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Austria UBF
January 15, 2014

A Dynamic Witness of Jesus

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

In 2013 God blessed Austria UBF which was spiritually weak and faulty on all sides. God allowed us to see his presence and glory. In this year we got a spiritual orientation to be a dynamic witness of Jesus. I hope that the name of God may be honored by this annual report.

First, the word of God was the power station for our spiritual life.
God allowed us to hear the word of God from the gospel of Matthew from January to May. Every week we heard God’s voice newly to us on Sunday. From June until now we studied the book of Isaiah which was chosen as a new word of God for weekly Bible study and Sunday worship service. This word of God gave us new spiritual power and vision to reconstruct the newly rented Bible center and to serve the campus ministry of God. Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Secondly, the ministry of discipleship.
In Vienna UBF there are 3 Bible study groups, the missionary, high school and university student Bible study. The high school Bible study is called YLTT (young leader training team) consisting of Lydia Han, Sarah Han, Lois Han, Sarang Yang and Daniel Yang Jr. Missionary Sarah Han took care of them with the word of God and with deep prayer.
We wanted God to work here through the Holy Spirit. We prayed that he would give us rain in the spiritual wasteland of Austria. The problem was that at first we didn’t prepare our fields to receive rain.
Since there were no regular university students and shepherds, the YLT-team prepared the fields to receive God’s rain by serving praise music before the Sunday sermon and Bible conferences and Bible schools. Especially Sarah Han Junior was so filled with the Holy Spirit that she tried to help her classmates to come to God in a school trip to Istanbul. She invited one of her boy classmates, who originally came from India to 1:1 Bible study. After that, she had spiritual difficulties and suffering in her high school because she preached the gospel to her friends and teachers. But it is a good sign that our YLTT live in the school as children and witnesses of God. By God’s grace many listened to her and the word of God, so that we could see hope in Austria.
In the latter part of 2013 the university student Bible study group was renewed. From Germany UBF (Cologne and Heidelberg UBF) two university students were sent to Vienna UBF. One is shepherd Johanna Hong, who is a dental medical student. The other one is Hsiaoling Zhang who is a Taiwanese doctorate in the law department. Shepherd Epaphroditus who had been a Korean solider in the previous 2 years came back to the Austrian mission field. Three university students are meeting together every Saturday and study the Bible under me. They grew up as disciples of Jesus and as Bible teachers for Austrian university students. Hisaoling takes care of a Chinese orchestra director and her relatives. Shepherd Epaphroditus feeds brother Julius, who is a classmate of Sarah Junior, with the word of God.

Thirdly, the establishment of a new Bible center near the University of Vienna.
For 16 years, Austria UBF has used a living room of our home as a home Bible center. God has used it preciously as a working place of God. This year around March we had a sense of problem and decided to get a new Bible center outside the home church because the meeting space was limited, and it was not adequate to invite interested students to the home church. The YLTT high school students agreed to this, and we started to pray for a new Bible center near universities where the students can come easily. Our living God guided us to meet a good building owner who possessed an underground storage room. The room location was perfect to satisfy our prayer topics. In addition the owner allowed us to pay the first monthly rent fee after 3 months, so that we could have an enough time to renovate the old underground storage rooms. Although we had very little construction money for it, God granted us the financial support from Chunahn UBF (Korea), Heidelberg UBF (Germany) and Praha UBF (Czech republic). Near the end of the renovation work there was a big accident in which M. Daniela Yang during the painting of the ceiling fell down and was unconscious half an hour until she was transported to the hospital. Our missionaries prayed for her for hours. He heard our sincere prayer and helped her to be healed soon without any after effects. At the end of September the renovation work was finished, and we thanked him through the opening worship service at Oct. 8, 2013 inviting M. Kaleb Hong and Sarah Hong from Germany.
The new Bible center is located downtown. Every Friday we gather together at 9 pm to pray together with the 2nd generation children in the Bible center. God also gave us time to meet in the early morning at 6 O’clock AM in order to start the day with Gods guidance. God filled us with his word and his Holy Spirit to live by faith.

Fourthly, the working place is the second mission field.
For two years, I have been working in a research company. I had no basic environment to do my research work. But in June 2013 a new research laboratory was opened. It seemed to work well. But the business unit had a big financial deficit, so that somebody had to take the responsibility for it. That person was me. I was fired by the business unit leader. It was a big shock for me and my ministry. I prayed and asked the living and Almighty God, who has power to change everything even this serious situation, for help and guidance. Our Almighty God received my repentant prayers and those of my coworkers and solved this problem with the support of the company labor union. I experienced God’s work who gave me a chance to work in the company continually. I now try to use the company not to earn money, but to help the students who work to earn their PhD/ Master’s degree and to meet our Almighty God and know his love for us.

M. Daniel Yang works as a driver in the Korean Embassy in Vienna. God helped him to overcome the risk of dismissal and to extend his job contract. His family has been financially stabilized better than before. He and his family have supported God’s ministry to renovate the new Bible center and to build a spiritual environment and to invite new sheep.
Our God has guided us throughout this year. We saw his overwhelming love towards all kinds of people. We had to go through many ups and downs but God guided us in prayer. I want to thank him personally because his love is great and never ending.

Prayer topics for 2014 (K.V. Matt 28:18-20)
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

1. Bible study: Isaiah and John Gospel
2. Monthly Bible academy and inviting sheep: John‘s Gospel study
3. German Bible teacher and shepherd: Missionaries and YLTT high school students, AUST students

James Han