2003 UBF Mid-Atlantic Summer Bible Conference Chambersburg, PA
…. Whose Delight Is In The Law Of The Lord
Psalm 1,1-3
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of the sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Psalm 1,1-3 is the key verse for UBF Germany for 2003. In 2002 UBF Germany underwent a process of regeneration after some painful events around and among us. By God’s grace the work of God was strengthened again through the leadership of M. Kaleb Hong of Heidelberg and his close cooperation with P. Abraham Lee from Cologne and Dr. Peter Chang from Bonn. M. Kaleb Hong visited many European nations and had fellowship with the directors who all needed encouragement and comfort and spiritual guidance. According to Psalm 1,1-3, M. Kaleb Hong gave us the first prayer topic to go back to the Bible. This is not only Dr. Samuel Lee’s spiritual legacy; it is God’s wisdom and an absolute necessity for the people of God. Only through God’s word we can have spiritual life. Moreover, where there is God’s word, there God will work. Three new chapter directors have joined the staff meetings this year: M. Mose Lee from Berlin, M. David Cho from Frankfurt, and M. Peter Kwak from Stuttgart. So, now we have 14 UBF chapters in Germany.
After the international Summer Bible Conference in Germany last year, M. Sarah Barry encouraged the three main chapters to raise national lecturers for our Sunday Worship Services. Since then, Sh. Reiner Schauwienold has served the Sunday message in Heidelberg. Sh. Reiner is a pure man. When he writes his message, he takes off his shoes; he doesn’t even sit down, but keeps standing all through his preparation. God is using Sh. Reiner’s pure spirit to challenge other shepherds in Heidelberg that they come to God with a pure heart and mind and take deep roots in the word of God. In Bonn, mostly Sh. Peter Schweitzer delivers the Sunday message. But there are several others who readily stand by whenever he is absent. In Bonn, not only the lecturer, but all coworkers memorize the Bible passage they are going to study. In this way they train themselves as a royal priesthood to deliver the word of God in any way.
M. Barry also saw the need to strengthen the work of God in Cologne and Dusseldorf. So, from last September, our Dusseldorf coworkers have joined Sunday Worship Service in Cologne, which is only 25 miles away. P. Abraham Lee gathers Sh. Volker Keller, Andreas Krahwinkel, Eberhard Gross and me for message training every Saturday after-noon. Sh. Volker supports us as a humble prayer servant and source of encouragement. We study the Bible passages 2 weeks ahead so that the respective messenger will have enough time to really digest the word of God and prepare a powerful message from his heart. Now we see that the word of God is reviving the ministry in Cologne and in Dusseldorf. There are several young students who come to the Sunday Worship Service and have come to have delight not only in fellowship, but also in the word of God.
Moreover, God is working mightily among the 2nd gens and their peers. They join for a Youth Worship Service once a month. Some 60 people come. We pray that many of them will also come to one-to-one Bible study and become like trees planted by streams of living water. Recently, one of our 2nd gens hurt his ankle. As a consequence he couldn’t do his favorite break dance for a while. But he prayed, “Lord, heal my ankle, so that I can do a break dance to attract young people when we go out fishing for our Youth Worship Service.” I was surprised. And I thanked God with tears for his prayer.
This year we do not have a national or international UBF Bible conference in Germany. Rather, we have three “regional” conferences where Bonn, Heidelberg and Cologne UBF each join with their respective pioneering chapters. Bonn UBF had their Summer Bible Conference last week; Heidelberg is due next week and Cologne on August 14-17. Please, pray for our conferences that we will bring many new students who have a desire to know Jesus personally.
The conference for Cologne and pioneering chapters will have the title, “Make disciples of all nations.” We have two specific prayer topics: first, that new students may accept and confess Jesus as their Christ and Savior; second, that all coworkers may renew their decision to serve Jesus’ disciple-making ministry.
In Dusseldorf, we have two families: M. Daniel and Grace Park with their grown-up daughters Shs. Hanna and Maria; and then M. Wynelle and I with our four children. We serve 30,000 students at Heinrich Heine University, Robert Schumann Music College, the Art College, and the College of Engineering. Our first prayer topic is to cowork well although our ministry seems to grow at snails pace. Our second prayer topic is to feed Dusseldorf students with the word of God. For a long time we had no new student coming. But now we see some who have expressed their spiritual thirst, among them Jana, Stefanie, Oliver, and Peter’s friend Christian. Presently we also host 2 guests from Chicago: Sarah Chung jr., who had befriended Shs. Hanna Park; and Julia Koelpin, a German student at College of DuPage, who spends the summer break with their parents in a neighboring town. Thirdly, we pray for our 2nd gens who come to Sunday Worship Service (Shs. Hanna, Maria Park, Peter Nett) to be of good influence among their peers. They have great potential. And they love Jesus.
These days, we cannot delight in a large number of sheep. But our delight is in the living word of God. And we believe that in the long run those who love the word of God from their hearts will prove to be like trees along streams of living water and bear much fruit for the glory of God. May God use our one-to-one ministry to raise 12 disciples of Jesus in Dusseldorf.
Thank you for your prayer support for us.
One word: Our delight is in the law of the Lord