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Belgium Report 2016 Joshua Lee

Make disciples of all nations

Key verse: Mt 28:19, 20

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I. Bible study & message

    Through great inspiration from the New Year’s message based on Hebrews 12, I served two Sunday worship services messages in Brussels by dividing the same passage into two parts. When I consider my mission life and our meetings based on this passage, we are very line an athlete doing a long run. When I turn my eyes away from Christ, my mind and heart are easily tangled by worldly desires and fears of tomorrow. As the author of Hebrews says, I should walk or run this path only by faith in Him. Then my vision and mission life would be different, enjoying him and participating in his suffering with joy. 

    After the New Year’s message, we resumed John’s gospel study (chap.14), which ended in August. In September, we began the study of the book of Exodus. For our monthly Skype GBS with our French speaking co workers in France, Belgium, Suisse and Canada, we studied the book of Joshua. It was beneficial for me to study these two books in parallel, because I could understand how God led his people under shepherd Moses and under General Joshua. For 40 years of nomad life, the entire 1st generation passed away in the desert, except for Joshua and Caleb. The promise of God that would be with Joshua just as he was with Moses is a great encouragement. In our UBF meetings, our ancestors are progressively retired from their position. Like General Joshua, we are now faced with a new task to serve Gospel ministry for a new generation. Many say that the current generation is very different from ours; due to the Internet, social network, and the pursuit of a career. It seems that spiritual values, mutual engagement such as marriage and social responsibilities are not in their vocabulary. They are like the Canaan tribes dwelled in the fortresses surrounded with high mountains and deep forests such as Jericho. Through Exodus and Joshua’s study we learned that the battle belongs to our God Almighty. It is very important for us to listen to Him carefully and to obey Him by faith. 

II. World mission Report 2016 Seoul

    In 2011 I could not participate in the World Mission Report in Seoul because of back surgery. This was my first visit to Seoul in 10 years. Based on the Korean proverb, many things have changed during last decade. Nor mountains or rivers, but many brand new towns are built after the total erasing of old ones. The infrastructure such as airports, highways, especially the subways has been modernized. It seems that Korea became technologically much more advanced than Belgium by 20 years. But what really moved my heart during my visit was that our senior Korean shepherds and shepherdess maintained their mission as gospel workers. As time passes and new generation comes, yet they are serving the gospel and disciple-making ministry with faithfulness and humility before God. At the world mission report, my heart was full of consolation when I listened to their chorus and saw their dancing performance. 

    At the conference, we studied the book of Deuteronomy. For the first time, we had a chance to study this whole book for four days. All the testimonies of the main messengers were excellent. They went to the mission field with simple obedience of faith. In spite of all kinds difficulties and trials their testimonies revealed our living faithful God, who uses his servants of faith everywhere in the mission field. After the conference, I attended the Sunday Worship Service at Yon-Hee UBF, my home center and shared my mission report based on Mark 11:22 along with several other missionaries. After all the meetings, I had a chance to visit my family members. While I was staying in Seoul, I visited my mother’s her home at her home-clinic and prayed with her. I also met my two elder sisters and their children and testified my life of faith before them. I was born as the youngest among four children in my family. But God introduced the gospel to my family through me. They respect me as servant of God. 

III. The French Speaking Summer Bible Conference and Skype Bible Study

    On July 27-30 we held our annual French speaking Summer conference in Switzerland, with title “Do you want to get well?” The Participants came from Genève, Paris II, Nantes, Brussels and Canada. (David Jumeau, Sarah Joy from Canada, from Köln Walter Nett and Wynelle Nett and from Bern Suzanna Kim along with her two daughters, 31 in total. As preparation for the conference, all the male coworkers from Nantes, Paris 2, Genève, and Brussels met together via Skype once a month from the summer of 2015 and had GBS and prayed together. During our Bible study and prayer God blessed each coworker.  

    Josué Kim of Paris II delivered the first main message John 5, “Do you want to get well?” In December 2015, he obtained a spouse visa and could join his family in Paris. And in June, a Korean company in Paris offered him a position. He began to work to support his family. His wife Espérance, has become much more stable with joy and confidence after passing through the long period of loneliness with two kids during the absence of her husband. 

