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Mexico UBF                                                                     

April 10, 2013

So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.            (Luke 15:20)

We praise God for granting us a graceful 2013 Easter Bible conference. It was held from March 28-31 at a Mexico City nearby retreat center. The title of the conference was “Christ’s Everlasting Love” based on Lk 15:20.  Seven chapters participated with a total of 217 attendants including 15 children: Acatlán (25), Cuautitlán (15), IPN (7), Querétaro (6), Morelia (7), and Santo Tomás (4).

God poured out his grace abundantly during the conference through powerful messages, life testimonies, dramas, and music and dance program. We are especially thankful to our Lord for sending many new students to this conference. In past conferences, the number of new Bible students had been low despite the constant work of coworkers to invite students prior to the conference. Therefore, M. Sarah Hwang encouraged all coworkers to invite students to our Friday’s Café Bíblico (Bible Café) and to campus GBS. Through the struggle of coworkers’ sacrificial and faithful invitation, many new students came. These two activities were effectively used as a suitable preparation for students to accept the conference invitation and to receive Jesus in their hearts.  

We are also thankful to God for raising native messengers. Each one of them prepared deep messages through earnest prayer. As a result, the Holy Spirit worked powerfully in our heats to receive God’s word and sincerely repent through testimony writing. Sph. Raúl Muños was in charge of selecting passages, revising messages and training messengers as he guided the whole conference. For a long time, he has been receiving training through M. Abraham Hwang. He has grown not only as an independent messenger but also as a trainer for new messengers which is such an achievement and blessing for our Mexican ministry.  

The first day there was a short opening drama about Jesus’ crucifixion aimed to open our hearts showing us the love of Christ. The afternoon and evening messages were delivered by Juliana from Cuautitlán (Jn 7:37-38) and David (Mk 3:1-6). We could receive Jesus’ invitation to come and drink from His living water as He encouraged us to stretch out our shriveled hand. 7 testimony messengers displayed their precious life-testimony, which moved the hearts of sheep to repent of their sins.

The second day we received God’s word through three messages: Jn 4:4-30 (Rosalba), Lk 15:11-32 (Fabián), and Lk 5:1-11 (Daniel from IPN). We learned that Jesus is our true object of worship, that we can come back in repentance to our heavenly Father, and we received Jesus’ calling to be fishers of men. The Friday’s program also included amusing sports activities, special music and chorus performances, and a documentary video about God’s creation entitled “Las Maravillas de Dios” (God’s Marvelous Creation). 

The messages of the third day were: Juan Carlos (Lk 17:11-19), Alejandro (Jn 19:17-42), and Enrique from Acatlán (1Co 15:1-58). Through them we remembered that we must keep God’s grace and give thanks. Our hearts were moved to tears by an extract from Jesus’ Passion movie that showed the sacrificial love of Jesus paying the price of our sins through shedding his precious blood on the cross. Also, resurrection faith was planted in our hearts. Group Bible study along with the messages led new attendees to write sincere testimonies. Most of them based their testimonies on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the man with the shriveled hand, and the Samaritan woman. Some of them suffered for the lack of love since their families were broken apart through divorce. Others became slaves of pornography due to constant Internet temptation. Moreover, these young students were trapped by the chains of lust. But when they sincerely confessed their sins and repented, Jesus wiped away their sins and granted them forgiveness. We rejoiced and praised Jesus for these precious lives being born again.   

The last program of Saturday was a festival. We could enjoy spectacular dance performances by Acatlán and CU chapters, beautiful music by the united orchestra, a special and heart-moving hymn performed by Monica from Morelia, and a very entertaining drama written and directed by Lenin. The drama was based on the life testimony of M. Efraín from Peru UBF. It served as a clear example of how Jesus totally changes our lives and blesses us unimaginably when we hear his calling and obey his commands. Many hearts were filled with vision and spiritual desire to follow Jesus.

On our last day of conference we had morning message by Fermín (Zec 5:1-11), main message by Jorge (Jer 42-44), and closure message by M. Caleb Lee from Querétaro (Rev 2:10b). These messages encouraged us to be faithful even to the point of death. We pray that all new students that attended this conference may keep their faith and be faithful to Bible study and worship service until they grow in Jesus to become His disciples.

Many parents worked hard to prepare the children’s conference as well. They took turns to serve their kids with spiritual love teaching them the Ten Commandments in a separate facility inside the conference site. We pray that God may help this second generation to grow in the grace of God as shepherds for Jesus’ flock.

Our prayer topic at this time is for the ISBC. We pray the Lord may bless all preparation abundantly and may grant necessary visas and material to all Mexican and International applicants to attend the conference.