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We thank God for blessing the 2016 Great Lakes Region Spring Bible conference abundantly. It was held at Beulah Beach conference center next to Lake Erie from April 8-10.  Beulah Beach conference center built a brand new auditorium which was just suitable for our meeting.  80 people gathered from Akron, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Erie, Novi and Toledo. The conference title was “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus” based on Hebrews 12:2. We had our CBF conference concurrently with 25 members attending it. 

Chapter directors prepared this conference prayerfully and sincerely. We sensed that God was with us and led us to prepare this conference with one mind and heart. 

We had 3 messages; 1) Jesus, remember me (Luke 23:26-47)  by David Edwards; 2) Fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-3) by Doug Fortman; 3) “Watch” (Mark 13:1-37) by Greg Lewis. Their messages were clear, gracious and powerful. 

We also had 10 testimony speakers: M. Rebekah Kim (her thanksgiving testimony for retirement) on Friday evening and 9 others on Saturday evening: Mike Higgins (Buffalo), Adam Maraschky (Cleveland), Elsie Palberas (Akron), James Bae, Michael McWhorter, Randy Rader, Lisi Ferg, Justin Sikkema and Jeff Gathergood (Columbus). 

We also had 5 breakout sessions: Coping with Anxiety led by  Ruth Kille; Parenting led by Peter Park; Peace at Middle East led by David Lee; Life Management led by Paul Hong; Relational Discipleship led by Jeff Gathergood and Michael McWhorter

We had group Bible studies and testimony sharing in 8 small groups. For each meeting we had joyful praise and worship, representative prayers and special music. Pauline Park Jr., along with John Joung Jr, James Bae and Joshua Bang, led the praise and worship. We also had Saturday afternoon sports for young people. 

On Sunday, Thanksgiving offering was collected and was used partly to support the late M. Timothy Park’s family in Humber, Canada, to subsidize students’ registration fee and the rest kept as a fund for the future Great Lakes Region discipleship ministry. 

The GLR prayer topics are: 1) to raise our children as our future gospel coworkers; 2) to raise students as disciples of Jesus and gospel coworkers; 3) to pray for the work of God in Europe UBF. 

May God help us to fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race of faith faithfully to the end.

Henry Park