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The Gospel: God’s Glory in the Face of Christ

2Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

God be honored and praised for all his love and care and bountiful blessings throughout 2014! We cannot but thank him for revealing and performing his will in and through us. And although some mighty things were done, we are just unworthy servants, having done even less than was possible.

After learning from Jesus, esp. on prayer, in 2013, this year we focused on living by faith according to Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Learning faith was an absolute necessity, esp. in preparing and holding the European Summer Bible Conference. And that was just one piece in the magnificent mosaic of God’s work in UBF Germany this year.

We thank God for his gracious love in and through house church ministries from north to south.

In Kiel, Harm and Maria Meyer kept their faith through prayer and Sunday worship service although Harm had to stay far away from home due to his new job. They are now praying to move to Eastern Germany where there has been no UBF chapter for years.

Missionary Peter Oh of Hamburg received his Ph.D. in theology for his thesis on “The Religion of the New Korea. How Christianity has furthered Korea’s Way into the Modern World.” This work would have been impossible without the whole-hearted support of his wife, Missionary Hanna who still works in Kiel. Their son Joel finished medical school and is now earning a second degree in Mannheim.

In Braunschweig the M. Jabez Kaleb and Rebekka Hong are serving several students through Bible study and a Bible academy. They are especially praying for the growth of Hannes and new coworkers.

Dusseldorf area ministries now have a bright new prayer house where they unite at least once a month for Sunday worship service. Dusseldorf 1 is grateful for the spiritual growth of Lennart who studies God’s word with M. Grace Yoon and already has a sense of ownership. This summer, he served young children in Brazil with the love of Christ. Friederike, Jonathan, Jannick and Juliana are also growing through Bible study. Dusseldorf 2 also saw the healthy birth of Zoe Lucy Keller.

Wuppertal UBF, independent now for one year, is a completely new gen ministry. God raised one young coworker, Vy Dang, through their joint prayers and efforts. Nicky and Andreas are also preparing to become coworkers in the gospel. And there are some more that come to study the Bible and worship God together faithfully. God blessed the house church of Josef and Ruth Hong with a healthy baby Daniel Martin.

Cologne 1 is experiencing a new spirit of coworking, both among young people and across generations. The monthly “Lichtblick” (Ray of Hope) worship service on Saturday night and the quarterly Sunday worship service presented completely by young people have helped them to develop their potential. They also serve a student meeting and a group Bible study called “Haverim” (Hebrew for “friendship”), adopted from the Pais Movement. As a consequence, many young students come to our meeting, learning to know Jesus, and making a fresh spiritual environment. After putting much energy in serving the ESBC in Willingen, the fall conference on “Living in the Light” was small and fine. It focused on spiritual growth, challenging young and senior participants. Jan Winand and Eun-Hye Na married in May with the blessing of many servants of God. The ministry was also happy for the births of Yeri Yoo (David & Daniela’s daughter) and Ben Minho Seok (Henoch & Grace Seok’s son). And Annika Fabian received her B.A. from Mainz University.

Cologne 2 is thankful for the whole-hearted spiritual community. They could see the fruit of Samuel Kum’s spiritual struggle to overcome his physical limitations in small, but significant improvements. Then, last month, Sara Kum made a great decision to establish a house church in Australia, half around the globe, with David Park from Canberra. They had a happy engagement and pray to marry in May.

Bonn UBF has been blessed to raise a new 4 story attachment to their former Bible house giving up the worship service building they had used for 2 years. They are challenging further disciple making ministry through early morning-prayer, through co-working with the next generation and through pioneering the university by faculties, praying that God may use this as a preparation for raising 10,000 Bible teachers and for pioneering 1700 universities in Europe.

Mainz ministry co-worked with surrounding chapters in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt for the Easter conference. Through their group Bible study on campus, Lea and Jonathan are growing spiritually. The young house church of Samuel and Maria Ryu, who were sent out from Bonn UBF, serves the youth group with God’s word faithfully.

