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From March 30 - April 1, there was a Spring Bible Conference at the Pinecrest Conference Center in the Big Bear Mts. of California. San Diego UBF, Granada Hills UBF, and LA UBF joined. Dr. David Greenfield of San Jose and Missionaries Roberto and his wife Jackie also joined. In total about 185 people attended, including 30 newcomers.

We plan our Spring conference with new comers in mind. So we planned messages that presented the gospel message about who Jesus is and what he came to do. The messages and messengers were: 1) Alive Again, on Luke 15:11-32, by Stephen Surh, which tells us God's heart to welcome sinners back to him; 2) Jesus Came to Call Sinners, on Luke 5:17-32, by Greg Cocco; 3) Father, Forgive Them, on Luke 23:26-49, by Andrew Cuevas, which tells us Jesus' pray and death for forgivneess of sins, interceding on our behalf; and 4) Jesus' Resurrection and faith in the word of God from Luke 24:1-53, by Daniel Tourn.

This time leaders from among the emerging generation spoke as messenger. Many people were greatly touched by the opening message Stephen Surh served. In presenting the message he adopted a unique style, for he preferred to move around the podium and speak freely. Had he had a wireless microphone system, he could have spoken moving around the stage, perhaps coming in and out of the congregation. Daniel Tourn's message also spoke powerfully to living by faith in Jesus. He confessed that he was pursuing a new graduate degree and money making plans out of fear of death and lack of faith. He made a decision to not puruse the degree and give his heart to serving his ministry at CSULB, having faith in God to provide for him and his family. He set a good example for other young disciples to follow.

We could see a great hope and vision that through their leadership the gospel would ring out powerfully to the four corners of the world! All heard the sound of heavy rain - the spiritual rain of great revival (1 Kings 18:41).

Indeed Saturday night it rained like crazy, just as Stephen said in his message, "God's love is a crazy love, for he loves us like crazy!" Pastor Abraham T. Kim and his wife Sarah came to pray for us. In serving a special lecture entitled, "Explore the Promised Land," the next morning he compared the crazy rain with God's love saying, "Indeed God's love is a crazy love!"  

After each message we had several life testimonies and Bible testimonies. They were good and based on a Bible verse. We pray to follow up with newcomers by holding discipleship programs from this coming Sunday, begining with seven lessons on Jesus' "I Am" declarations from John's gospel. Thank you for your prayers for us.

Videos of each message and testimony are posted on our site: http://laubf.com/2012/03/26/2012-spring-bible-conference-info/

Reported by Charles Wilson