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“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said…” (Mt 28:6)

Our Toronto UBF held the Easter Bible Conference on April 24 (Sun) at Crieff Hills Community Retreat Centre, located at 45-minute driving distance from Toronto. Although it was a one day conference, God blessed it so abundantly. At this conference we studied Jesus’ death on Matthew 27:27-61, and his resurrection on Matthew 26:62-28:20.

The messengers were our 2^nd gens, Sara Lee and Rebekah Lee. God helped Sara to deeply meditate on Jesus’ cry on the cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”, and testify that this cry of Jesus in deep sorrow was for her and for us. The evidence was that when he died after this cry, the huge and heavy curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, signifying that the barrier between God and sinful man was torn apart and removed. We are the ones who had to be forsaken because of our sis. But Jesus was forsaken for us, once for all, so that we might not be forsaken eternally. This is the immeasurable love of God and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ! In this we have true security and inseparable love relationship with our God. The 2^nd message was given by Rebekah Lee. God helped her to have personal conviction that Jesus rose again from the dead and proclaim the resurrection message. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we can have the living hope of the kingdom of God. By following Jesus, the new reigning champion of life, we can also have championship over our practical lives.

Paulina Lee shared her life testimony with many tears out of thanks for the grace of Jesus, who was forsaken for her, especially for her sin of doubt and unbelief. Her title was, “I want to know Christ.” Raising our 2^nd gens as sincere and powerful messengers and a heart-felt life-testimony speaker was a great encouragement to all our missionaries, and we could have a new vision for disciple-raising ministry.

Among our Bible students, Jemmie, Allen, and Ai, shared their life-testimonies. Jemmie, after more than 6 years of Bible study with M. Susanna, opened her heart widely and shared her life testimony before God and his people. She struggled a lot in her life to fulfill her duty as the first-born daughter to take care of her parents. But she realized that she was God’s daughter more than the first-born daughter to her parents and had to fulfill God’s purpose for her. She is taking a step towards living for God’s mission by holding onto his calling, “Come, follow me, and I will make a fisher of men” (Mk 1:17). Allen grew up in China, where young children are taught that there is no God and no heaven so it was a miracle that he came to believe in God.  Whenever he prayed to God before exams or not to be late for school, God heard all his prayers. He has been studying the Bible with M. James for two years and attended worship service faithfully, and has grown in faith. Although he had two more final exams to write after the conference, he not only attended this full day conference but also shared his life testimony with the key verse, Matthew 6:33. He prayed to go back to China after graduation and preach the gospel there. Ai Tomono is an international exchange student at U of T from Japan. At first she was very home-sick for her loving family and friends in Japan. But God guided her to UBF and helped her to grow spiritually for the last 8 months. In sharing her life-testimony she prayed to be the salt and light in Japan, where Christians are rare and preaching the gospel is not normal.

Among our Bible students, Sophie (U of T 3) shared her testimony for the first time. In the past, she had tried hard to please people; trying to do so soon became a burden to her and she reached her human limitation. At this conference she accepted the love of God by faith, who forsook his Son for her, and prayed to live in God’s love. Two of our co-workers, George and Bushay, have been suffering greatly for the last 2 years. Bushay had one miscarriage in 2009 and they lost their new-born daughter two-days-old, around Christmas time in 2009. Bushay had another miscarriage in October, 2010. Both of them could not but cry, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” in sorrow and fatalistic thinking. But at the conference God helped them to newly accept God’s love revealed in the Son’s cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Our hearts were broken to hear their testimonies. We realized their need for intercessory prayer until they can have a victory of faith in God’s love and be firmly established as a coworkers’ family for God’s work.

In our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, there was a world-class violin d by Ai and Paulina, a spirit-lifting vocal song by Toronto vocal team and a skit combined in a film by our missionaries. Our other 2^nd gens, Abraham (Gr. 11) and Chris Moon (Gr. 5), and Bible student, Tina (U of T 2), also participated in this celebration. When we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ through studying his words and offering what we had by faith, we were full of joy and victory. We could not but thank God for his rich blessing upon us through his Son Jesus Christ. We also could have a new vision for raising Canadian disciples at U of T with the assurance of God’s love and Jesus’ resurrection. Again, thank and praise God for his Son Jesus’ death and resurrection for us! May God make U of T a godly campus, Toronto a holy city, Canada a kingdom of priests and a holy nation! Amen.