

The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

Matt. 6:33 ”But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

I. 2013 Report

1. The work of God’s word

The 2012 European national directors’ conference was held in Spain. It was a meaningful conference, held in the same place and at the same time as the Latin American directors’ conference. Through the word from Ephesians, I could renew the attitude of a servant of God’s kingdom. After returning to Sweden, I served the worship service with God’s word from Genesis.
Sr. Kristina attends our Sunday worship service every other week together with her daughter and receives God’s word. From time to time, she cooks and takes the food to us to serve us. It is a specific grace to serve a Chinese student, Alex (engineering, Royal Technical College). He has spiritual thirst and raised some hope in us. Because of his studies and his student job as a bus driver, he doesn’t find much rest in his heart. I pray for him to start one-to-one Bible study. In October, Shep. Allan returned for his dissertation. Due to his writing efforts, he was very busy, every day; still he has joined our Sunday worship service in spite of the long distance between Uppsala and Stockholm. He also serves his colleague Jorgen (agricultural engineering, Uppsala University) who is from Norway, with one-to-one Bible study. Markus has graduated in Law at Stockholm University and is looking for a job. He doesn’t forget to have Bible study even once a year and thus keeps up a spiritual relationship. A Swedish grandmother, Gudrun, keeps up the friendly relationship with M. Grace and corrects her Swedish. Sr. Rebecca from Romania graduated in pharmacy in Italy and came to Sweden to continue her studies; she has deep spiritual desire. Presently, she attends another church, but has one-to-one Bible study with M. Grace.

2. Pioneering work
The greatest work this year in Sweden has been the pioneering of a new campus. Grace Jr. Has entered Örebro University, 200 km from Stockholm, for the study of medicine; thus we could pioneer Örebro University. At the same time, Anna is pioneering Uppsala University through her studies of pharmacy. She will study there for five years; so we pray that she may serve the pioneering work well by sowing the seed of prayer as a mother of prayer and by being a good influence of faith. By grace, we have now three Swedish campuses to pioneer. I thank God and praise his name.

3. International conference in the USA
Because of my father’s health problems, I went to Korea and had difficulties attending this conference. So, Grace Jr. and Kippum Joo joined the conference and received much grace of God’s endless love and had a desire to share this love with Swedish souls. They also visited several chapters in the USA and received much attention and love, learned from their faith and returned full of courage.

4. Inviting students
At the beginning of this year, I visited Korea together with John Jr. because of my father’s health. He had a recurrence of bladder cancer and had to undergo another operation. But the result of this operation was negative, and he had to have a long stay at the hospital. My sister alone took care of him and was heavily burdened. I flew back and forth between Korea and Sweden in order to take care of my father. When his situation improved, I returned to Sweden. Then I received news that his situation was worsening, and I went back to Korea. My mother has symptoms of Alzheimer and needs care. I was happy to take care of my parents and to serve them with prayer and God’s word. Most of all, it was great grace that they kept their living hope in the kingdom of God.

Because of my job at the travel agency, I had the opportunity of visiting Finland and was very curious. Not only we, but many missionaries prayed for the pioneering of Finland, and God heard our prayer. So I visited prayerfully. From the capital Helsinki, it takes 5 hours to reach Kuopio. I took a train and a bus to get there and visit M. Studd Caleb Kim. In summer it is fine there because of long days, but in winter it snows heavily and days are very short – so the place is hard to pioneer. I think that the Kim family is serving the northernmost UBF ministry. They received me with great joy and served delicious food from the southern tip of Korea. We visited Kuopio University and prayed for one man like Abraham to be raised. Afterwards, M. Studd’s family visited us in Sweden and had heartful fellowship with us. We also received the staff family Choi (morther and son Euntaek) from Kyungsung 2, and our children enjoyed the fellowship.

In October, I visited M. Joseph Chin because of his sudden stroke and resulting nausea and palsy. I could tend to him medically with some oriental medicine and acupuncture, and we could go for a walk and have fellowship in prayer and God’s word.

Also, Shep. Walter Nett and M. Sarah Lee came to visit Sweden and were great grace for us. In spite of tiredness from traveling, Shep. Walter visited Södertörn University with Grace Jr. on the night of arrival and prayed there. God accepted this graciously and worked through their visit. During their prayer, Rebecca Sr. passed them, realized they were praying and waited to have a talk. Afterwards, she started one-to-one Bible study with M. Grace. The next day, we went to Uppsala University where Anna is studying and had a prayer meeting, including Allan as well. Shep. Walter led the meeting, and prayed as well as M. Sarah Lee. From there we took a 2-hour ride to Örebro University where Grace Jr. is studying, and we had another prayer meeting. Then, on Sunday, Shep. Walter served our worship service with the same word. It was a short visit, but a precious time for all of us and we felt like a family in the Lord.

5. Financial independence
Because of my father’s sickness, I shut down my medical office for a while and went to Korea. And M. Grace had to take sick leave several times so that it wasn’t easy to be financially independent. But we were well provided for through accompanying travelers, the Stockholm Political Forum, and broadcast coordination.

II. Spiritual Direction and Prayer Topics
This year, I have the direction to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness; but due to several visits to Korea, I could hardly take care of God’s flock. Yet the university entries of Grace Jr. and Anna allowed the pioneering of campuses. Indeed, the 2nd gens are already taking part in the pioneering work. Because of this, I will keep holding on to Matt. 6:33 to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness. Disregarding my own situation and condition, I want to entrust everything to God, this year, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Most of all, I want to be faithful in going to campus regularly, building an altar of prayer, and serving the wandering souls.

Prayer topics:
1. For Sweden to become a royal priesthood, a holy nation (120 Bible teachers and 12 house churches by 2017)
2. For John Joo’s Sunday message; second part of Genesis
3. For 12 teams of one-to-one Bible study
4. For our children to grow physically and spiritually as 2nd gen missionaries
5. For M. Grace’s health (recovery from slipped disc)

One Word: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness

John Joo