Eastern African Regional Bible Conference 2017 Final Report

  • by WMD
  • May 15, 2017
  • 1358 reads

"Feed My Sheep!" (John 21:17)

We had the conference from 13-16th April at Nairobi, Kenya. Total 215 attended. This includes 100 from Kenya (UBF 70,  CBF/JBF 30), 92 (UBF 85, CBF/JBF 7 from Uganda. 7 brohters from Rwanda, 3 from Ethiopia, 1 from Nigeria, 1 from Zimbabwe, 5 from USA, 6 from Korea. Especially, we all thank God who sent our Rwandan 7 brothers to our conference even though it took almost 24 hours for them to travel to Kenya by bus. They are the fruits of M. David Lu (who joined Uganda UBF from China from 2008) who served them with 1:1 and worship services every month for two years riding 12 hours on the bus)

Through morning devotion (Mary's decision of faith, Hannah' prayer, and Rebecca's obedience by faith), we prayed for our graduates shepherdesses to grow as mothers of prayers for this generation. Through evening lectures ('Do not say I am only a child!', 'Gideon, the mighty warrior!,' 'Sharpened sword!"), we prayed for our graduates shepherds to accept God's calling on campus evangelism and to grow as 2nd generation leaders in our ministries. Three main lectures were targeted our new and students members. Through lecture 1 ('Father I have sinned!'), we prayed for all of us to find ourselves as lost sinners and to turn to Jesus. Through lecture 2 ('It is finished!'), to accept fully the salvation work of Jesus on the cross. Through lecture 3 ('Feed my sheep!'), to live a life of mission by feeding Jesus' sheep. Moreover, for our members who could not afford to travel to international conferences either in US or Korea, we invited representative life-testimony speakers from Korea, US, Africa to share their bible-centered life testimonies to be encouraged mutually! Thank and praise God who answered us abundantly even more than we had asked through this conference!

Shepherd Juma Fuchingo delivered main 1 message based on 'Father I have sinned!"(Luke 15:11-24). Message was simple but clear! Especially he reveal the fact that true repentance is to discover how lost one was and return to Jesus with full repentance. It was well supported with his live application, so that all attendants were deeply touched. A Ugandan brother who joined Uganda UBF recently shared heart-moving representative testimony!

Shepherd Abrahams Omoding delivered main 2 based on 'It is finished!'(John 19:30). He exposed the deep meaning of Jesus' salvation grace on the cross gracefully. He works in Cancer Centre in Uganda. Since he was too busy in his work place, he had been suffering from the guilty feeling from not being able to take care of fellowship and sheep. But he accepted Jesus' voice on the cross deeply again, 'It is finished!' He regained the strength to serve Jesus' mission based on Jesus' sacrifice love on the cross. The message worked very strong in one Ugandan brother, and he shared representative testimony shedding a lot of tears!

Shepherd Otieno delivered main 3 based on 'Feed my sheep!' (John 21:1-18). His message was most powerful and heart-moving! He is an architect and college lecturer by profession. He speaks well and able person, so he was successful in many worldly affairs by his own standard. However, the hardest task for him was to feed sheep. As he served sheep with business-oriented mind, so many potential sheep left him. He envied his coworker shep. Juma who was fruitful with many disciples candidates, and wished he could resign soon from the shepherd's task. Through the message, however, he confessed his love to Jesus who asked him, 'Do you love me more than these?' He accepted that he should feed sheep not based on his human might or will power, but based on sacrificial love of Jesus. His heart-felt fresh decision of faith moved us all!

Morning devotions were testimonial messages based on each key verse. Shep. Nancy of Kenya UBF is the wife of shep. Kevin. She shared her testimonial message based on Maria' faith decision. She desired to live in a humble and sweet home with her husband and with two kids. But she repented her human dream, and made a decision of faith to serve 2nd Generation of Kenya UBF sacrificially. Shep. Juliet of Uganda shared her testimonial message based Hanah's prayer. Like like Hanna, she prayed to establish house church faithfully and desperately. God answered her prayer! However, after establishing house church and blessed to live a stable life as a lawyer, she became lazy in prayer and didn't serve fellowship though she was a fellowship coworker. So she made a decision of faith to serve ministry through 30minutes prayer every day. Shep. Janet of Kenya UBf, the wife of shp. Juma, emphasized that Rebecca obeyed to marry as she was convinced that the marriage came from God. She also faced many challenges to establish house church, but she could obey fully when she was convinced by God that her marriage came from God. And now, she was blessed to raise up many mother of prayer candidates. Her testimony greatly encouraged many marriage candidates among us! Through evening lectures, God also encouraged all our student leaders to renew God's calling and to commit themselves to the calling.

