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Kyongsung Center hosted a discipleship conference at Kwangrim Seminar House from June 4th to 6th. The goal of the conference was to share God’s grace and fellowship with missionaries and foreign shepherds who traveled to Korea to attend the 50-Year Anniversary Celebration. We had a four-part lecture series on the book of Nehemiah and wrote testimonies. We started the conference with the title “Rebuild the Holy Wall” and the desire to rebuild the collapsing campus wall in this generation.

There were a total of 160 attendants, which included members from Kyongsung chapters I, II, III, the Songdo chapter, missionaries and foreign shepherds. Missionary participants were Peter and Sarah Kim from Kiev (Ukraine); John Baik from El Camino (USA); Isidro from El Salvador; Paul Park from Costa Rica; Joseph and Maria Jin from Norway; John Ju from Sweden; Johannes and Joy Kim from Köln (Germany); Hannah Kim from Ecuador; Barnabas Baik from Sri Lanka; Andrew Lee from South Africa; Elijah Park from Brazil; and Hannah Hong from Baltimore (USA). 20 foreign shepherds -- members of Kiev UBF, Anton from Italy and the John Booth family from El Camino -- were present.  

The first main message, entitled “Rebuild the Holy Wall,” was delivered by shepherd Paul Choi from Kyongsung Center. It was a graceful message. He made the decision to go to campus every Wednesday by taking off a day of work. After the message, we wrote testimonies and shared together. In the evening, missionary Isidro shared his life testimony. By faith, he went to El Salvador from Mexico with a pioneering spirit. After the meeting, we enjoyed fellowship and had snacks.

On the second day of the conference, shepherd Noah Jaikin from Kiev delivered the second main message boldly. The message was translated into both Korean and English for attendants. In the afternoon, we played soccer in the city field. (It was good to sweat together!)  In the evening, missionary Paul Park from Costa Rica delivered the third main message. He experienced a great deal of suffering in the early stages of the pioneering ministry in Costa Rica. However, when he focused on the word of God and preparing messages, God’s sheep came, his business prospered and his children grew well. He shared the secret of receiving God’s blessing. After that we had representative testimony sharing. Foreign shepherds and Kyongsung Center shepherds shared graceful testimonies. In particular, the life testimonies of missionary Hannah Hong and Sarah Kim (Kiev) were very graceful. The last testimony of the night was shared by missionary John Baik, the director of El Camino UBF. He testified that when one and then two sheep started to come, he began a Friday testimony sharing meeting and encouraged them to write with an absolute attitude. After that, the work of God’s grace began to grow. It was 11:30 p.m. when the meeting was over. Nevertheless, there was such a great work of the Holy Spirit that everybody was spiritually awakened and wanted to write testimonies until the early morning hours.

On the morning of the third day we had testimony sharing, and then missionary Joseph Jin from Norway boldly delivered the fourth and final message of the conference. He showed a firm decision to dig out the word of God and deliver it. After that we had a missionary sending ceremony for shepherdess Jieun Huh, who would be leaving for Chicago. Soon after, the Kiev Team departed for Incheon Airport.

The discipleship conference was a great blessing to our coworkers since missionaries from El Camino (USA), Kiev (Ukraine) and Costa Rica attended and shared testimonies. The missionary attendants also said this kind of small-scale international conference was very encouraging and that they wanted to bring their sheep next time.  We thank God for planting spiritual hope through this conference. God taught us the secret of campus discipleship ministry and gave us the hope that He would work in his proper time through the power of His Holy Spirit.