News > Europe

  Spiritual Revival in Europe Begins with the Repentance    

  Movement and Going Back to the Bible

“And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

European UBF Directors’ Conference 2011 took place in Vienna from January 13-15 with the title “Spiritual Revival in Mizpah“ (1 Samuel 7:3). At this conference, 22 European UBF Directors including the Israel UBF Director, 60 missionaries, 25 national leaders (10 Germany, 2 from England, 5 from France, 2 from Portugal, 1 from Bulgaria, 1 from Greece, 1 from Romania, 1 from Canada, and 2 from the U.S.A.), 9 missionaries from the North American region, and 9 Korean shepherds, so total 103 attendees prayed together for the spiritual awakening and revival in Europe.

On Wednesday the 12th, we had an opening prayer meeting prior to the official begin of the conference. As the representative of the host country, Missionary Dr. James Han of Vienna UBF gave an introductory presentation about Austria. As a special treat, his family including the five children Lydia, Sarah, Lois, David, and Paula sang a medley of “Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss” from the movie “Sound of Music”. Afterwards, Msn. Sung Hun Kim (Director of Korean Research Institute for Diaspora in Oxford) gave a special lecture titled “Why Europe Mission, why now?” He spoke about the gravity of the spiritual reality of Europe, which is now running the fast track of secularization influenced by humanism in the past 100 years. He emphasized the importance of Europe mission through the Diaspora missionaries worldwide. Europe has become a cut flower, which has lost its roots from the gospel truth. Now, Europe faces muslimization and has become a mission field. Through this special lecture, European UBF Directors were challenged and came to have a sense of a spiritual responsibility for the spiritual revival in Europe.

On Thursday the 13th, an early morning prayer meeting for world mission was held. Msn. Samuel G. Lee from Ottawa gave a presentation on the Ottawa UBF ministry; he reported about the efforts of his one house church raising two national house churches in Canada and moved and challenged the mission co-workers in Europe. Dr. Charles Kim from Chicago UBF reported about Chicago joint Christmas worship service in 2010 and the YDC (Young Disciples’ Conference) and testified to the work of the Holy Spirit among the North American Next Generation. Dr. Paul Chung reported on the African Directors’ Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, which was held in December 2010. He spoke about the disciple-making ministry in 14 countries and 20 chapters in Africa and that it was graceful to have 10 national leaders attend conference.

On Thursday morning, for the official start of the conference, European UBF Director Dr. Peter Chang delivered the opening message titled “Back to the Bible” based on Ezra 7:10. He emphasized the absolute necessity of raising Bible teachers and spiritual leaders like Ezra. He presented a prayer topic to teach the Bible like Ezra in each European country and to challenge the spiritual revival in Europe. Followed by his message, European UBF Directors shared the annual reports from the year 2010. 22 European Directors shared the disciple-making ministry among the nationals and presented New Year’s key verse and prayer topics. The disciple-making ministry in Israel through Msn. Joseph testified to God who blessed our prayers of faith and Bible studies and who has already begun spiritual revival and restoration of Israel.

In the afternoon, there were 4 report-presentations: the first one on the European Next Generation Global Leadership Forum from Msn. Petrus Chang (Germany), the second one PR ministry by Msn. Hanna Ryu (Germany), the third one, on the European CBF Conference by Msn. David Shin (Czech Republic), and lastly, 1:1 and the Sunday Worship Service Report from 2010 by Msn. Peter Lee (Germany). After the vision-full special presentations, we had an in-depth Group Bible study for the first main lecture.

After dinner, UBF General Director Dr. John Jun delivered the first main message titled “Spiritual Revival at Mizpah” very powerfully. He challenged us to make clear decision of faith to serve the Lord God alone, repenting of idolatry to follow materialism and hedonism influenced by humanism and turning our hearts to God. After hearing this main message, all attendees had time to pray in groups of two or three with tears that spiritual revival in Europe may begin through the personal repentance of the Bible-believing people. They began writing testimonies to prepare the New Year's ministry sharing the joy of fellowship and holding on to God's direction personally.

On Friday, after the breakfast, Dr. Samuel H. Lee delivered the second main lecture titled “Imitate Christ’s Humility.” He encouraged us to grow in the image of Jesus, imitating his humility, sacrifice and the obedience that he made himself nothing and took the very nature of a servant. He especially emphasized that a life of imitating Jesus is the life of pleasing to God most and a faith of UBF shepherds. Through this lecture European directors could make a decision to be a little Jesus in this postmodern generation in each of European campus, repenting of their self-centered way of thinking every day and imitating the heart of Jesus.

From the afternoon to the late evening, we had a heart-moving testimony sharing meeting divided into five groups. European directors repented wholeheartedly of having served idols of materialism and Hedonism last year while serving self-supporting und the disciple-making ministry. They made a new decision to serve the Lord alone.

On Saturday morning on 15th, a prayer meeting for a professional self-supporting lay missionary was held. There were two presentations about the exemplary cases of professional self-supporting mission by Shepherd Samuel Shin (Kwan Ak III UBF, Korea) and by Msn. Mateus, a Samsung-Europe Manager from Lisbon, Portugal. Their presentations on their 20 years of spiritual struggle challenged many of the mission co-workers.

After breakfast on Saturday morning, Shepherd John Park (Kwang Ju II UBF, Korea) gave heart-moving special lecture with the title “Proposal for the Spiritual Revival in Europe in Context of Jonathan Edwards’ Theory of Revival”. This lecture showed us the vision that the spiritual revival in Europe is possible. He also encouraged European UBF Directors, mentioning that they are like cows in the Beth Shemesh who are taking the covenant of God to Europe. Through this special lecture, missionaries in Europe realized the importance and possibility of European campus mission and were greatly encouraged to challenge the spiritual revival in Europe with a burning shepherd toward European campus students. They decided to live as a Bible teacher and to bear the cross of the intercessory prayer like Samuel for European young students on campus. Prof. Paul Hong of Toledo UBF, U.S.A. delivered the closing message titled “Jesus, the Way” (John 14:6), encouraging European UBF Directors to serve the European mission influentially in 2011, following Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life.

During the European UBF Directors conference 2011, growing national shepherds from various European countries presided each meeting and shared their life testimonies. At the end of each program, European national leaders made announcements based on the word of God and gave clear prayer topics, through which we saw a great vision of fulfilling the European campus mission. In addition, 10 Next Generation missionaries of Europe from Germany (8), France (1), and Czech Republic (1) attended this conference. They are the growing and the future leaders for the European mission. This year, Europe UBF is praying for pioneering 1,700 campuses in Europe, especially Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Albania, and Slovenia. All attendees accepted that spiritual revival in Europe begins with the personal repentance. They were convinced that the spiritual revival in Europe is possible when Europe UBF raises Bible teachers like Ezra and Samuel with all strength, building the community of the word of God.

For the closing announcement, Msn. Dr. John Jun gave us the following prayer topics:

1. Sacrificing oneself for spiritual revival of Europe and becoming an excellent Bible teacher, and learning the heart and the intercessory prayer of Samuel.
2. Pioneering 45 European countries, 1,700 campuses; for Dr. Peter Chang.
3. Preparation of the 50th anniversary of UBF; for Shep. Samuel Lee.

Austria UBF Ministry Prayer Topics

1. May God’s Kingdom come upon the hearts of the Austrian campus students.
2. To raise 120 disciples of Jesus until 2017 and pioneering 26 Austrian campuses.
3. For the spiritual growth of the second generation missionaries.