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Germany UBF

January 30, 2013

Lord, Teach Us!

Key verse: Luke 11:1-2 “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.’”

I. God’s Work in 2012

Praise God who is the source of our lives and who gives us salvation in Jesus Christ, His one and only Son! Praise God who is faithful although we are unfaithful! Praise God who has revealed His purpose among us more clearly in the past year! We held on to Ezra 7:10 as the key verse, praying for Germany to be a Bible student and Bible teacher nation. May God alone receive glory and honor through this report.

Although many of our co-workers in Germany have been Bible teachers to numerous souls for many years, we still need to grow, both in quality and in number. From Ezra we learn that we ourselves must observe and obey God’s word, first. Then God will bless us with all spiritual blessings in whatever we do.

Praise God for his great purpose for German campus mission. As the nation of reformation, Germany should long have been a shepherd nation to the world. But it has lost this purpose due to complacency and hypocrisy as well as losing practical faith in a pragmatic world. In order to restore this nation to God, we need to serve German intellectuals with deep Bible study. We thank God for sending precious missionaries from Korea. Some of them have remained in the German mission field for over 40 years now, beginning with M. Sarah Lee (Köln I) and M. Sarah Chang (Bonn).

This year, we had two staff conferences and one chapter directors’ workshop. In February, the staff conference focused on Numbers 13 – 14 upon which M. David Cho (Frankfurt) challenged us to bolster others in their faith in God’s promises. The September conference had the title “Fan into Flame the Gift of God”. Shp. Knut Rohrmoser (Köln I) gave the key message that helped us to remember what God has already given us and to use it more thoughtfully for the glory of God. We also thanked God for Günter Albert, a Bible-loving protestant preacher from Stuttgart, who covered the whole Bible in order to reveal the many gifts from God that we have at hand.

During the summer, Dr. John Jun had served several regional conferences in Europe with CME (Continuous Missionary Education) on Ephesians. He was supported by Dr. Peter Chang (Bonn) who drove thousands of miles by car and also reached out to the new gens wherever they went. In November and December, Dr. John Jun spent another two months to visit chapters across Germany, including the house-church ministries in Hamburg and Munich. In this way, he encouraged all coworkers and new gens to live their lives with a clear conviction and devotion like Apostle Paul.

We are grateful for the ongoing work of God in the house-church chapters. They tirelessly serve campus students, and most of them serve several sheep faithfully. We pray for them to overcome the barrier of disciple-making. We thank God that several young students made a decision to follow Jesus. We thank God for the house church of Shp. Harm and M. Maria Meyer in Kiel. After M. Peter Oh’s family focused on Hamburg ministry, the Meyer family struggled a lot about whether and how to continue independently. Finally, they realized that God has given them so much grace that they cannot but share it with students in Kiel. May God help all our house church ministries to raise one man like Abraham and one woman like Sarah from among the local students.

The new generation also helps a lot, and more of them are growing as Bible teachers, lead campus Bible groups, and even serve Sunday message. They are bridge-builders between their peers and senior coworkers. Shp. Titus and Maria Keller’s house church serve Dusseldorf II ministry by sharing their Bible house with Dusseldorf I for worship service. And through them, Shervin is growing to be a man of God. Wuppertal fellowship meanwhile has seven new gens working responsibly with much support from Köln I. Their youthful worship and Bible study attracts many young people; but even after 5 years, raising one disciple of Jesus has not been easy. So, they pray to learn and to focus on Jesus. We could also see young people from all German chapters meeting four times in order to discover how they can best help to promote God’s work in and for their own generation. They pray to have their own conference in 2013.

We thank God that P. Abraham Lee (Köln I) finished his Ph.D. studies at Midwest University with great success. Thus he set a good example for our young people struggling with school studies. We are thankful that God has helped our Bible students and new gens to be responsible in their school studies and at their working places. In this way, they could reveal the power and grace of God. We can also see this from their attitude towards marriage. In this post-modern generation, relationships are all relative and limited. But we see the fruit of faith in our young people marrying by faith. This year, God established the house churches of Christoph Tornau (Bonn) and Hanna Ryu (Berlin), Andreas Hassani (Heidelberg) and Hanna Choi (Yonhee), Grace Lee (Köln I) and Henoch Seok (Kwangju), Lydia Hong (Heidelberg) and Paul Soon-Kyo Lee (Yonhee), as well as Peter Kim (Frankfurt I) and Joy Lee (Köln I); Samuel Lee (presently in Boston) and Curie Lee (Chicago) will follow in January. Even some who seemed to remain as singles, are getting married joyfully. In November, Mark Teuerle (Köln I) was engaged to Katie Lee (New York) and is preparing to become a missionary to the USA in 2013.

