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SO THE SON OF MAN MUST BE LIFTED UP

Key Verse: John 3:14

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the son of man must be lifted up.”

Thank God for the 2011 Student Fall Bible Conference of Bonn and Mainz UBF from November 4^th to 6^th. It took place in the beautiful city of Bad Ems by the Lahn River with 66 attendants from Bonn-, Mainz-, Rhein-Sieg-, Remagen-, Saarbrücken-  and Koblenz-Universities.Bad Ems is known for the “Emser Pastillen”, a cough drop popular among professional singers, and for “die Emser Depesche”, a declaration that caused the French-German war in 1870/71. We prayed that it would become even more meaningful for the “Emser decision”, for a decision of faith made by the attendants to follow Jesus on the path of suffering and the cross.

For the preparation, Msn. Dr. Peter Chang prayed for the co-working of national and new generation leaders. Through this encouragement and challenge, God helped us to raise student leaders as messengers and to co-work in prayer. We could find clear direction and vision for the 1:1 Bible study and the disciple making ministry in this fall.

First, in times of humanism and relativism, God clearly revealed the only way of salvation for young people in this postmodern era, which is to come to Jesus who suffered and was lifted up on the cross for our sins. Therefore, we chose John 3:14 as the conference key verse, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the son of man must be lifted up.” Through studying four main lectures – Genesis 3, John 3, John 19 and John 21 – we were able to study God’s way of salvation in depth. Through Genesis 3 we learned about the fatal consequences of sin. Because of sin our relationship to God was broken and we were cursed to die. But we learned that God is love and that he sent us his one and only son for our salvation. John 3 taught us the way of salvation. We must be born again to see the kingdom of God. To be born again we must repent by acknowledging and confessing our sins and leaving our old sinful lives. We learned that we are saved by believing in Jesus alone. Finally, Jesus was lifted up on the cross and completed our salvation 100% (John 19). A discipleship seminar on the book “Called to Awaken the Laity” by Rev. John H. Oak taught us the value of one soul. We were encouraged to continue to raise disciples of Jesus and global spiritual leaders among college students through discipleship training. And we received vision that God will use this to make Germany a shepherd nation and Europe a missionary sending continent. Through the movie, “Gifted Hand”, we were encouraged to have a shepherd heart and a hard-working attitude to save one soul like the famous neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, who studied and worked hard in order to perform a difficult surgery and save the life of Siamese twins. We were encouraged to feed Jesus’ sheep as our confession of love to God (Joh 21) and to have clear identity and vision as God’s royal priesthood (1 Pe 2:9) and spiritual leaders for the spiritual awakening of Germany and Europe.

Second, God used new generation messengers very preciously. Sh. Johannes Chang (Medical School graduate), Msn. Peter Lee (Engineering graduate), Sh. Sarah Eun-Jie Park (Design), Msn. Maria P. Lee (Medical School graduate) and Msn. Markus Yun (Computer Science) prepared their messages wholeheartedly, and so did Sh. Danke Peter Pilawa (opening message), Sh. Xenofon Grigoriadis and Msn. Samuel Peter Ryu (closing message). Among them, Sh. Sarah Eun-Jie Park made her debut as a main messenger. We could see that she was full of God’s grace and God’s wisdom as she clearly explained the necessity of being born again in spirit, not in flesh and of Jesus’ suffering and death. Msn. Maria P. Lee memorized almost the whole message on John 19 and helped us to proclaim Jesus’ cry on the cross “It is finished” with the confidence and assurance of final victory. We could see God’s hope for student leaders among the New Generation co-workers. Through their graceful messages many co-workers and New Generations repented for their selfishness and complacency, and made a historical decision to join in Jesus’ suffering as well as in his victory through carrying their crosses of 1:1 bible study, disciple making ministry and co-working in this winter semester wholeheartedly.

Third, graceful testimonies. There were seven deep and honest testimonies based on John 3. Rebekka Ryu, Samuel Kim and David Kim, new generation missionaries from Mainz, shared their personal struggles and their decision of faith. Aster Belai (1:1 with Anja Schweitzer) shared her first testimony at a conference and thanked God for the new life in Christ. Martin Slawski (Mathematics PhD course) confessed that pursuing success and a career does not lead him to happiness and that he found a new direction in his life. Peter Ryu (Business Administration) and Sh. Alexander Ripken thanked God for Jesus’ forgiveness and humbly came to Jesus for healing and renewal. There were also more attendants; Olaf, Patrick, Jöran, Jonas, Meala, Ja-Young, Hae-Sung, Sung-Hee, Doris.  Each of them received much grace and could make a small decision of faith to grow as disciples.

Fourth, responsible leadership and co-working among leaders. During preparation and at the conference God blessed the leadership and co-working of Msn. Samuel Peter Ryu, Sh. Joachim Dietzel, Sh. Jochen Schweitzer, Sh. Stefan Elsholz and Msn. Petrus Chang who helped the messengers and gave clear announcements based on the truth of God’s word, so all attendants were challenged to come to Jesus who was lifted up on the cross and obey out of love for Jesus. Closing the conference we all prayed two-by-two with tears of thankfulness and an ailing heart for the lost souls on all campuses in Germany and all of Europe.

After returning to the mission field, Sh. Joachim Dietzel gave a powerful message on the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) at the Bonn UBF centre, with those co-workers who could not come to the conference, our children and even more Bible students attending. We prayed for the winter semester ministry in Bonn, Rhein-Sieg, Remagen, Saarbrücken and Mainz, that each of us may be used as a good shepherd and Bible teacher raising two students as disciples of Jesus. May God raise 360 spiritual leaders for the German campus mission and send one house church to each of the 1,700 campuses in Europe and use Europe as a missionary sending continent once again.

Reported by Stefan Elsholz