    Jacob Han from Nantes was in the country for a year and a half year without an ID card because his visa has expired. When he was in Korea, he was an excellent engineer in one of the big telecommunication companies. But for world mission he gave up his secure career and came to France as a Missionary. In Nantes he co-worked with Shepherd Bruno and worked as an assistant at the flower shop managed by his wife, Esther Han. Living without a visa and a job he passed through a very humble period. During the conference preparation Jacob Han received from Nantes a municipal a letter that the French government grant him a residence card. In December he finally received his residence card. He experienced victory from God who is faithful to his children. 

    Josué Lee Jr. from Brussels delivered the 2nd main message on John 13:26-38, “A new command I give you: Love one another.” He had difficulty to accept and love his younger brother Timothy. In February, they fought with each other. For 2016, he took this verse as his key verse to love his neighbors beginning with his younger brother. As he said in his message, to love one another is a life-long battle. But this is Jesus’ command which is not an option. After the message we heard life testimonies from Sarah Lee from Brussels, Esther Han of Nantes & David Jumeau from Canada. They live by faith like Abraham who walked with God’s promise. 

    From September, French-speaking coworkers met again via Skype to study the Book of Joshua. In a sense, there has been a big hole in French speaking ministry since Dr. Marc Choi  and the coworkers of Paris  didn’t participate in the meeting. Even now we don’t know what is going on with them and what God’s will through this. Somehow, the rest of us felt the importance of meeting together on a regular basis to maintain a spiritual vessel. Through the stewardship of Shepherd Bruno Aussant, we decided to study the Book of Joshua in 2016 and 2017. We hope that through this Bible study would be a good preparation for all up-coming conferences as well as the work of God in the French speaking nations.

IV. Second generation ministry

    When I look back at my life of mission in Belgium for the last 25 years since 1991, several local students have come and left Bible study. As a missionary for this country, I never could say that I’ve done what I should do. I can only say that I have just maintained my faith in God. As a lay missionary I had daily fatigue after work, physical and time limitations. Since there was no tangible fruit among local students even after many years, I’ve changed my mission strategy. Instead of despairing or giving-up I began to do something I could do. Then I saw my children as God’s sheep. In Genesis I found my task to study the Bible with them and to build a spiritual foundation in them. For more than the last 5 years I had Bible study with Joshua Jr. every Friday night. We studied John’s Gospel, Genesis and Exodus. With the word of God I taught him repeatedly to choose God and to walk with God under any circumstance. Then I asked him to deliver the Sunday message during my absence. He began to serve a message for our weekend conference. And this summer he delivered a main message from John 13:26-38 at the French speaking conference. 

    In April, we studied Exodus 16 as special lecture to teach our second generations how important it is to do Daily Bread. In November, we held a “Bible Evening” on a Friday night. For the first time, our Second Generation hosted this meeting. Joshua Jr. prepared a message based on Matthew 25 “The Parable of the talents” with his life-testimony. Timothy performed music with his guitar. They also invited their friends, Mohamed and Brian who were at the same high-school with them. Their friends were moved by Joshua Jr’s testimony. 

V. Spiritual direction & prayer topic for 2017

    For the New Year 2017, I chose last year’s key verse for this year again from Matthew 28:19, 20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” And as an additional key verse, from John 13:34, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” During our Friday bible study in November I asked  Joshua Jr. if he would receive spiritual training? Based on his agreement, I asked him to write a weekly testimony. I also asked Timothy to write a testimony and to share it with me occasionally. He accepted to share his life testimony for the Christmas worship service. Through this, I pray that God may form each of them with His words and make them disciples of Jesus. 

    One of the important prayer topic that we found at the French speaking conference, are several university students: Paul Lee Jr and Sarah Lee Jr. of Geneva, Josué Lee and Timothy Lee of Brussels and Sarah Han of Nantes. In 2017, we pray that God may give us good spiritual guidance to serve these students with His words and prayer. May God help them to build a spiritual foundation.

Prayer topics

• The Sunday message from the Book of Exodus chapter five.
• Monthly Skype Bible study with French speaking co workers on the book of Joshua chapter four.
• Spiritual training of Second Generation: Joshua and Timothy through testimony writing, serve       one student and study diligently.
• Bruno Aussant (Nantes, France) for coordination and spiritual vessel with French speaking nations.
• Sarah Lee: teaching job at a pre-school, be in good health and serve one student.
• Paul Lee age 14 his surgery to correct his backbone successfully and do well in school.