In Wiesbaden, Eun-Hye Kim has graduated from high school and is preparing to enter medical school. At the same time she prays to continue serving the ministry.

Frankfurt area ministries have served hundreds of guests before, during, and after the ESBC. Frankfurt 1 is grateful for the opportunity of serving a cantata by M. Johanna Cho during the cultural program at the conference. M. Mose Kim has returned from military service in Korea, and Joy Kim passed her 3rd state exam in law. She has started working as a judge on social affairs in Cologne. Jean-Claude is growing through faithful Bible study. In Frankfurt 2, Moses Hur could resume work after long absence, and he serves Sunday worship service without fail. Frankfurt 3 has seen the spiritual growth of Monica, Daniel, Dorota, and Yann. They are also overjoyed by the birth of Ruth-Grace to Samuel and Ester Ju after 7 years of marriage.

Darmstadt chapters, esp. the women, co-work for inviting students on campus. Darmstadt 1 could serve several students with God’s living word. Darmstadt 2 has been strengthened through the co-working of Dr. Esra Taesoo Song’s family (with wife Rebekka and 2 daughters).

In Mannheim the five second gens are growing in faith. Maria held a heart moving message at their Bible Night in November with 5 new attendants, and one of them wants to start one to one Bible study with her.

Heidelberg had their first children’s conference at Easter with 18 children studying about Jesus’ death and resurrection. On September 29, Shps. Birgit Steller went home to her heavenly Father. Even though they found that she was prepared, they themselves did not feel prepared. But they received much comfort from God and through coworkers. We thank God for Birgit’s faithful life of faith and precious influence in our ministry for 28 years and that He made her life in Jesus so beautiful and complete. On November 8, there was a leadership transition from M. Kaleb Hong, who had served the ministry for over 32 years, to Reiner Schauwienold. The ceremony was attended by many servants of God from across Germany. Since then the coworkers are praying to form a new vessel under the new leadership in order to please God and to be a blessing for 34,000 students in Heidelberg. They were blessed with the birth of Marc Hong (Enoch & Grace), Amos Chung (Simon & Mary Chung), Victoria Lee (Paul & Lydia Lee) and Titus Myung (Josua & Gloria Myung).

In Karlsruhe, 5 young students (Felix, Wenzel, Jakob, James, Joseph) are growing in faith and stewardship together with shepherds Tobias and Andreas. They are also praying for female students to join regularly. The house church of Tobias and Esther Hergert had a healthy son, Kadmiel.

Stuttgart UBF has seen faithful growth of Thorsten, Norbert and Sunuk. Maria Hong Jr. serves the weekly “Spirit & Joy” meeting with dedication.

Freiburg ministry celebrated their 20th anniversary and established Thorsten Kohlscheen as a shepherd. New gens and several students are growing through regular Bible study and weekend Bible schools that are held every other month. General David and Rebekka Son were happy to have a son, Daniel Mose in addition to their two wonderful daughters.

In Munich, Klawdya has a strong desire to become a Bible teacher for her friends. Cagla, Masumi and Daniela are growing through God’s word, step by step.

Meanwhile, most chapters have more than one Sunday messenger. This helps in preparing messages more deeply and also allows for a different perspective. Both native shepherds and new gen shepherds serve God’s work whole-heartedly together with the pioneering missionaries. Young missionaries take more initiative in serving their fellow students.

We could see the gracious work of God in our young generation through their HBF conference in June. A team of new generation coworkers prayed and prepared over months with much practical support from Missionary Little-Sarah Kim of Chicago UBF who also joined the conference. The conference theme was relationships, starting from a right relationship with God. Friendship was a topic as well as broken relationships. There were 51 young people moved by the word of God and encouraged to grow in faith through healthy relationships. The conference also shaped a spirit of good co-working towards the European Summer Bible Conference, two months later.

