News

SNU III UBF, Korea

August 12, 2013

SNU Chapter III 2013 Summer Bible Conference was held in ChungPyeong, Gyeonggido from July 12th to 15th. Our main title was “The Cross, God’s Love for Me” and through the conference we were able to witness God’s amazing love through His forgiveness and His grace of redemption from the cross. A total of 136 people attended, including 41 new sheep.

Including the opening message, a total of 10 messages (3 morning messages, 3 main messages, and 3 evening messages) were preached. The first main message was on John 8, titled “Neither Do I Condemn You”, the second was on Luke 23, titled “The Cross, God’s Love for Me”, and the third was on John 21, titled “Do You Love Me?” God worked powerfully through all three main messages. The first main message was preached by Shep. Bunyan Beom and through his message many sheep, who were originally unaware of sin, confessed their sins and accepted the love of Jesus as he said “neither do I condemn you”. The second main message was preached by Brother Peace Lee, who had in the past 3 years struggled with persecution from his family. He powerfully proclaimed the great love of God that he witnessed as he prepared the message and with graceful tears moved the hearts of many. The third main message was preached by Shep. Park, and he so powerfully witnessed Jesus’ unconditional love.

Following the messages, the Holy Spirit burned brightly in the testimonies that were shared. The testimony speaker for the first main message was Sister Min. She witnessed how Jesus saved her from an impotent and sinful life of lust and proclaimed how she was touched by Jesus’ love as he said “neither do I condemn you.” She then made specific decisions to leave her life of sin and live a new life. Through this testimony many people were moved and wept. The second testimony speaker was shared by Brother Jang. His father had died when he was younger to be occurred as an accident. Brother Jang only recently found out that his father had actually been murdered and as a result his heart was full of anger and revenge. In the midst of it he had committed other sins. Then was he touched by Sister Min’s testimony the day before and received faith that if he repented and confessed his sins Jesus would not condemn him but forgive him. He laid all his problems at Jesus’ feet and repented of his sins with tears. Through his testimony the whole conference was filled with God’s grace. The third testimony speaker was shared by Brother Baek. As with the first two speakers, he also powerfully shared Jesus’ love amidst much tears and decided to become a shepherd for lost campus souls. Apart from these three testimony speakers we were able to witness the life testimonies of Shep. Choi, Brother Kim, Shep. Beom, Shep. Jang, and Shep. Lee. They shared their joy when they met Jesus and received salvation, and their greater hopes of opening their hearts and meeting Jesus.

Thanks to such graceful messages and testimonies, the testimony sharing sessions of new sheep on the second and third day were filled with other powerful testimonies. During the testimony sharing sessions, Bio-Chemistry major 1^st year Song shared how he had never been to church and had distrusted religion. He however was touched by the love and sacrifice of his shepherd, which convinced him to attend the conference. After hearing Jesus’ love of not condemning the woman, he confessed that upon looking back at his sins and understanding Jesus’ love, he was certain there was wondrous power in Jesus. College of Arts 1^st year or freshman Lee was born in a Christian family. Yet, she got a boyfriend and sinned. She had suffered from the condemnation that resulted from sin, yet upon understanding how Jesus did not condemn her out of love, she declared that she would never forget Jesus’ grace and would leave her life of sin. College of Social Science 1^st year Hong had lived her life ignoring her sins, yet through the word of God admitted and confessed truthfully all the sins that she had committed from a young age. Last but not least, Psychology major 4^th year Lee also confessed her sins that she had tried to hide and ignore. She confessed her deep sins that without sincere repentance could never have been shared, and touched the hearts of the listeners who wept with her. On the second day of the testimony sharing sessions, 1^st year Kang confessed and repented of her hatred towards her relatives, who gave great financial damage to her family, and towards her school teacher who sexually abused her during class. She accepted Jesus’ forgiveness on the cross and wished to continue learning about Jesus. College of Music 1^st year Park repented of his hatred and rebelliousness that resulted from his father’s death when he was 2, and from his mother’s desire to make him walk the path of a musician. He also repented of how he enjoyed smoking and drinking alcohol and through Jesus’ love wished to live a new life.

God greatly blessed the work of God’s word through this conference. God raised 5 brothers from the John Team (which is composed of the 1^st ancestors of the recent student ministry) as steady and powerful messengers, the biggest fruits of our recent student ministry. These messengers shed new light and insight on God’s word as they prepared messages. One shepherd who read the printed message was impressed and asked if the message was “really written by a college student?” and also said “it [the message] is so full of God’s grace that I do not know if God’s word has changed or if I have changed.” Likewise, it was not only the student sheep that were touched throughout the conference but also the shepherds and the student leaders. There was positive feedback from the morning lectures that were implemented for the first time. Though there was a concern whether the sheep would be able to attend the lectures in the early morning, many sheep participated with eagerness and the shepherds gave good responses. Many said that the morning lectures help prepare the audiences’ hearts and minds for the main lectures, and that the morning lectures preached by messengers J. H. Lee, T. S. Kang, and J. H. Kim were so great and were wonderful to their ears.

Other programs including Band and Dancing (mostly performed by freshman college students), drama, sing-along, sing-spiration, and film-showing all supported the work of God’s word. 11 mature shepherdesses served the bible study groups which became an important foundation for the conference. Many shepherds declared that this conference was perfect in many aspects and was the best conference Gwanak Chapter 3 has ever done. Nowadays, whenever the conference was brought up in conversations, people did not cease to mention how great the messages and the testimonies were, especially complimenting the 5 young student messengers from John’s team. We thank God for allowing shepherds and many sheep to experience the love of God through the powerful messages witnessing Jesus’ love as he said “Neither Do I Condemn You” and the title of the Conference, “The Cross, God’s Love For Me.” After the conference, we started a new testimony sharing team for the 1^st year students called Team ‘Abraham’. 9 brothers and sisters attended the first team meeting and shared sincere testimonies of great quality that had rival those in the past. As we continue to train and look after the new sheep God had sent from the conference, it is our prayer for God to raise 12 new disciples this year.

By Daniel Byeon