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El Camino UBF

Dr. John Baik

Joshua 1:8, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Chapter Report of ECC UBF 2011

I. 2011 Annual Review

A. Overview of God's work in the chapter: In the year 2011, God helped us to form a bond of unity among the disciples. As many disciples deserted God's mission and raised their heels against us in the year 2010, we were greatly discouraged. But in the year 2011, God helped us through his words based on Luke's gospel and the book of Nehemiah to form a unity among ourselves; indeed, all the disciples have become one in mind and heart for God's kingdom work, and it is really fun and pleasant to work together in one spirit. We are very thankful to God for establishing three more house churches - Johnny and Kathryn Pringle, Ty and Jessica Rothrock, and Roberto and Sarah Flores. So, now we have four house churches including the house church of John and April Boos, and they give good influence to all the disciples in the ministry.

B. Personal Bible study: I planned to prepare Bible study notes on Numbers, and 1 and 2 Samuel in the year 2011. But due to my laziness and lack of understanding of the Bible, I did only half of 1 Samuel. But God blessed me to visit Korea for the 50th anniversary, and there, gave me a chance to study the book of Nehemiah. Bible studies on the book of Nehemiah were really inspiring, and I found that it was really a good material for strengthening disciples in Jesus Christ. So, when I came back from Korea, we stopped our Bible study on the book of Luke; instead, we held worship services on the book of Nehemiah for six weeks, and all the disciples were delighted in this book, and were greatly strengthened to stand on God's side firmly. I give great thanks to God for this.

C. One-to-one Bible study and disciple-making ministry: At the 50th anniversary in Korea, while I was preparing my mission report, which I shared at Yonhee UBF and Kyungsung UBF, God inspired me to serve 300 Bible studies a week; only if we established 10 Bible study warriors who would serve more than 20 Bible studies, this prayer topic would be fulfilled, and in my eyes, it was absolutely possible. When I came back from Korea, I shared this prayer topic with all the disciples, and we were all greatly encouraged to pursue this prayer topic wholeheartedly. Then, many warriors began to rise. Bianca Irreola, a young shepherdess majoring in nursing, despite her very busy schedule, worked hard to find sheep and teach them the word of God; she rose to be a warrior. Then, Robert Crane picked up spirit and dedicated himself to God's work completely, and he also rose as a warrior. Jesse Minot who had been so timid, picked up spirit, and rose as a mighty warrior. He became strong in his inner person, and God established Gibran and, later, Brian as disciples through him. Leo, despite the terrible battle in his heart, struggled hard to serve God's work, and became a warrior. Robert Hagan served 20 Bible studies. April Boos, a newly married shepherdess, accepted the challenge of serving 20 Bible studies and struggled hard; one Saturday afternoon, she was done with Bible study at school; it was her 19th Bible study. And she was determined to fulfill her prayer topic of 20 Bible studies that week; so, she decisively began her fishing; God blessed her and sent her one sheep who wanted to study the Bible with her right there, thus, she completed 20 Bible studies. She and her husband John Boos went to school early in the morning, and stayed at school doing fishing and teaching the Bible until late night - they did this every day, and even these days, they do so continually. John Boos served 38 Bible studies, praying to serve 40.  

Johnny Pringle, a newly married shepherd, when a desirable company, Boeing, offered him a full time job even while he was a student at CSULB, and even the work place would be his own school, turned down that offer, so that he would focus on Bible study and be a warrior. When I heard that, I said to myself, 'Ouch,' because I knew how poor he was, and at the same time, I was so thankful to God for giving him such passion for God's work. He worked hard, and even though he could not serve more than 20 Bible studies due to his hectic schedule at school, but just 10-15 Bible studies a week, his spirit was really overwhelming, and all his fellowship members became powerful under his leadership. May God bless him and establish him as an influential leader for the whole world. Indeed, all our shepherds and shepherdesses gave themselves fully to one to one battle in 2011; most of our disciples basically served 10-15 Bible studies every week. Even newly growing disciples - Herman and Jean - served 10-15 Bible studies. Through this prayer topic of serving 300 one to one Bible studies, indeed, God established many mighty warriors - Roberto Flores, Ty Rothrock, Mary Kim, Sarah Kim, Sarah Flores, Chris, Angie,... Right before the Fall conference, we served 301 Bible studies; then, the next week, we served 302 Bible studies; then, we served 303 Bible studies; then, we served 321 Bible studies. We all were amazed at this, and praised God. I praise God for his amazing work among us. In the year 2011, God established 8 new disciples - Herman, Gibran, Eric, Chris, Jean, Taylor Ann, Aileen, and Sarah Baik.

