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Kenya UBF

April 25, 2013

We will serve the Lord!

(Joshua 24:21b)

Kenya UBF held 2013 Easter Bible Conference from March 28-31, 2013. The theme of the conference was “Repent hidden sin, purify your heart and serve the Lord only!” All passages were chosen to support this theme having Joshua 24 “We will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:21b) as the key passage.

One of the big challenges this time was that the Kenya General election  was scheduled just one month before the conference. Since Kenya had serious post-election violence in the year 2007, many people worried about possible riots after the voting. Initially, our leaders were in doubt if we could make it without interruption. So, we prepared Plan A to Plan D according to a possible scenarios. But after much prayer, we repented our doubt based on James 1:5-8 and removed plan B to D, then by faith we paid full attention to invitation and messenger preparation. God blessed our determined hearts. By grace, there was no violence after the election. God also sent us many brothers and sisters compared to last year, numbering 85 in total attendance, among them, 36 were freshmen. God also used Msn. Moses' family for this conference. They joined us from Sudan UBF in January 2013. God used Msn. Iris’s talent of dancing and music to encourage 7-8 half-willing sheep to set their minds to register in full. Eventually they were touched by the word of God and repented their sins during the conference. 

For the conference, messengers devoted their hearts to prepare heart moving messages. We emphasized that the messengers should not preach the written sentences, but the spirit, especially with a spirit of genuine repentance. All messengers eventually served the conference with powerful messages and a clear personal application of repentance. God worked through their repenting hearts and drew many to repentance also.

Samuel delivered main message 1 based on Judges 16 (Samson Wake Up!). He confessed his addiction of pornography and actual fornication confessing that he became spiritually “Samson” who dishonored God’s holy calling as God’ servant, and misused his talent and strength to satisfy his desires. He made a resolution to wake up from his sins and live as a  holy and devoted servant of God. This message touched many young students and exposed their sins.

resolution to turn away from this and newly accepted Jesus' command, “Go and make disciples of all people of the earth!”

Also junior students shepherd such as Evans, Robinson, Brian, Doreen also served their messages with genuine repentance. Owing to their genuine repentance, all members were moved to repent their hidden sins.

In this year's conference, we witnessed one particular spiritual difference compared to previous conferences. We had total eight messages and three group Bible studies and three sessions of testimony writing and sharing. The schedule was very tight and it was programmed as a leadership conference. So we worried that our freshmen attendants may be bored. So, we dedicated two hours for games and sports every afternoon. To our surprise, however, all attendants joined all the sessions from 6 a. m. to over 10 p. m. without missing any activities. Most of all, the first year members were so dedicated in testimony writing, only a few joined the games.

Every night 8-10 people wanted to share their testimonies, but due to time limitation, 4-5 shared their testimonies. One sister repented her immoral life being pregnant even as a first year in college. One brother repented of his long-time drinking habit. Most of them shared their genuine desire to repent and gain true freedom out of darkness and live holy lives through the conference. We all thanked God that he worked mightily according to the conference theme that we prayed for “Repent hidden sins, purify your heart and serve the Lord only!”

This conference was so helpful for me as well. Based on the Main message 1, God helped me to remove the hidden idols of worldly fame and the attitude of seeking my own glory in the world. Through the main message 3, I could accept the great commission of Jesus once again. I should preach the gospel and make disciples of Jesus to the end of the age.

Thank God who enabled us to have this conference so that we created a spiritual movement of genuine repentance to live as devoted disciples of Jesus! I pray that God may use our ministry continuously to promote the theme: Confess hidden sins and devote ourselves to serve the Lord only!

One word: “We will Serve the Lord!”

By Msn. Joshua Kim