News > Europe

Dear world mission co-workers in Christ,

Happy New Year! I wish you a joyful and a blessed 2012.

Thank you for your prayer support for Europe UBF throughout the year 2011. I am writing to you to share wonderful news about the Mission-Net Congress 2011.

The Mission-Net congress takes place every two years in Europe - for Europe and by Europe. It is also the only pan-European mission congress for young people ages of 16-30. It is supported by some of the biggest mission organisations and Christian networks in Europe.

UBF’s cooperation relationship with Mission-Net started out with a website translation request from Mission-Net in the beginning of last year. Bonn UBF co-workers translated the congress website into Korean and in summer 2011, Evi Rodemann, the Mission-Net Director came over to the EYLC (European Young Leaders’ Conference) in Eifelto promote the Mission-Net Congress 2011/12 and invite UBF’s young leaders. So at this year’s congress, four next generation missionaries (Dr. Petrus Chang, Dr. Johannes Chang, Sarah Eun-Jie Park, Deborah Chang), two national shepherds (Jochen Schweitzer, Christoph Tornau), and two missionaries (Monika Kösters, Hanna Ryu) attended as UBF representatives.

The mandate for this year’s congress was “Transforming our world!” More than 2650 young and eager Christians from over 40 nations in Europe and 15 Non-European countries gathered in the city of Erfurt in East Germany seeking God’s calling in their lives. Jason Mandryk (Author, Operation World) said, "it is a foretaste of heaven – worshipping and praying followers of Jesus coming together from different cultures, languages, races, generations to glorify Him. It’s also wonderful to see young people mobilised and equipped to impact their communities and the unreached with the Gospel.”

Mission-Net Congress 2011 was a living proof that God has left remnants for the spiritual revival in Europe. This event was not for the faint of the heart, but for determined young Christians ready to obey God’s calling and to be sent out to every corner of the globe, to wherever He may lead. It was simply amazing to witness countless European young people decided for Christ and for mission with our very own eyes.

At the Global Market, UBF exhibited as one of the 120 mainstream mission agencies in Europe. Global market provided us with various opportunities to introduce and expose ourselves in the pool of more than 120 European mission organisations. This time, we were able to share a fruitful fellowship with several of them including OM (Operation Mobilisation), SMD (Student Mission Deutschland), Campus for Christ, CEF (Children Evangelical Fellowship), WEC (Worldwide EvangelisationforChrist), Wycliffe Global Alliance, OMF (Overseas Mission Fellowship), SEND International, and more. In the pool of 120 mission organisations in Europe, UBF shone its uniqueness as a Bible-study-centered community and a campus ministry through self-supporting lay missionaries worldwide.

Speakers at the Mission-Net Congress 2011-12 were evangelical, to-the-point, and powerful. Ramez and Rebecca Atallah (General Director of the Bible Society of Egypt) led us through the Daniel Bible study every morning. They challenged young Europeans to stand firm in their decisions of faith as Christians living in pagan Europe. Through each Bible study, they planted life-giving spirit to the young ones and Rebecca encouraged us to develop a habit of obedience from a young age.

Charlie Hadjiev (Student ministry, IFES Bulgaria) spoke about God’s image in us and how we live with a distorted image because of sin. He emphasized that Europe needs to be restored to God’s image in order to achieve spiritual revival. Klaus Engelmohr (Germany, Founder of Project X)is a missionary kid who grew up in Japan. He talked about the incarnation grace and how we, as Christians have to practice this in our daily lives turning to the people around us.

Connie Duarte (Portuguese Theological Seminary) is a missionary from Canada to Portugal. She has been in Portugal for 13 years and is now teaching at the Portuguese Theological Seminary. She delivered a message on the urgency of inner transformation and preached a message of repentance to young Europeans. She pointed out that Europe has all the “right” ingredients for a spiritual revival to happen, but because there is no repentance and therefore no work of the Holy Spirit, Europe remains spiritually dead. Her message touched many and after the message, almost half of the audience went up to the front as they made a heart’s decision to commit their lives to Christ.

