News > Latin America

“ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”(John 10:11)

We thank God for blessing our Easter Conference so abundantly.  We also thank God believing that he blessed all the Easter Conferences held not only in Chicago area but also in all around the world.

The title of our conference was “Jesus, the Good Shepherd”.  Many Mexican students are deeply wounded by their parents, who abandon their children because of their sin of lust and adultery. Most of them grew up like orphans even though they did have parents. We chose this title with the hope that many Mexican Bible students could be restored in their hearts by receiving Jesus, who is their true father, mother and the good shepherd.

The conference site was located in Mazahua, Toluca and 222 people attended our conference; 27 from Acatlan, 3 from Querretaro, 5 from Saltillo, 5 from Morelia, 3 from Santo Tomas, 2 from Irapuato, 7 from Cuatitlan, 156 from Mexico city unam UBF and 14 children from various chapters.

This time CBF Easter conference was also held together at the same place. This was an experimental attempt to raise up our second generations spiritually and it was very successful. Even though CBF and UBF had the conference at the same place, each conference was held in the different building. One did not interrupt the other. We are planning to have both conferences this way from now on.

Even though Querretaro and Cuatitlan UBF are the new pioneering chapters, they brought their Bible students to this conference and it was a  great encouragement to us.

The names of the messengers are like the following:

candidate. Omar (John 3:1~15), Shepherd Alejandro(Mark 5:1~20), Shepherd Carlos (Mark 4:1~20), Shepherd Enrique from Acatlan (Mark 2:1~17), C. Alejandro (John 8:1~12), Shepherd Jorge (John 10:1~11), Shepherd Fabian( John 19:1~30), C. Luis (Luke 15:11~32), C. Eli(John 15:1~5), Shepherd Fermin(Judges 7:1~30)

M. Abraham entrusted the arrangement of all the programs to M. Pablo Lee, so that we could approach new generation students with creativity. From two months prior to the conference, he started to arrange all the conference programs and served this conference whole-heartedly. He lost his job as his company moved to other city. But he believed that God would work for the good even in this difficulty and he accepted this as God’s sign to let him serve the conference fully. So he postponed to search for a new job and served the conference with all his strength.

This time most messengers were young growing disciples and they were trained by senior shepherds. This new attempt by faith enabled us to see the work of God in and through them. Honestly, they were still like little children spiritually. So I doubted how they could deliver the messages in front of more than 200 people. I worried that they would just cry and get down from the stage. But these worries led m to pray more earnestly for them. As we trusted in God, who had chosen each messenger and would speak through them, we could clearly see God working in and through them. We learned that each one of them was a precious instrument of God even if they looked unqualified from a human point of view. Through them, we could also see God’s hope and vision for Mexico and South America. Especially candidate. Alejandro proclaimed Jesus as the Lord of love, who doesn’t condemn anyone and forgives all our sins, bearing all our sins in his body. He testified powerfully that we could be forgiven if we came to Jesus just as we were even though we couldn’t but die according to the law’s condemnation like the adulterous woman in John chapter 8 . He graduated from UNAM majoring in chemical engineering. He just needs to finish his thesis. He’s a very handsome young man. We thought it would be very difficult for him to become Jesus’ disciple because he was too handsome. He grew up with wounds in his heart due to his father’s adultery. But just like his father, he was suffering from the sin of lust. Yet he studied the Bible with shepherdess Veronica and met Jesus deeply, receiving the grace of forgiveness of his sins. Now, he is growing as a disciple of Jesus, living a common life with other brothers. The grace and love of the good shepherd Jesus who forgives and heals all kinds of sin-sick people was overflowing in each message

. We rendered glory to God who raised up five life testimony sharers, gave new life to many wandering broken souls and raised them up as the leaders and shepherds for this generation through Jesus’ sacrifice and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The grace of the forgiveness of sin was abundant as all the new comers wrote and shared sincere testimonies with many tears. Especially sister Diana came to accept Jesus as the light of the world through Bible studies with M. Esther and this conference. She had to suffer from fatalism; her father had deceived his marital status and remarried her mom, but his lie was not uncovered until her younger sibling was born. Jesus, the light of the World, drove out all the darkness in her heart and set her free.

Praise and worship team made a good environment, preparing the hearts of attendants before every message. On Friday night, we had campfire and enjoyed roasted sausages. As Saturday night’s program, we had festival, where we enjoyed the beautiful music performed by orchestra team, colorful and passionate dance performed by Acatlan UBF and a heart moving skit. We all enjoyed this heavenly banquet filled with great joy and gave thanks to God.

We earnestly prayed for Peru and El Salvador conferences.

Thank you for your prayer support.

Reported by M. Sarah