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Germany UBF
January 27, 2014

Living by Faith

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

We thank God for being with us and working among us in many ways as Immanuel in the year 2013! Our key verse for 2013 was Luke 11:1 “Lord, teach us …” We wanted to have a learning mind and learn from Jesus in many fields, especially his prayer. To learn from Jesus has especially helped us to build sustainable bridges between the generations. God has blessed the prayers and sincere Bible studies of our coworkers and worked silently and powerfully among us and through us.

Some students and teenagers accepted the calling as shepherds for students: In Karlsruhe, Andreas; in Mainz, Samuel Kim, David Kim and Rebekka Ryu; in Bonn, Samuel Kösters, Johannes Phan, Isaak Jeong and Rebekka Dietzel. In Kiel, Henoch and Priska Yun joined the ministry of Harm and Maria Meyer. Martin Kronen who is a blind university graduate prepared the main message for the fall student Bible conference in Bonn based on Ephesians 2:10 in spite of his handicap and his final exams. His message and his life itself testified that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In 2013 God especially blessed our prayers for the coworking of young adults. Some of them met regularly in various cities and formed a new vessel of prayer and fellowship. In these meetings they prepared the “new beginning” conference, which was finally held in Lindau at the Lake of Constance in September. About 35 young adults attended this conference; they appreciated the program very much and were spiritually refreshed by the word of God and the fellowship. We pray that this may be a true new beginning among the young people in our ministry and the beginning of a great revival in Germany and Europe. In Cologne I the Sunday service is completely prepared and held by the young generation once per quarter. The new Gen fellowship in Wuppertal celebrated 5 years of independent Sunday worship services; meanwhile, they have grown from three to seven new Gen coworkers, and they always have at least five students on Sundays.

In the beginning of the year we were blessed through the message of Mother Barry on John 17 and by the lectures of Nehemia Kim on “the Forest of the Bible” and of Isaac Choi about education. In summer Dr. John Jun resumed CME, serving many ministries. We were also greatly encouraged by the visits and spiritual gifts of Dr. Samuel H. Lee and Anna Lee from Zimbabwe, Daniel and Miso Rhee from South Africa, Paul Hong, Paul and Grace Koh, as well as John Baik (El Camino) and many others who served us and prayed with and for the ministry in Germany.

We thank God especially for blessing the International Summer Bible Conference in Indiana/USA. Many coworkers and second gens from all across Germany attended this conference and could learn that we are so loved by God and were encouraged to love. We thank God for allowing us to serve this conference through the opening message by Andreas Hassani, a life testimony by Toni Demir and with musicians for the orchestra. We are thankful for the excellent presentation of Europe through the video organized by Sarah Jeong (Kayser) and the dance of the young generation together with second gens from other European countries. We thank God for the spiritual support for our new generation by the coworkers in Chicago, who hosted around 15 young people after the conference for one week and partly a whole month serving them through intensive Bible study and much love.

God also established many house churches and even sent some of them out as missionaries! In the beginning of January Dr. Samuel Lee & Curie Lee married in Cologne I under the blessing of many of God’s servants; they returned to Cologne permanently in July, and we are grateful for the good prayerful influence of both. Joy (Lee) Kim (Cologne I), who had married Peter Kim in 2012, was sent to Frankfurt permanently to conclude her law education and final exam. In May there were three weddings. Josef Hong married Ruth Sohn from Chicago (USA) in Wuppertal. Esther Choi (Heidelberg) established a house church with Tobias Hergert, who is the ancestor of faith in Karlsruhe. In the same month Samuel Ryu and Maria Park established a house church in Bonn. And in September Johannes Chang established a house church with Maria Choi under the blessing of many servants of God. Mark Teuerle was sent out to New York City and established a house church with Katie Lee, adopting her name for ease of use. Sarah Jeong was sent out to the US in August and established a house church with Kirk Kayser from Toledo UBF; they now support the pioneering ministry in Tempe, Arizona. Jan Winand and Eun-Hye Na were engaged (their wedding is planned for 01/05/2014).

Ulrike Groß and Krystian Freitag (Cologne I) took active part in the medical mission in Uganda. We are all the more thankful for the good influence of the permanent missionaries that were sent from German UBF: Birgit Pierce (Chicago); Elisabeth Chung (now in Chicago, after giving birth to twin boys Noah and Josiah); Johanna Nett (Washington); and the new missionaries Mark Lee (New York) and Sarah Kayser (Tempe).

We thank God that Peter Oh (Hamburg) could finish his Ph.D. in theology this December. He has studied over several years while living as a self-supporting missionary, together with his wife Hanna while raising two grown children as well as two shepherds, Harm Meyer and Silke Lischka, for the ministry in Kiel. Pauline Chang finished her master’s degree in economics at the University of Bonn in spite of her four children and participation in the ministry by believing in Genesis 1:1 and Mark 11:22. In Cologne I, Jan Winand passed his final exams in theology and history; Jonathan Hong and Marie Cho also passed their finals. Both have begun their PhD-studies with scholarships or part time jobs. In Cologne II, Eun-Hae Kwon received baptism.

We thank God that he has helped us to continue in strengthening our relationships with other ministries. Dr. Peter Chang visited Korea together with Prof. Beyerhaus, who attended the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan in November and held a lecture at the UBF staff meeting. Dr. Peter Chang and Petrus Chang attended the 4/14 Window Global Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, which aims to reach the demographic group from age four to fourteen years old, which is the most open and receptive age to every form of spiritual and developmental input. He was also invited to the Global Leadership Summit in 2014 in Geneva. Young adults and teenagers attended the Teenstreet congress in Offenburg, an annual international congress for Christian teenagers organized by Operation Mobilization. They served by organizing an orchestra workshop and learned that God’s power and love are more than they can imagine and that they can trust in him absolutely.

Mainz UBF had their 25th anniversary service. 100 co-workers, friends and Bible students from various chapters attended the service. Mainz, Frankfurt I and II, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt UBF had a joint Easter conference building a vessel of co-working and praying to raise 12 disciples of Jesus in each chapter and pioneer 12 universities in the Rhine-Main area. The coworkers of Cologne II found a new center for Bible studies, meetings, and worship services – almost on the campus of Cologne University.

God has blessed many coworkers’ prayers for Samuel Kum’s healing from paralysis so that he made steady progress on his way back to normal life.

Our key verse for 2014 is Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith is not a feeling or wishful thinking. Faith is a decision and living experience in our daily lives. The ancestors in the Bible and in our ministry have experienced that God is very patient in his love and long-suffering, inconceivable in his promises but faithful, inconceivable in his challenges, but clear. He wants to help us so that we (like our predecessors in faith) may leave footprints of faith, a living spiritual heritage. God wants to create something new through us, the spiritual renewal of this generation. May God help us to renew and deepen our faith.

Our prayer topics are:
1. To renew and deepen our faith through :
a) prayer and deep Bible study;
b) serving German campus students with the fresh and living word of God, raising them as coworkers for world campus mission.
2. For world mission in:
a) supporting the leadership of P. Abraham Kim (Chicago), Shp. David Kim (Korea),
coworking of Shp. Walter Nett, Shp. Reiner Schauwienold, and Shp. Peter Schweitzer together with P. Abraham Lee, M. Kaleb Hong, and Dr. Peter Chang (Germany);
b) serving the 2014 European Summer Bible Conference at Willingen-Upland with 800+ participants;
c) supporting house-church ministries, conferences and Bible schools in Germany and across Europe.
3. For the new generation:
a) to establish a vessel of the Holy Spirit in one heart and mind;
b) to take on a greater leading role in serving world campus mission.
4. For the physical health and well-being, especially of M. Noah You, M. Moses Hur, Samuel Kum, and others.

Reiner Schauwienold