Astana Summer Bible Conference
Astana UBF
July 13, 2013
The 2013 Summer Bible Conference was held at N Retreat Center, located in the suburb of Astana, on June 7 -11 with the title “Jesus, Eternal Living Water.” A total of 35 people attended the conference, including 4 from Almaty.
This year, all Korean missionaries from Korean local churches were expelled, except our UBF Ms. In this situation, we began to prepare for a conference by faith saying, “If we got expelled, we got expelled.”
5 native shepherds wholeheartedly prepared the conference main messages. Through them, the power of the Holy Spirit worked through the words of God throughout the conference.
Sh. B, who recently got married, shared the opening message based on Genesis 1 (“God Created the Heavens and the Earth”). On the first night, Sh. A delivered a message based on Genesis 3 (“Fallen Man and God’s Love”). On the second day, Sh. R served the first main lecture based on John 4 entitled “Jesus, the Eternal Living Water.” His message was so heart moving that we all were quenched by Jesus, the eternal living water. On the second night Sh. K served the message titled, “What is your name?” based on Mark 5. After the message, 6 testimony speakers shared very graceful reflections one by one. Afterwards, we all gathered together and had a beautiful time praising God with lit candles. On the third day, the second main lecture was served by Sh. S based on John 21, entitled, “It is finished.” In this message, Sh. S testified about Jesus who was crucified on the cross for our sins.
Some specific things that I want to highlight were how the native leaders volunteered to serve the conference independently and also took responsibility for God’s ministry with a sense of stewardship. God blessed their sincere prayer and faith, and sent 12 new sheep to the conference. Even some old sheep came back to our ministry through this conference.
I earnestly pray for the 12 sheep to grow spiritually through one to one, Sunday worship service, and our meetings. May God protect our church and our missionaries to not be expelled so that we may continue to serve God’s ministry to the end! We are also praying to pioneer new chapters in T, A and K.
By M. D.B.