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Pretoria UBF, South Africa

April 4, 2013

We had an Easter conference on March 15-17, 2013. The title was: “Young man, get up.” We started the preparation on the first week of February. Wits UBF also joined our conference and the total attendees were 102. Though Sh. Thapelo had many demands from his work, he invited 12 persons to the conference. Bro. Cremildo and Christiano from Mozambique arrived the night of the first day of the conference.

Students were in the midst of their quarter tests and the submission of many assignments. For the first year students it was difficult to participate in the conference, but many of them came and were touched by the words of God that revealed Jesus by the Holy Spirit. 

After eating supper, we studied on Luke 7:11-17 by groups. Bro Eric delivered the message on the same passage. Jesus said to the dead man in a coffin, “Young man, get up.” We could learn that Jesus wants all youth to get up from their coffins of many dead elements. Bro. Eric himself is the son of a widow; in his childhood he went through the pain of poverty and the sense of loss under a widowed mother. He used to lie in the coffin, but he was moved the by heart of Jesus who earnestly wants him to get up from the past shadow.  

Msn Mark Kim led two morning sessions to recite 1 Cor 15:50-58 so that everyone should stand to recite in front of others. It was a burden for the attendants but it later turned into blessing to all of us. The word gave us hope and joy that we would be changed into the imperishable beings and we gained the assurance of the victory in the Risen Jesus.

Sh. Thapelo struggled a lot for preparing the message on Luke 19:1-10. He had the experience of failure in his academic study, and now wanted to prepare the best message. Through writing the message, he met Jesus who calls impossible sinners and wants to have personal fellowship entering his life deeply like he did to Zacchaeus. 

In the night, Sh. Desmond delivered a message on Luke 5:1-11. He dreamt to do something great after graduation from university. But when he started working at a company it was not so impressive or worthy of his devotion. Through one to one study with Msn Jacob Kim, he met Jesus and found that Jesus gave him  the  mission, “You will catch man.” The message was clear enough to be planted in the students’ hearts.

The next morning eleven people shared their Bible Testimonies. There was God’s work in them and they accepted Jesus as their savior. For Bro. Cremildo from Mozambique it was not easy to use English for he was a Portuguese-speaking man, but he wrote his testimony in English giving it great effort. He prayed that Mozambique students also may study the Bible.