From Aug 18-20th, Chicago CBF had a summer Bible conference with the title, “The Love of God”. In total, 70 attended with 58 children and 12 teachers and chaperones.
We had one week Bible study and prayer meetings. Children wrote and shared their testimonies. Eight of them shared their testimonies at the conference. Unlike the other years, this time we tried to research five missionaries in general (not just from UBF ministry). They were Jim Elliot, Hudson Tailor, Eric Little, Amy Carmichael and George Miller. They prepared their group presentations from July. The 8th grade leaders (Charles Kim, Charles Thompson, David Timlin, Brian Mei, Miriam Kim, Mary Lim, Sarah Lee, Josephine King and Joy Vucekovich) guided them and also wrote their life testimonies. Their testimony had one word of God, repentance, vision and hope of God.
Monday morning of Aug 18th (9 am) we left the center by a chartered bus. As we arrived the Phantom Ranch, we began our meeting since we had our lunch in the bus. Opening message was “God’s amazing love” from John 3:16 by Michelle Meltzer. Then the first main message was “Come just as you are” (from Luke 7:36-50) given by Michelle Li. Though she insisted that she is not a good messenger when we asked her, she did a fabulous job. She talked about Jesus’ love and forgiveness of sins to a sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair out of her thankful heart.
Monday evening message titled, “The parable of the two sons” (Mt 21:28-31) was given by M. Birgit Pierce. As usual she delivered a wonderful message. After that, there were world mission presentations about the lives of Jim Elliot, Hudson Taylor and Eric Liddle.
On Tuesday (8/19) morning message title was “Jesus prayed for direction” (Mk 1:35-39) by Sh. John Colagrossi. His message was clear with a focus on the necessity of prayer life. After breakfast, Sh. Tim McEathron delivered his message titled “Forgive your brother from your heart” from Mt 18:21-35. His powerful message moved many people’s heart.
One high school chaperone said that she received God’s word from the CBF conference more than Purdue International Bible Conference.
Tuesday evening, Mary Miranda delivered her message titled, “Who will go for us?” from Isaiah 6:1-8. God blessed her willing heart to serve CBF messages at Joshua and Daniel Bible schools this conference. She gave much effort to prepare the message with power point and revealed God’s calling and Isaiah’s answer.
Then we had a world mission presentation about Amy Carmichael and George Mueller. Paul Albright was George Mueller. His acting was outstanding along with his wife’s role by Faith Koh. Afterward we had a joyful campfire. Many parents joined us also that night.
Wednesday morning message title was, “Good and faithful servant” (from Mt 25:14-27) given by Curie Lee Jr. She included her testimony about God’s gift of life and hard work with it.
Wednesday main messenger was M. Joseph King. He delivered his message titled, “Do as I have done for you” from John 13:1-17. He taught us Jesus’ unconditional love with his own testimony.
The closing message was titled, “We are witnesses” (Lk 24:36-49) by Josephine Lee. She is 16 years old but she delivered a good message. This time we included high school teachers who served CBF all year long as messengers and chaperones. They were Curie Lee, Pauline Ahn, Helen Kim, Josephine Lee and Christine Mun.
They helped with outdoor Olympics and Treasure hunt and made our conference balanced in body and spirit.
God blessed this conference abundantly with the fresh word of God and joyful outdoor activities. Obviously they learned co-working and unity through world mission presentation through preparation and performance.
God raised Sh. Tim as a shepherd and a leader for CBF children as we prayed. He co-worked with M. Isaac and Rebecca Choi closely. He gave spirited announcements. Praise God for blessing this conference so much. May God raise our CBF children as second generation missionaries and shepherds and make N. America a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Amen.
