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Chongro II UBF,  Jeongneung I & Jeongneung II UBF (Seoul, Korea)

July 20, 2012

From July 6-9, Chongro II UBF held a summer Bible conference at the Choo Yang retreat house located in Gangwon-do Sokcho. It was a united conference with Jeongneung I & II UBF. A total of 155 people attended; among them 33 were new students.  In order to prepare for the conference, we prayed for 100 days before the conference. We could meet 20 new students through our freshman MT meeting and spring Bible café. And through our marathon prayer we began to pray for 30 new students with the slogan, “Make the conference twice as better than last year by the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God.”  Whenever we had a meeting, we prayed not only two by two, but also loudly altogether for about 30 minutes to an hour. Thank God who heard our earnest prayers and sent us 33 new students.

Two months ago, we appointed 10 messengers and servants of God who would serve all the programs in advance. Among the 10 messengers, six were student leaders and four were laymen. The six students were seniors in college and graduate students. We regard them as key leaders in our ministry who need to grow through training. So we gave them many things to do, like the praise team, drama, and various other ways to serve. Moreover, during their training, they wrote their life testimonies and rewrote their messages three or four times and rehearsed them 50 times. In addition, their messages were officially checked more than five times. Holding on to 1 Co 2:4, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,” they prayed for their messages to be the messages through which the Holy Spirit could work mightily. God accepted their prayers and sincere struggles and blessed the conference from the beginning. Actually from the opening message, we could feel something strong – our hearts began burning and we felt the presence of the Holy Spirit.    

The most significant thing at this conference was that all 10 messengers wept during their messages. It was more like wailing. Humanly, they were not gorgeous, but they offered their sincere hearts to God. They delivered their messages with many tears from deep repentant hearts.  All the attendees were moved by their heart moving messages. Their messages touched our souls and shook our inner world.

On the first day, five testimony speakers shared their life testimonies. Their sincere and heart moving testimonies knocked on the doors of the students’ hearts. Twenty Bible students and interim leaders also graciously shared their testimonies with many tears for two days since then. On the third day, one Bible student who has been studying the Bible for less than two months was converted with many tears. Young leaders delivered messages and senior shepherds humbled themselves and served through duo dramas and dancing. Women leaders performed a top girl group dance. Laymen and staff also energetically performed an idol group dance. One leader sacrificially helped one messenger to write his message and struggled together with him by staying overnight several times in the midst of his busy working schedule. It was like the work of God we experienced in the 1980s. Thank and praise God who was present at the conference and worked mightily through the Holy Spirit.  

Personally, I learned four things: First, even in this new millennium God can make the work of God like that of the 1980s. It is easy to have the strong idea that it is too hard to serve campus ministry these days and be fatalistic about outreach. However, I learned that it is my problem of unbelief which restricts the power of God and my own ability. Second, the words of God and prayer are the best program. Third, the youth is hope. They have a lot of possibility and potentiality even though they have no career or experience. When we helped them to overcome some obstacles, they could experience the power of the resurrection and grow spiritually. On the other hand, they share the same language as the new generation and can easily relate to them. So their messages did not scatter in the air, but could penetrate into the new generation’s hearts. We need to raise many more young leaders and shepherds. Fourth, I learned the spirit of unity. The work of God can be done when we work altogether in unity without any exceptions. For this conference, we all worked so hard together with a spirit of unity. Then we could see a great work of God through this conference. I am deeply grateful to all our co-workers who offered themselves as good soldiers of Christ not entangled in civilian affairs.   

The conference is over, but I want to continually see the great work of God this summer and even in the coming fall semester. I am looking forward to the day of the Lord who reveals the glory of God. Thank you, Lord. I love you.

By Spurgeon Lee