News

July 15-18, Gwanak III held a summer Bible conference at Cheol-won in Gyeonggi province. God led 49 new students to our conference.

The conference program was varied and exciting, filled with God’s word and testimonies, including a grand theater performance, drama, dance, music, and a Bible quiz. But in the midst of these, the focus was on God’s word and on testimonies. There were three main lectures and three evening messages, a total of seven messages including the opening message; and the Holy Spirit worked powerfully through each of them. In particular, God poured out his love through the three main lectures: lecture 1 on John 8, “Jesus Who Does Not Condemn”; lecture 2 on Luke 23, “Jesus’ Crucifixion”; and lecture 3 on John 21, “Do You Love Me?” Through the lectures and graceful life testimonies, we saw the Holy Spirit working powerfully. The seven life testimonies on the first night opened the way for the Holy Spirit to work. The sharers were Tae-il Ahn, Jiwoo Kim, Hyeongjoo Seo, Paul Chin, Hyejin Choi, Abe Choi, and Jeongah Jung, comprising sophomore students and mature shepherds, who all delivered high quality testimonies. The students who listened to the testimonies came to have a desire to meet Jesus for themselves.

The result of the powerful word of God and testimonies was shown through 20 sincere and deeply repentant testimonies selected from Bible study groups that were shared on the second and third nights. Nine of these testimonies were shared by SNU freshmen students. Their testimonies were very graceful, and they are now key members forming the newly established Luke Team. Many of them began Bible studies only in the spring but were already on fire, repenting and accepting Jesus as their Savior. Many people said of the conference that it reminded them of summer Bible conferences in Korea during the 80s.

Many shepherds sacrificially served the conference with each of their five loaves and two fish. God accepted our hearts and blessed the conference abundantly. As a result, we have established the Luke disciples team, comprised mainly of SNU freshmen, to succeed last year's John Team. Through this we have seen a restoration of a powerful student ministry. Second gens from the U.S. joined us and also met Jesus newly through the conference, returning with a decision to live as Bible teachers, and becoming a great joy to all of us. Most of all, we are especially thankful for our John Team who met Jesus last summer and have faithfully grown the past year. Through this conference, we were able to see in them a sudden leap in growth. They met Jesus personally last year, and served the conference this year as stewards and leaders, and they were a great influence to our Luke team. We praise, thank, and give all the glory to our God who granted us the most graceful and blessed conference than ever before!

Daniel Byeon