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July 23-26, we held our 2011 summer Bible conference entitled, “Father, Forgive Them,” at Hu-Ri Retreat Center in Yeoju in the Gyeonggi province. Total attendance was 107, including 17 from the Nowon chapter. God blessed our conference in many ways, but I just want to share three things.

First, the word of God worked powerfully. Even with their busy schedules, the seven messengers received feedback more than five times in a month and practiced a lot. They struggled a lot to meditate on the word of God and digest it as their own. Above all, we built up an altar of prayer for the work of the word of God. When we did so, the word of God worked more powerfully than in any other year’s conference. Not only new comers, but also leaders received much grace and renewed their hearts. Especially, through the message, “Father, Forgive Them,” (Luke 23 by Shepherd Hongsung Kwon) we deeply accepted Jesus’ love of forgiveness on the cross for us. Because of this forgiving love, we decided to forgive everyone who had hurt us. Also, through the message, “Do You Truly Love Me?” (John 21 by Shepherd SungBok Kim) we decided to feed sheep from our heart because we love Jesus himself most. Many leaders repented with tears of the fact that they loved others more than Jesus and decided to love Jesus more than anything else and feed sheep.

Second, the Holy Spirit worked in the newcomers. In preparing this conference we sincerely prayed that each leader may bring one sheep. We built up an altar of prayer sincerely. In doing so, more sheep attended than last year and the word of God worked in them mightily. In preparing the musical, brother Kihyun Kim (Management of Technology 1) said his character in the musical was the same as his. He had suffered from hatred, comparing himself to others, and greed; but he accepted Jesus who died on the cross for him and received forgiveness of his sins. Brother Younghoon Jung (Civil & Environmental Engineering 1) confessed that he grew up in a poor and broken family and lived a violent, lustful, pleasure-seeking life. But he received peace after receiving Jesus’ forgiveness. Brother Jooyoung Park (Business 1) suffered from hatred and a wounded heart from others, but he accepted Jesus’ love of forgiveness and decided to forgive others and follow Jesus. Hearing the testimonies I was surprised and praised God through the fact that new sheep confessed their sins and accepted the gospel of the cross. I praise God who worked through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the newcomers.

Third, the special program was heart moving. Grace and joy were overflowing through the special program. The musical, which took more than a month to prepare, was fresh and impressive because of the students’ fresh, vigorous, real action. Brother Taekwon-mu’s performance was powerful and gave us confidence of our victory over sin by crushing a pine board with various sins written on it. Sister Kungfu-mu was impressive, and the orchestra performance was profound and advanced day by day. I am thankful for those who gave their hearts and worked hard for a month in hot and humid weather.

Those who received God’s grace through this conference began having testimony meetings. For example, some of the brothers now meet every Saturday at 3:00 p.m., and some of the sisters meet every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. We pray for those who attended the conference that they may grow through weekly testimony writing. Also, we pray for our study of Luke’s gospel this fall semester.