We praise God over our missionaries from Germany. Birgit Pierce has been an influential missionary to the US for over 20 years, and her three daughters are growing as co-workers in Christ. Elisabeth (Keller) and Paul Chung Jr. have moved to Weirton, West Virginia after Paul’s graduation. They now cowork with Pittsburgh ministry while feeding sheep at their small local campus. Enoch (together with M. Grace) and Samuel Lee have been missionaries to Boston for several years, and they have been of vital influence. M. Henoch is now part of the North American youth conference preparation team (“The Well”). M. Samuel is inclined to return to Germany as soon as possible; for this, he needs to have his paper published in a leading medical journal. Johanna Nett has served two years in Maryland, working with the youngest new gens there. And this year, Catherine Weecxsteen (Köln I) returned to France with many tears since she is now in a remote place. But she has started studying the Bible with her neighbors and visits Nantes campus as much as she can.

God used Shps. Ulrike Groß and M. Sarah Jeong graciously again in supporting medical mission in Uganda. Shp. Stefan Elsholz was a main messenger at the West African international conference. Several other shepherds and missionaries served with messages at conferences across Europe. Missionaries and new gens from Bonn, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and Freiburg served international conferences with music and in various practical ways.

UBF Bonn extended their cooperation with other mission organizations, such as Mission-Net congress in Erfurt, TeenStreet meeting in Oldenburg (Operation Mobilization/OM), Open Doors, call2all, KoI, etc. New gens M. Petrus Chang and Shp. Johannes Chang served as messenger resp. workshop leader during these events, and others contributed significantly as well. Furthermore, Dr. Peter Chang gave a lecture on European mission at KIMNET.

On the other hand, we were deeply troubled this summer when we learned about the severe illness of Shpss. Barbara Lee in Mainz. The cancerous cells in her brain were beyond operation, and she couldn’t suffer more than 12 chemo treatments. After seven months, Jesus called her home on December 8. Through this event, she herself and also her husband Paulus and daughter Daniela (9) came to have real resurrection faith according to John 11:25-26. In the days of tribulation, Mainz UBF was also comforted through the birth of M. Hudson and Grace Kim’s second daughter, who was named Joy. Then, this fall, young Samuel Kum collapsed after worship service at Köln II. Since there are three hospitals within half a mile, he was helped quickly, and the bleeding in his brain could be operated successfully. He has to undergo rehab because the bleeding has paralyzed his left side, but we are thankful to God for giving him the chance to make a fresh start afterwards. While some of our senior co-workers also had serious health issues, God has kept them graciously so far.

II. Direction for 2013

Germany UBF key verse for 2013 is Luke 11:1,2 which says, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.’”In several essential issues of their lives of faith, Jesus taught his disciples more indirectly, through his living example, than directly. Prayer is just one example. E.g., Jesus prayed in the early morning without telling anyone (Mk. 1:35). The disciples knew he was a man of prayer. And they also knew how to pray – habitually. As Jews, they would pray when they got up in the early morning and when they lay down in the evening. They would pray before mealtimes. They would pray when they entered a synagogue or the temple. But they didn’t know how to pray deeply because they had no personal relationship with God. Eventually, they came to realize that they needed to learn how to pray like Jesus, at least like John the Baptist. That is why one of them approached Jesus and asked him to teach them in prayer. It was a seemingly small step to go. But it was a gigantic leap for mankind – far more important than for man to put his foot on the soil of moon.

Now, as Jesus’ disciples, we must pray. And we should learn to pray effectively, not habitually. Our prayer lives should become influential so that children will ask, “Dad/Mom, teach us to pray, “ and our Bible students will ask, “Missionary/shepherd[ess] …, teach us to pray.” Later, when they have come to taste they joy and power of prayer, they will continue to ask, “Missionary/shepherd[ess] …, teach us to be Bible teachers, … disciple-makers.”

Our prayer topics are:

1. Spiritual growth by learning from Jesus …
   1. the joy and power of prayer in our everyday lives;
   2. the love of God helping our new generation to co-work in one heart and mind;
   3. the power of God’s word as Bible teachers for German campuses;
   4. waiting for the work of the Holy Spirit raising shepherds and shepherdesses for German and world campus mission;
2. Prayer for world mission …
   1. supporting the leadership of P. Abraham Kim (Chicago), Shp. David Kim (Korea),
      co-working of Shp. Walter Nett, Shp. Reiner Schauwienold, and Shp. Peter Schweitzer together with P. Abraham Lee, M. Kaleb Hong, and Dr. Peter Chang (Germany);
   2. participating in the 2013 International Summer Bible Conference @ Indiana University, Penn. (“So loved”);
   3. preparing the 2014 European Summer Bible Conference @ Willingen-Upland, Germany;
   4. supporting house-church ministries, conferences and Bible schools in Germany and across Europe;
3. Prayer for the new generation …
   1. establishing a vessel of the Holy Spirit in one heart and mind;
   2. preparing and experiencing a gracious youth conference;
   3. learning from senior leaders how to serve campus and world mission;
4. Prayer for physical health and well-being, esp. for Samuel Kum and our senior missionaries.