ESBC had been prepared through more than 2 years, starting with finding a new conference site since the place at Eringerfeld was no more available. Eventually, a report in an evangelical weekly magazine (idea Spektrum) led us to Willingen. But finalizing the contract took us one year. Then, last year, we decided on the title, “Faith in God,” and on the program and started the practical preparation. Based on Bonn UBF’s concept 5 years ago, we established 23 task groups in 7 teams led by Reiner Schauwienold (Core Program), Elia Lee (Performance), Martin Ziegler (Sequencing), Rene Richelshagen (Environment), Jonathan Kang (Public relations), Rainer Wieland (Participants), and Walter Nett (overall). Beginning in March, we met in Cologne every other week. Generally, 25-30 coworkers from all over Germany joined, some traveling up to 8 hours one way. Several times, European coworkers joined as well. The meetings always started with prayer and a message from Acts. In this way we prayed to experience the work of the Holy Spirit among us in preparation, during and after the conference. Oftentimes God’s word from Acts was perfectly fitting to our situation, whether a sudden problem, a decision to make, or an opportunity opening up. So we could only praise God in helping us along the way.

We are also thankful for the manifold worldwide support, beginning with fervent prayer. Also, Dr. Mark Yang, Dr. Henry Park, and others came and served especially the speakers. The messengers met in Cologne to unite in prayer and to find mutual encouragement plus lots of help from P. Abraham Lee and other mentors. The music teams had various training meetings in different places. Several young people from different chapters, mainly from USA, came early to help with the practical preparation.

Our goal was to have more than 800 people join the conference. But although there was no down payment for registrations, the number grew very slowly. The Korean team was outstanding, all registering in April and making the full payment right away. In the end, 830 people joined the conference. This was also significantly enabled by M. Hannah Shin of Prague who assembled about 90 kids under 12 for a separate CBF conference at the same place.

Many of those who attended confirmed that the conference helped them have or renew faith in God, as we had prayed. To many young people, the authentic message style of our young messengers James Wood, Sara Neusa Figueiredo, Georgi Kumanichliev, Petrus Chang, David Shin, Enoch Hong, Michael Pohl, Stamatis Savvanis, and Bruno Aussant was helpful in opening their hearts for God’s word. At the same time, the opening message by M. Sarah Barry, the special lecture by Prof. Peter Beyerhaus, and the closing address by P. Abraham Kim were powerful and heart-moving. We were grateful to have them, and UBF is especially honored by Prof. Beyerhaus’ whole-hearted participation and contribution.

We are grateful for the faithful spiritual struggle of those whom we have sent to foreign mission fields. We pray for Birgit Pierce and Elisabeth Chung in Chicago, Mark Lee in New York, Sarah Kayser in Tempe (Arizona), Johanna Nett in Washington, Johanna Hong in Vienna, and Catherine Weecxsteen in France. May God continue to use them as sources of blessing for many. We thank God that Ulrike Gross has served Uganda medical mission whole-heartedly, again.

We thank God for allowing us to strengthen our networking with other churches and distinguished men of God, such as Prof. Beyerhaus. Some ministries co-work actively with local Evangelical Alliance.

For 2015, we want to join the General Director’s orientation with 2Corinthians 4:6. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” We pray to come to a deeper knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ Jesus. We pray that the light of the gospel will shine in us and through us.

Our prayer topics are:

1. Faithful prayer and deep Bible study so that we will know God better and serve German campus students with the living word of God, raising them as coworkers for world campus mission.
2. To support world mission under the leadership of P. Abraham Kim (Chicago) as well as the future General Director, and of Shp. David Kim (Korea); coworking of Walter Nett with Reiner Schauwienold and Peter Schweitzer as well as P. Abraham Lee, M. Kaleb Hong, and Dr. Peter Chang for German ministries; encourage house-church ministries, conferences and Bible schools in Germany and across Europe.
3. To empower the new generation to establish a vessel of the Holy Spirit in one heart and mind and to take a more and more leading role in serving world campus mission; to support a European youth conference, organized by students, mentored by senior new gens.
4. For the physical health, esp. of M. Noah You, M. Moses Hur, Samuel Kum, and others.