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Encounter at the Well

“ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”Luke 15:20

Happy New Year! I thank God for His grace to us through the Well (formerly Young Disciples Conference)—our annual new year’s retreat held in Michindoh, Michigan (Dec 29-31).

Last year we had about 200 attendants but this year we nearly reached maximum capacity at the conference site with over 320 attendants. I could barely find a seat for each meeting. This year, we chose the theme ENCOUNTER. Many had been praying for the Well to be a common ground place for young people to encounter God either for the first time or encounter God newly in order to renew their commitment to Him.

In particular, we prayed that young people could encounter our God the Holy Trinity through encountering Father (Luke 15, Pastor Ron Ward’s message from Chicago UBF), encountering the Son (John 4, Abraham Lee’s message from Washington UBF), and encountering the Holy Spirit (John 14, Pastor Rand Tucker from Hyde Park Vineyard Church). Paul Dang, Jr. (Milwaukee UBF) also opened the retreat with a message from Genesis 16 (God encountering Hagar at the Well).  

In particular, our guest speaker Rand Tucker led a prayer session on the Holy Spirit which was sort of an unfamiliar experience for a thoroughly UBF person like me but I was deeply encouraged by it. I believe the Holy Spirit truly wanted to encounter our young people in a way that would energize them to go back to the Bible, to grow as Spirit-filled disciples of Jesus who could demonstrate their love for God by living in obedience to Jesus’ commands (John 14:21). We also had many beautiful and engaging life testimonies at the conference.

Though I need more time to reflect over what God was doing at this conference, personally speaking I give thanks to God for allowing me to participate in the preparation of this retreat, and working with so many capable and inspiring young leaders. Basically, I can make the bold statement that God answered all my prayers for this retreat—one by one—and I stood amazed in awe at the love of God who took the initiative to encounter us—where we are, just as we are. Before this retreat, when I was stressing out over the many details and logistics of this conference, one servant of God mysteriously spoke to me one word of encouragement and said that God would bless this retreat with much laughter and tears. So I grew less anxious and stressed and began to rely on the grace of God. Now when I look back, this word of encouragement came true as there was so much laughter and joy of the Spirit at the conference. There was also much tears of repentance. Personally, I wept a lot at this conference, more than any other time in my Christian life. I wept over all sins of living before man rather before God. I wept over my sins in which I unintentionally hurt and wounded people with my words and my actions through my often mis-guided passionate zeal in preparing this conference. But I laughed with great joy when I could see young people turning to God and encountering Him in a new and energizing way. I laughed at the ways God was so gracious in turning mistakes, challenges, and failures into redemptive opportunities for us to encounter His grace personally. I wept over Pastor Ron’s message with tears of joy over the love of my heavenly Father who ran out with utter joy to encounter the young prodigal son and welcome him back home, but who also ran out of the joyful party to encounter the older son and also welcome him back home. So as the servant of God told me, I laughed and cried at this conference and I can only give thanks to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for taking the initiative to encounter us with his love at the Well. May God bless our young people in UBF to grow in the love of God more and more, and to desire more of God in the year 2012, so that they can share God’s love on our campuses and to the world.

John Yoon