News

Hanyang & Ansan UBF, Korea
August 16, 2014

Change the Object of Your Pleasure and Transform Your Life!

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said “I am God almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.” (Gen17:1)

On July 25-27 Hanyang and Ansan UBF held its joint summer conference with the theme “Change the Object of Your Pleasure and Transform Your Life” at Grace Conference center near a beautiful river, Hantan at Yonchun Kyoungki province in Korea. 169 people attended, of whom 32 were new Bible students, including 21 missionaries (two second generations), seven native shepherds and sheep from five countries. While we prepared the conference we held on to the word: “Walk before me faithfully and be blameless” based on Genesis17:1 as the key word for the conference preparation. Through this we could renew our absolute attitude toward God, the grace of his calling and salvation in our hearts. We also prayed for the conference: first to be

joyful, second for everyone to participate in the programs, and third to invite anyone to come. For this, we all gathered together early in the morning for prayer, by fellowships and in everyday prayer meetings asking God for his grace.

1. The conference was full of joy

Through prayer, in accordance with the theme of the conference, we selected the passages of the lectures; “The Delight of Zachaeous” - opening message, Luke 19 was given by Hyunsoo Lee; “The Delight of the Father God” – lecture 1, Luke 15 was given by Whangkyu Koh; “The Delight of Jesus” - lecture 2, John 19, 20 was given by Bumseok Kim; “The Delight of the Holy Spirit” – lecture 3, MT 28 was given by Jacob Kang; “The Delight of Believers” - lecture 4, MT 16 was given by John Jun; “The Delight of Children of God” – lecture 5, Gen 17:1 was given by Heungjae Lee; “Jesus Who Does Not Condemn Sinners” - morning devotion, John 8 was given by Jiae chung; and “Do You Love Me ?” from John 21 was given by Jungyoon Kim. Through the life giving messages we could newly realize that true delight comes only from Jesus our Lord. All the messengers were raised from student leaders. Four of them gave their debut messages with great success. We thank God for enabling them to grow in advance through message training for about 50 days.

The life testimony speakers were selected from four age groups: Sarah Chae and Darah Sohn (age 20th), Joseph Hong and Hannah Choi (30th), Ezra Yoon and Mark Park (40th), Luke Chung (50th). Each age group boldly spoke on how the Lord has wonderfully given them his grace and victory in the times of their suffering and agony. They all confessed with one voice that only through Jesus there is true joy and hope for all mankind.

Afterward, Woojae Chung, Sarah Kim Jr, Moses Ku Jr, Hannah Koh, Sarah Choi Jr. and Hannah Choi (Presiders) presented their joyful life histories in Christ Jesus. And Msn. Pauline Cho (Australia), Brisga Chung (x nation), Grace Choi (Owens), Peter Lee (York), Apolonia (Zimbabwe) and Sarah and Kirk Caesar (Arizona) presented their mission reports and life testimonies. In addition four sheep from C nation shared their heart-moving life testimonies. At the end we had to cancel our scheduled time for writing testimony in order to listen to the new Bible students’ testimonies.

We were all greatly moved by their beautiful testimonies in which they confessed their sins before God. By this we all were convinced that the true delight comes only from the Lord Jesus.

2. The conference for all to participate

In accordance with one of our prayer topics, all attendees willingly participated in one of the programs during the conference. First of all, 30 laymen willingly joined in chorus and sang praises to God. In the fun program many expressed their talents. Mark and Paul disciple’s teams made a music program performing: Russian song, special song of wind instruments, piano, Gayageum, and expressed their joy in Christ. C nation team performed a beautiful dance and joyful drama in their traditional clothes.

On the second evening we all concentrated on writing a testimony. Through this we all newly accepted the cross of Jesus and were forgiven and were full of the grace of Jesus. We thank God for enabling us to have intimate fellowship with Jesus through the testimony writing.

3. Open conference for everyone

It was the first time for Hanyang ministry to have an open conference for everyone. Of course, we first invited students from the campus but we also invited friends, family, relatives and all who wanted to join in. As a result, even S. Sarah Baek’s mother joined and played piano. Brother Hongjae Lee brought his friend because he wanted to give him an opportunity to listen to his message. Sh. Luke Chung invited his students from his school. Msn. Sarah Caesar brought her classmates from her high school, just as she vowed to God before and she thanked God.

There was not enough time during the two nights and three days of the conference for everyone to present what they had prepared for the conference. But we praise God for everyone’s great desire to serve God. We thank God for enabling us to have joyful harmony in the conference. Most of all, we praise and thank God for leading us to accept that only Jesus is the true joy and hope in this perverted generation instead of pursuing money, fame, power, physical pleasure and self love.

We pray that we may make a more intimate love relationship with Jesus and walk before him faithfully and be blameless.

Joshua Lee