The report of the 2009 Canadian Staff conference which was held on May 1-2.
Thank God for blessing the Canadian Staff conference in Canmore, Alberta. The conference site was surrounded by beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains, covered with snow. We were awe-struck by God’s handy work. We thank God for the concerted effort in the preparation for the conference and the sacrificial servings of the house churches in Alberta (Edmonton UBF and Calgary UBF).
We wanted to have the Canadian Staff conference as the preparation for the 2009 Canadian National Summer Bible Conference, which will be held during July 23-26, in Kingston, Ontario. In addition, we wanted to encourage our coworkers in the western provinces through spiritual fellowship.
On the evening of May 1, M. Mark Yang graciously accepted our invitation for the study of the book of Daniel. His Bible study moved all of our hearts deeply to learn of the God of Daniel as well as his Bible study and prayer life. It was an intensive yet very inspiring Bible study. Daniel had several crises in his life but he could triumph when he faithfully studied the words of God and prayed. The seed of God’s words and faith were planted in Daniel’s heart and grew, took roots and bore abundant fruits as Daniel sought the sovereign God all his lifetime faithfully. In his announcement after the conference, Dr. John Jun gave us direction to have faithful (3 times a day) and sincere (repentant) prayer life following the example of Daniel.
After the Bible study, the Canadian directors and senior shepherds discussed about the SBC programs and checked upon the progress of the preparation for the conference. The fine-tuning of preparations gave us much better visions for the conference.
In the morning on May 2, M. Matthew Sumibcay shared his life testimony and introduced himself to the Canadian staff members. We welcome a faithful servant of God like him for the Canadian campus pioneering work.
Mother Barry gave a testimonial message “Spiritual struggle of missionaries,” outlining some spiritual principles in following Jesus. She used many heart-moving examples of UBF missionaries around the world as well as that of other missionaries to illustrate the principles.
Following Mother Barry, Dr. Paul Hong spoke on the topic of “Conflict and resolution.” Dr. Paul Hong tried to answer some of the questions our missionaries submitted in advance. His humorous and informative lecture provided much practical wisdom to resolve conflicts in mission life.
After the conference, we had joyful fellowship as we toured the famous Lake Louise and Banff. We thank God for all the prayer supports of great servants of God such as Dr. John Jun, Mother Barry, M. Mark Yang and Dr. Paul Hong who came to the conference and prayed for us. Last meeting of the conference, Dr. John Jun gave prayer topics as follows;
Prayer topics:
- Discipleship Training Workshop at the Chicago Center, June 16-20.
- Preparations for the 2009 Canadian SBC through 1,000 united prayers
- Messengers
- Main messengers: Joshua Brinkerhoff, Jason Northey, Philip Wong
- Morning devotion: Luke Hong Jr., Paul Lee Jr.
- Evening messengers: Luis Perdomo, