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On October 1-2, we had a summer Bible conference with the title, “God so Loved the World,” and the total number of attendees was 20.

Luke Jun delivered an opening message with the title, “Seek God’s Kingdom First.” In history, Sri Lanka was a colony under Britain for 400 years and churches were regarded as charity organizations. Therefore, the 8.5% of Christians in Sri Lanka do not know the life of sacrifice and of giving and serving God, but just depend on church organizations. Therefore, Luke Jun in his message challenged us to seek God’s kingdom first by faithfully attending the worship service and tithing. He shared how he himself sought God’s kingdom first even though he was lacking many things in his life. Last year, he struggled a lot to support his family materially. In spite of lacking money to support his family, he kept tithing to God. God blessed his absolute faith and increased his income. Therefore, his message was very powerful because it was based on his faith which he experienced.

Brother F. delivered the first main message titled, “Born Again!” He testified how he was born again by God’s grace. He was like Nicodemus in the Bible who was successful humanly, but spiritually blind. Likewise, for his human dream, he worked hard to complete two majors – Western medicine and Ayubedic medicine (Sri Lankan traditional medicine.) At the same time, he worked at our institution to earn money. He was very proud and selfish. I invited him to a 5-minute one-to-one Bible study and he accepted. However, after the third time, he quit because he did not want to spend even one minute doing it. However, I did not give up on him, but continued to help him with great patience for many years. Then his Bible study time gradually increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, then an hour. Finally, his spiritual eyes were opened and he was born again. He became a man of God growing in faith. For example, in order to deliver his conference message, he traveled from his workplace, which took five hours. His message was very persuasive and powerful to all the hearers because he delivered what he experienced based on his faith.

After the message, we had games. The treasure hunt game was especially good in helping us make friends with one another despite many barriers in Sri Lanka, like that of culture, religion, social level, race, etc. Those who found the treasure sheet had to memorize Bible verses and got prizes. The true treasure was God’s words through the memorization.

After the game, we had a group Bible study, and in the evening, I delivered the second main message with the title, “It is finished!” Sri Lanka is a country of Buddhism. Buddhism teaches people to do good works for salvation. So people endeavor to do good works and bow down to butchers and serve Buddhists in order to gain salvation. However, they cannot be saved through all their labor of good works or by seeking a butcher’s teaching. Their faces are dark and look angry because they cannot reach salvation on their own. On the other hand, Jesus who took all the requirements of the law and death for sin on his shoulders on the cross truly solved our fundamental problem and granted us the salvation which enables us to enter heaven. This privilege and grace of Jesus was also granted to my life as well. So during my message, I said that I was standing at the podium, not because I was qualified to serve God’s words, but because I wanted to share the grace and mercy of God.

After the main message, Ge., Upe., and Sang H. Kim shared their life testimonies. Ge. and Upe. are daughters of the owner of the house where my family is living. They lost their mother six years ago through the tsunami. After the calamity, they had been staying at their grandmother’s house. Later, their grandmother also passed away. They lost the meaning and purpose of their lives. However, they attended the Christmas worship service last year. Since then, they have been faithfully attending the Sunday worship service and attended the Bible academy as well even though it was held during Po. this year. Po. is the name given to a Buddhist public holiday in Sri Lanka which occurs every full moon. This year we made this day the Lord’s day by holding a Bible academy. Through their life testimonies, the sisters confessed their faith in Jesus as their good shepherd. Through their expression of faith, I could see how the fruit of God’s words and fellowship over the last 10 years touched and moved their hearts to love Jesus. Under the strong influence of Buddhism, it is like a miracle for women to express their faith in Jesus. Sang H. Kim, who came to Sri Lanka in the early 1960s, is always willing to support us by serving the recreational activities and conferences and sharing his life testimony with us.

After the life testimonies, we watched three short movies: “The Letter from Hell,” “The Letter from Heaven,” and “God’s Great Love.” We were so moved by the deep love of God which was revealed through them. And during personal prayer time after watching the movies, one sister shed many tears.

One brother, who had never heard the words of God or attended any Bible conferences, confessed that this conference became a turning point for his life. In this conference, we could see the possibility of the gospel working through multimedia. After prayer time, we had a wonderful campfire and barbeque, which everyone had been waiting for. When the fire came down through a wire to light up the wood, all of us shouted joyfully. We roasted chicken, pork, and sweet potatoes on the fire. We lost track of time talking to each other until 2 am. It was like a feast of love in heaven, just like the time when the risen Jesus prepared a meal for his disciples at the riverside of Galilee.

The next day we had our Sunday worship service. John P. delivered a message with the title, “Jesus Who Gives Us Living Water.” He was brought up in an orphanage since he was four. He was thirsty for human love and a successful life, wanting to overcome his deep fatalism. He pursued many girls, but he was rejected. Out of stress, he began to chew tobacco and became addicted. His life was truly miserable. Ten years ago, he began to study the Bible with me. However, he studied on and off because he never settleddown and both his body and spirit became wretched.

Last year, he attended the Christmas worship service and surrendered himself to Jesus. Isaiah 9:1, which revealed the deep love of God, touched his heart. He cried out because of God’s love, which reached even him who abandoned God and lived in the darkness. Since then, he has been faithful to one-to-one Bible study and the Sunday worship service. The study of John’s gospel especially shone into his dark heart, and through reading the Late Dr. Samuel Lee’s Genesis Bible study manuscripts, he was completely changed. He deeply accepted God’s good purpose and will for his life and began to struggle to grow as a man of obedience to God. He is no longer thirsty for the things of the world. He quit chewing tobacco after 10 years of addiction because the love of God became living water which quenched his soul.    

We thank God for his abundant grace during the conference. God is newly working powerfully in Sri Lanka, which is like a spiritual desert. Thank God for prayer support from all over the world, including Kyungsung, Gangneung, and Jeonju UBF chapters in Korea.

From the beautiful land,
Barnabas