George Verwer, the Founder of OM International delivered a powerful message calling everyone to serve mission. He challenged everyone in the audience to go out as a short-term or a long-term missionary within the next two years. His message challenged young people to practically obey the world mission command and to go out. He also encouraged everyone to read the Bible from cover to cover within a year and to lift every corner of unreached nations in prayer. He told his own story about how he, a weak sinner who could not overcome his lust problem was transformed in Christ and sold everything to serve world mission. He said, “If God can use me, He can use you.”

At the morning session on the New Year’s Day, Msn. Deborah Chang of Bonn UBF led the prayer for Asia. She shared prayer topics about the continent of Asia and encouraged Europeans to go out as missionaries to Asia and to pray for the persecuted Christians in North Korea. Andy Juliff of OM International introduced Msn. Deborah as a second-generation missionary originally from the global South serving mission in Bonn UBF. He said that Germany has now become a mission field in need missionaries and presented her as a living example of the shift in global mission. This presentation put UBF under the spotlight and awakened the interest among the leaders of many mission organisations and evangelical alliances in Europe. At the congress, UBF received invitations to YWMH (Youth With Mission Holland) Conference in Netherlands and to the 8^thKorean Diaspora Forum 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

One of the fruitful and joyful meetings at this Congress was the fellowship with Tobias Schultz, the Director OM Germany. OM holds a youth congress called TeenStreet every year. This congress gathers nearly 3500-4000 teenagers ages 13-18 in Europe. UBF second generation missionaries discussed with Tobias about providing classical music training and an orchestra workshop at the TeenStreet. We also talked about the possibility of starting a conference for the new generation missionaries and migrant church next generation in Germany.

Dr. Petrus Chang did a seminar in collaboration with Thomas Hieber of DMG (Deutsche Missionsgemeinschaft - German Missionary Fellowship) about reaching out to South Asian Diaspora in Europe. This seminar aimed to awaken awareness about the Unreached People Groups among the South Asian immigrants or refugees in Europe and Dr. Petrus talked about UBF’s role as a campus ministry in reaching out to international students.

Through the participation in the Mission-Net, we were able to identify our strength as a mission model and discover possibilities for collaboration with other churches and mission organisations in the future.

First, UBF’s strength is Bible study. UBF is fostering young leaders through intensive Bible study. Studying the scripture is a vital part of discipleship training and UBF can contribute in various ways to implant and strengthen the Bible study in European churches.

Second, immigrant churches in Europe need to open up to cooperate with the local churches for the sake of Europe mission because immigrant churches normally target people of their own culture and race. There is a serious need for these churches to enlarge the place of their tent and start discipling the local people and their next generation. UBF sets a good example in that it aims at raising disciples among the nationals and localizing the ministry – this enables the healthy discipleship training of the next generation in a bicultural environment.

Third, UBF has a lot to offer in terms of the next generation empowerment ministry to the immigrant and the local churches in Europe. Migrant churches are now facing challenges in discipling their next generation. UBF’s next generation empowerment ministry has been quite fruitful over the last 30 years and God is now opening various ways for us to share this ministry with churches in Germany and Europe that are facing the same challenges.

UBF’s participation at the Mission-Net Congress 2011 is very significant in that the next generation missionaries worked as the Europe UBF representatives this time. This is answer to our prayer and a foretaste of what God will do through them in the years to come. They poured their heart out to represent the UBF ministry in Europe and the Holy Spirit worked mightily. UBF has taken the first steps into establishing itself as one of the mainstream mission organisations in Europe. Praise God for showing us his vision to use the next generation co-workers as powerful global Christian leaders serving this generation and to lead out a spiritual awakening movement in Europe and in the whole world through them.

I would like to thank you for your prayer throughout the year 2011 and I look forward to seeing what God will do this year. God may strengthen you with his word and bless all your work for the Lord this year abundantly.

Thank you.

Many blessings,

Dr. Peter Chang