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Dear coworkers and family in Christ,

On April 20-22, 44 people from nine ministries gathered at Christmount Camp in Black Mountain, NC for a Spring Conference. The ministries were:  Atlanta, Auburn, Bowling Green, Charleston, Charlottesville, Durham, Raleigh, West Virginia, and Wilmington. We came together to worship God and grow in our understanding of how Jesus fulfilled the Gospel. We also prayed that our ministries would grow in unity of the Spirit to serve students of the Southeast.

Based on Luke’s Gospel, our theme was “The Fulfillment of the Gospel”. In Luke, Jesus told His disciples that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.” (Luke 24:47). Through Andrew Dellinger’s message on Luke 3, we learned that we must bear fruit in keeping with this repentance because we have a new life cleansed of sin through Jesus’ baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. Through Chris Kelly’s message on Luke 19, we learned Jesus is the King all of Creation proclaimed as Lord. Jesus brings peace and salvation through His death and resurrection. He is worthy of our praise. Through Wesley Yun’s message on Luke 24, we learned that we can meet the Risen Jesus in Bible study. Jesus’ resurrection plants eternal hope and true peace in our hearts that strengthens us to obey His call to be witnesses to the Gospel.

Southeast students are like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They have heard all the Scriptures, but it doesn’t translate to practical Gospel faith. We pray for Jesus to open their eyes to the reality of our new life in the Gospel, so they will become Gospel-centered disciples of Jesus. Three students, Cullen, David, and Taylor, shared their life testimonies at the conference. They grew up hearing the Word of God. However, it was only when Jesus opened their eyes to the Scriptures that they understood the Gospel and followed Jesus. God is working in their lives to grow their faith. We pray for God to complete His work in them and use them in His salvation work.

There were also many children of various ages at our conference. We prayed for them to receive the message of the fulfillment of the Gospel. So each age group had their own Bible study, the high school and middle school students wrote and performed a skit based on the Luke 19 message and, as part of our Sunday worship service, Jo Lamb gave a children’s message for the youngest children. We pray God may help these children to grow into men and women of God.

Our small ministries were mutually encouraged by our time together. God gave us unity and good fellowship. He taught us to submit to Him and work as one body. Thank you for praying for our conference. We ask for continuous prayer for our ministries to help students in the Southeast fully accept and live by the Gospel.

Sincerely,
Heather and Andrew Dellinger