Romans 8: 37 "No in all these things we are more than conquerors.”
I would like to praise and thank Jesus for blessing our 2009 Summer Bible Conference which was held last April 9-12,2009 in Baguio City which is known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines and the City of Pines because it is a mountain city with a cool weather and full of Pine trees. It is also a strategic place for campus mission since it is considered as the University Belt area of the Northern part of the country because it houses approximately 10 Universities and Colleges. We also want to thank God for providing us a safe mercy journey in the steep mountain roads going to the conference site. Actually Dr. William Altobar was praying for Palawan islands but God sent us to Baguio instead. And so we are continually praying for Palawan to be the conference site next year.
God blessed the Children’s Bible Fellowship memorization of Romans 8: 1-39 on the first morning of the conference. We are very happy to see and hear from these little children. They had great faith to memorize the passage even 3 months before the conference. And so we could see the fruits of their hard work through their snappy recitation of the verses starting from Little Hannah Christine Ipapo and Hannah Grace Reytos as well as Little Shepherd John David Ipapo and Little Shepherdess Sarah Ebenezer Altobar. Truly the Holy Spirit made them conquer the memorization deeply in their hearts. Just like the Filipino cyclist who could conquer the mountains of Baguio in winning their race lap in this mountain every cycling tour event and will eventually be recognized as the “Eagle of the Mountain.”These children could really soar like eagles in the mountain skies with their conquering and heart moving faith. God also blessed the 1st speaker’s message in the afternoon. Shpd Archie “Noah” Montefalcon’s message was taken from Romans 8:1-17”There’s now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” From his message we learned that we are no longer condemned of our respective sins because Jesus suffered and died on our behalf for all of our sins. Shpd Noah also conducted our Group Bible Studies after our Daily Bread Devotion that day. We want to thank Jesus for His precious sacrifice by dying on the cross in order to free us from eternal condemnation. We also want to thank God for the 2nd speaker’s message on the 2nd day of the conference about the” Future Glory “that will be faced by every believer of Jesus who stood in faith till the end. Shpd.Domingo Jacinto, an Engineering student from University of the East at Caloocan talked about the future eternal glory in heaven which we will receive after much suffering for Jesus name sake in this world. Through this absolute promise of God we can find real hope in this world because we would be adopted by God as His eternal sons and daughters. In this hope we were saved. If one puts his hope in the temporal things of the world he will only be frustrated because it does not always meet one’s expectations. But if our hope is in the future glory we could have the assurance of an eternal hope. On the third day of the conference, God helped Shpd Wilson “ Jacob “Agpalo to deliver his message about how to be a mighty conqueror as a true soldier and disciple of Jesus. In Rom 8:27 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Only through Jesus’ help could every Christian conquer all kinds of situation whether good or bad.. Most importantly Jesus could help us overcome our own sin problem. We praise and thank Jesus for helping Shpd Jabcob to have a courageous faith to be humble and open in his message about his abnormal sinful desires. He struggled hard to confess and repent of his hidden sin which made him a slave to its power. But from his message we saw God’s power was upon him when he conquered his sin problem by faith. As his act of repentance he even prayed to make a decision of faith to marry a woman of God in the future and be conqueror of the gospel work.We also want to thank God for the gracious Sunday Worsihp Message of Misn Peter Cho in Heb 11: 29-30 “By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on the dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so they were drowned.” Through his message we learned conquering faith to face our own Red Seas in life. Misn Peter also made a decision of faith to cowork with UBF Quezon City Chapter headed by Misn John Jeong. At first it was not his plan to the Philippines but to the USA. But God brought his family facing the global economic crisis and struggled to live in our poor country. Anyway God helped him through much prayer to ask for God’s guidance. And now he is happy to endure hardship with fellow coworkers of the gospel. God also blessed the life testimony sharers from the Highschool students like Mary Grace Ipapo, Sarah Ebenezzer Altobar and Samuel Altobar an incoming Fresh man student in UP. They shared their heart moving messages full of vision and hope. God also allowed them to go to Korea for a scheduled visit in one UBF Chapter next month. Other testimony sharers were from UP Manila. They were sisters, Ayra Aguirre and Dawn Moran. They were indeed noble women who want to pursue higher studies like Ayra who prays to study Medicine for God’s purpose. Their Shepherdess Arlene Miranda is also very supportive of them.
God also blessed our campus tours in Baguio where we planted the seed of prayer in different Universities and Colleges like University of the Philippines Baguio; University of the Cordilleras; University of Baguio; St Louis University; Benguet State University and the Philippine Military Academy which houses the future generals. May God raise among them future spiritual generals as well as 1 Abraham and 1 Sarah of faith in each campus. Although the weather is cool, we can feel the warmth of the students to welcome people and we do believe that that they are much warmer to welcome Jesus in their hearts through 1:1 Bible Studies. Shpdss Ming Simeon who delivers Sunday Worship messages in UBF Baguio Chapter has one faithful prayer mother candidate Sarah Jane. May God also bless the prayer topic given by Dr. William to raise 3.5 million missionaries from our country Philippines who could conquer the whole world with the precious Word of God. May God also raise 1 Abraham and 1 Sarah of faith and 12 disciples of Jesus at the University Belt in Manila. UP Manila, Fatima University, Manila Central University, UP Diliman and Unciano University in Baras. May God also provide 1 Bible House at the University Belt in Manila which will serve as a house of prayer for all nations.