It was life-testimonies of foreign delegates that made our conference so powerful and alive. The testimonies shared by M. Daniel and Deborah Yang who came from Chicago UBF, exemplified a role model of one's life of faith obeying God's word absolutely. One of our senior shepherd confessed, 'Their testimonies show us how we must struggle to be matured in trusting and obeying God's word!' Testimonies of Moses and Maria Lee (Kwan-ak 3)touched many by revealing well how blessed it is to live a life of mission turning from selfish and sinful life. They also thanked us all confessing that writing life-testimony helped them revive their first love to Jesus! Many students and graduates were touched much by the testimonies of both Jean D'arc Kim of Jongno and Courtney of Chicago since the contents were similar to their own spiritual struggle. Esepcially, when the shp. Jean D'arc shared that she buried earrings and necklace on the ground in order not to make boys fall into temptation on her, all laughed and were challenged. At mission night, shep. James Odejimi from Nigeria shared his life testimony and mission report of pioneering his own chapter, and we all prayed for his ministry.

Dr. Abraham Kim, General director of UBF world mission, gave us the closing message based on Acts 1:8. He suggested two main prayer topics: (1) to pioneer 5 other countries that are not joined in our conference (Brundi, Djibuti, Eritrea, Somalia, Tanzania) (2) to raise 120 worship attendants in Uganda and Kenya UBF.

About this conference, M. Livingstone Kang, director of Uganda UBF, commented, 'it was like heavenly feast' referring to the fact that two Ugandan sheep were not very committal, but that hey repented with tears in the conference. He also thanked God for restoring shep. Abrahams Omoding through his main message. Shep. Moses Yoon (Korean HQ) helped messengers through prayer, commented, "it was like tasting graceful summer bible conference in Korea in advance!"

Thank and praise God who helped us to overcome several Satan's attack while preparing the conference. Nairobi university became paralyzed from January due to lecturer's strike. In fact, we prayed for 80 conference attendants by inviting freshmen who was to report to campus from January. But when the campus was paralyzed they all went back home. We prayed devotionally for the campus to be normalized at least 1 month before the conference. All co-workers from the world also prayed for us. God miraculously answered our prayer and enabled us to invite 70 in an impossible situation. In addition, we had to change conference venue almost 5 times. April used to be rainy seaon and also for our poor students we need to find the lowest cost venue with proper facilities. Finally, the venue we decided also had a problem that the roof was covered with iron-sheet. In case of downpour, we couldn't listen messages at all. We just prayed by faith that rain may skip our conference period. Eventually, against the weather forecast of 'Accuweather,' there was no rain during the conference (3nights and 4 days), then right after the conference, there was a heavy rain at night. Rain means blessing in Africa. We thank God that he listened to our prayer and protected and blessed our conference even in weather!

Most of all, we thank God that through the conference, 5 graduate sisters regained spiritual desire to marry by faith. We also thank God for our students to grow as stable leaders through skits-training on main lectures. Before conference, most of skit members were not faithful. But, shep. Juma who was fully in charge of the skit preparation, helped them to accept main lecture passages by memorizing by hearts. Through this they accepted the passage in their hearts, and was able to perform gracefully and powerfully. Even after the conference, they are now attending worship services and bible studies faithfully.

Finally, thank God who blessed 2n Generation conference that happened concurrently. Under unfavorable circumstances, God sent M. Daniel and Deborah Yang from Chicago UBF as prayer servant. God raised shep. Moses Kim (Kwangju 2) as overall leader and worked together sacrificially with Mark Jr. (Mark Yoon's son), Maria Yoo (Dr. Samuel Yoo's daughter), Jean D'arc and Dahye Kim (Jongno 1)to serve CBF/JBF conference. Parents commented that their children became very happy after the conference. Through this, God taught us also to take 2nd Generation ministry more importantly.

Detail prayer topics for 4 countries attended in conference are as follows:

• Ethiopia: For sister E-Yerusalem to grow as ancestor of faith

• Rwanda: To raise one leader among 7 brothers who attended the conference

• Uganda: To feed one sheep based on "Fee my sheep!"

• Kenya: To establish 5 house churches and to pioneer 3 chapters in God's time

In addition, we pray to pioneer Brundi, Djibuti, Eritrea, Somalia, Tanzania in God's time and to raise 120 worship attendants in Kenya and Uganda!

One word: 'Feed my sheep!'