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1. 2016 Annual report

2016 can be divided into two parts, time before September, and after September. Until September, Psalm was the main text in Sunday Worship Services (SWS) with messages delivered by Dr. Samuel Augustine Lee. U of I undergraduate and graduate students attended the SWS, and often times we had lunch fellowships together. Also each Friday, a group Bible study was held where a Shepherds’ family (Yuchang Wu and Yanjun Ma) took the leadership of studying Romans. Missionary Mary Cowen, Albert Man, Yaejin Moon and Andrew Lee were attending in this study. Missionary Grace Lee served in many 1:1 Bible Studies, while Dr. Sam Lee served not only in SWS, but also led weekly Wednesday online meetings where remote people attended from places like Atlanta, New Jersey or Baltimore. When our students went overseas in vacations, they could attend in this meeting. In our SWS, new students were invited by invitation of our members. Annually we used to promote our ministry in the official promoting events of student clubs, since our ministry was registered as a student club. However statistically we found this promotion was not that effective. Instead, rather a solitary outreach event was proven to be more effective, mainly because there was less distraction for people to be reached. However the most effective way was by personal invitations, and several students in U of I have been invited to our SWS this way.

After September, Dr. Sam Lee’s family moved to New Jersey to start a new ministry in Princeton. For the remaining students in U of I, Missionary Jeremiah Park and Missionary Mary Cowen delivered SWS messages based on 2King, Psalm and Exodus. Also the Friday group Bible study continued, studying John’s Gospel. A new student was invited to our SWS in a personal connection with Jeremiah Park. He has been a Christian but didn’t find a church to go, and our Ministry has been a place he found a learning place.

2. 2017 Vision and Strategy

Exodus 4:12 “ Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

This is my new year’s key verse. Often times I felt short about what I would preach in each Sunday, but God has been gracious to give me wisdom to deliver the messages. I have learned that God’s word is powerful, so I just need to overcome my worries but deliver the word clearly to people. I see growth of students in Biblical knowledge each week, but I pray that the real spiritual changes would happen to all of us this year, overcoming sin, fear and worries, and experience the freedom, victory and joy in God’s fellowship. Personally I pray that I can also bear fruits in my postdoctoral research and publish papers, and my wife Yaejin can gain PhD early next year. Also I pray our students can be excellent in their studies and become disciples of Jesus.

Jeremiah Park