D. Conferences, Bible schools, etc: We had Fall Bible Conference on October 29,30 at Gamlimsan Prayer Mountain, titled, "Look, the Lamb of God!" People look at so many things in the world - others' success or their failures, beautiful looking things of the world or their own painful childhood or family problems or even their own sin problems. But there is no solution, and no hope when people look at these things. John the Baptist delivers his message to all these people to look at Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When we look at Jesus, the Lamb of God, we come to find hope and vision for our life, meaning and purpose of our life, and we come to know what to do and how to live our life. Jesus is the solution to all the problem we have in the world. Total 97 people registered with 58 sheep. We had five messages, and two symposiums at the conference. 11 newly growing disciples served Genesis symposium - they proclaimed God's word and testified how God entered into their lives through the word of God; it was glorious. 16 shepherds and shepherdesses served the Faith symposium. They wrestled with the faith of heroes based on Hebrews 11, and their messages and testimonies were very profound - even though it was very long, "16 messengers," the symposium didn't seem so long at all. Also, as we have done every year, we had Intensive Genesis Bible studies during the winter break and the summer for promising disciple candidates. For several months in the years, all the leaders studied the second half of Exodus - the Tabernacle - chapters 24-40; after Friday meeting was over around 10 o'clock, we studied about the Tabernacle and the sacrifice system - this part of Exodus is full of symbolism and studying this part of Exodus was like building lego blocks, and it was really fun. During the winter break, young disciples who had served the Genesis Symposium at the Fall conference had Bible studies on the first half of Exodus, chapters 1-20.  

E. Coworking, raising children: I thank God for blessing Sarah Baik to go to USC, majoring in Biology. I also thank God for establishing her as a coworker in serving God's kingdom work. During summer, after graduation, she had Genesis Bible studies and God worked powerfully through Genesis, even from the beginning. Then, through Genesis 14, she met God as  God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. She realized that God is the Ultimate Owner of all things, including her own life, because He is the Creator of heaven and earth; she learned that God is the worthy object of her life. Since then, she began to live as a shepherdess, struggling hard to fish sheep at USC all by herself. Now she has four sheep at USC, and she struggles hard to look for new sheep continually. Cori Baik, my second daughter, is in the senior year in high school. May God bless her and guide her to a suitable school. Johnna Baik, my son, is going to be a freshman in high school. May God protect him from all evil and bless him to meet God personally.

F. International mission work and regional networking: God blessed me, John Boos and April Boos to attend the 50th anniversary in Seoul Korea; it was great blessing for all of us to renew our spirit. Especially, we received much grace through the shepherd Padiet Dang from Sudan - indeed, he was great because of his single loyalty to Jesus Christ. While we stayed in Seoul Korea, we were invited to Yonhee UBF center and share our mission report. We enjoyed fellowship with many servants of God there, including shepherd David Kim, the new director of Korea UBF. When I was coming to Korea, I had a secret prayer topic to visit Yonhee Center and Kwangju center, and God blessed me to visit both of them. I thank God for his blessing. We also attended Kyungsung UBF's discipleship conference and studied the book of Nehemiah - it was great blessing. Also, we had a chance to enjoy fellowship with all the Kyungsung UBF coworkers and Ukraine shepherds and shepherdesses, missionary Peter and Sarah Kim. May God bless Ukraine UBF greatly. Later, shepherd Andreas from Heidelberg UBF, in Germany visited us and had fellowship with us for about one week. He was such a noble man, and we enjoyed his presence a lot. May God establish his house church for his kingdom work.

G. Thanksgiving topics: I give thanks to God for his mercy, grace and blessing for me, my family and the ministry. Despite many sins of mine, God has been with us, blessing us to form oneness among ourselves and using us for his purpose. I thank God for giving us his words on Luke's gospel and  the book of Nehemiah. I thank God for establishing 8 new disciples in the year 2011. 

II.  2012 Vision and Strategy

A. 2012 Key Verse: My new year's key verse is Joshua 1:8, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." In the new year 2012, we want to study the book of Joshua in 10 sessions and the gospel of John (chapters 1-12) in 35 sessions. If God gives us a chance, perhaps, we can have special Bible studies on a short book of the Old Testament or of the New Testament, about in four weeks.

B. Conference and Bible school plans: This year, we are planning to have one conference during summer. For the Easter, probably, we will have the Resurrection symposium on the Easter Saturday served by 8 young growing disciples who served Genesis symposium at the Fall conference in 2011. And on the Easter Sunday, we are planning to have special worship service based on Revelation 20-22, if God allows.

C. Ministry Strategy: We will focus on one to one Bible studies during the spring and fall semesters. Then, during the summer vacation and the winter break, we will focus on serving Intensive Genesis Bible studies.

D. Prayer topics: 1) 400 one to one Bible studies; 2) Studies on the book of Joshua and the gospel of John; and 3) we want to learn prayer - so we will struggle to pray a lot so that we can learn what it means to have fellowship with God in prayer, and what it means to pick up spiritual power through prayer.