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Thank you for your prayers for the Mid-Atlantic Summer Bible Conference.

Praise God for His Kingdom that has come near! It is His amazing grace that brings us, over 200 people from the Mid-Atlantic region and foreign delegates, together at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia for a time of worship, Bible study, and fellowship. May we have faith to see the Kingdom of God that is at hand and participate in the mighty, gracious work of Jesus in the world. Tonight, we began our conference with praise and a special song from the Young Disciples of Jesus group (college students and recent graduates) and a message on Genesis 15 (God’s covenant with Abram) by Andrew Forbes, a second generation UBF member who will soon begin his senior year of college. We praise God for His clear work in the lives of these young men and women.

Like Abram, we can become fixated on ourselves and our situations. But as God called Abram to look up at the stars and believe God and His promise, God calls us to look up to Jesus. God calls us to believe that Jesus already fulfilled the covenant of the Kingdom of God. May we respond in faith like Abram and believe the Lord’s promise. May God use this conference to help us lift up our eyes to Jesus, our Lord and Savior. May we have His hope and vision for our lives. May His Kingdom come in our hearts and may He send us out to proclaim the “kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

We thank God for the first full day of our conference. It began with a morning devotional on the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-16, by Missionary David Hwang. He focused on verse 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge that we cannot be self-sufficient, but must rely on Jesus every day. Next, we had group Bible study on Mark 1:1-15 followed by a main message on the same passage by Missionary Wesley Jun. The title of the message was “The Kingdom of God is at Hand”. Jesus is God’s anointed King of His kingdom, so we received the call to let Jesus rule as the King of our lives. “At hand” means now, so we must not wait to repent and believe that Jesus brings the kingdom of God. Missionary Wesley’s message was followed by a time of testimony writing and sharing on this passage.

We had multiple interest groups in the afternoon on topics such as children’s ministry, marriage, fishing/witnessing, careers, finance, and Greek and Hebrew study. The evening message by Missionary Paul Jin was “Preach the Gospel to All Creation” based on Mark 16:1-20.  In His resurrection, Jesus shattered the power of death, but the disciples did not believe. So Jesus came to them and rebuked their lack of faith.  He then called them to preach the Gospel to all Creation. Likewise, we are called to have a living hope in the living Jesus in order to fulfill Jesus’ world mission command.

We concluded the second day of the conference with World Mission Reports. Reports were given by Susan Lee (Germany), Sarah Yun Jr. (China), Grace Chun (Uganda), Anna Seo Jr. (Uganda), Allison Haga (Taiwan) – read by Tommy Pham, Abraham Kang (Harvard), Isaac Kim (Kyrgyzstan), James Park Jr. (South Korea), Charles Renquena (Belize), and Philip Brown (China).

May God continue to call us to repent and believe that His kingdom is at hand!

We thank God for the second full day (3rd day overall) of our conference. It began with a morning devotional on Peter’s confession of faith, in Matthew 16:13-20, by Missionary Mark Yang Jr. We need to personally answer the question of who Jesus is. He is the Messiah and the Son of the Living God. Therefore, Missionary Mark taught us that we must be followers of Jesus, not just fans. Fans can come and go, but a follower is completely devoted. Our confession of faith is the foundation of our lives and what Jesus builds His church upon.  Next, we had group Bible study on Matthew 24:1-51 followed by the main message on this passage by Shepherd Paul Sambuco. The title of the message was “The Kingdom of God Will Come with Power”. The Kingdom of God is the only kingdom that will last forever. Even heaven and earth will pass away. Only Jesus connects us to the eternal Kingdom of God. His word will never pass away and He calls us to watch out and be on guard for His return in power and glory. We must have a watchful attitude and put our hope in Jesus’ coming. We again shared testimonies in our Bible study groups on the main message.

The evening message by Shepherd Don Lipsey was “A Living Sacrifice” based on Romans 12:1-8.  Shepherd Don spoke about how we must live in view of God’s mercy and the righteousness that we have received through Christ Jesus. We are called to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God to be used in His Kingdom, not conforming to the pattern of this world. We are enabled to make this offering to God by renewing our minds and growing each day through spending time in the Word of God.

We concluded the third day of the conference with life testimony sharing. Eight people shared how God worked in their lives. The sharers were Eric Choi (Washington), Alan Guevara (Washington), Monica Chang (Washington, from South Korea), Danny Hong (Lehigh), David Park (Philadelphia), Elle Lim (Washington), Abraham Kim (Washington), and Sarah Wang Brown (Washington, from China). We praise God for His grace and the clearly changed lives of these young people. May God continue to bless and use them for His glory and purpose, and complete the good work He has started in them. 

Praise God for the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Summer Bible Conference. Praise God for eight messengers, eight life testimony sharers, ten world mission reporters, and all 200-plus people who attended. It was truly a tangible foretaste of the Kingdom of God. Thank God that in Jesus the Kingdom of God has come near and will be established when Jesus comes again in power and glory. 

Today, Pastor Jacob Lee led a communion service. God blessed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and had great hope and plans for them. It was truly the Kingdom of God. Yet, their sin separated them from God and from His Kingdom. Yet, God so loved mankind that He sent His one and only Son to live as a man among us. Jesus gave this life as a ransom for us. The communion ceremony is in obedience to Jesus’ command for us to remember His great sacrifice. In the cup and bread we could remember, celebrate, and participate in Jesus’ victory and commit to investing our lives for the Kingdom of God.

The communion service was followed by our Sunday worship service. Shepherd Tunde Adebola delivered the message on Revelation 21. Shepherd Tunde reminded us that the Kingdom of God was at hand and growing during our Bible conference. We must now carry the Kingdom of God into the world during our daily lives. May God reign in our hearts each day. The Kingdom that Jesus has brought to us will be fully instituted at Jesus’ return. God will make everything new. Mankind will again be able to dwell with God and see Him face to face. May we persevere to the end, living as foundational people in God’s work.

Thank you for your continued prayers for us in the Mid-Atlantic region and for our Bible conference. May God bless you and keep you. May God continue to use you preciously and powerfully in His redemptive work

Written by Andrew & Heather Dellinger