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God did many new and great things through this Easter conference. We chose 2 willing and voluntary conference coordinators, Gustavo and Darren. It was very beautiful to see these two house churches co-work. Our conference theme was “What has Jesus done for me?” The subtitle was “Freedom from …” Based on this theme, we chose 5 messages: Chris delivered the message, “Freedom from Guilt” (John 8:1-11). Matthew’s message was about freedom from thirst for human love (John 4). Tom delivered the message, “Freedom from sin” (Matthew 27). Joe’s message dealt with “Freedom from Meaninglessness” (Matthew 4:18-22). And last of all, Edward’s message was about “Freedom from Death” (Mark 16). Each one delivered a very heart moving message. We lived with all our burdens of guilt, failures, sins, spiritual thirst, meaninglessness, and fear of death. But Jesus took all these away. We became a new creation. After the conference, we were full of mission for this spring and summer ministry, as well as for world mission.

Our registration goal was for each of our Sunday worship attendees to bring one new person. It did not seem possible even to bring our regular SWS number. Yet we kept on praying for this and God blessed the conference with 119 attendees. God sent many new members, including several NEIU students.

God granted us a disciple training ministry for the last three months. God raised up 5 powerful speakers, 5 message testimony speakers, 6 testimony speakers, 2 life testimony speakers, 2 world mission speakers, 47 prayer meeting speakers, 5 presider short message speakers, and 24 GBS leaders. Altogether, God trained 67 speakers and 24 Bible teachers, which was more than our SWS number.

God used Ana to train 20-25 True Vine members through dancing, drama, and chorus supported by Gustavo and Amalia. Our women co-workers prepared delicious meals for them every Saturday. This provided a good environment for the True Vine Club members to come and join us. Therefore, Nicole, Eilee, and several NEIU students came. Nicole even shared her testimony. The dancing and drama were also very meaningful in understanding America and gave us shepherd hearts for America.

The music program was also very fresh with variety. A more than 20-member TVC chorus was very powerful. The women co-workers chorus, the ZOE fellowship’s chorus, and powerful singspiration at each service made the conference very joyful.

There was great joy among all our fellowship leaders, elders, and student leaders. Everyone played at least one of the following roles: partner to a speaker, mentor for a testimony speaker, team leader for our prayer meetings, GBS leader, presider director, or prayer servant director. In this way, everybody did his best to serve the whole NEIU ministry. God was pleased by our co-working ministry and showed us that we can do greater things in the future to raise 120 missionaries, 120 house churches, and 120 shepherds from NEIU by 2015.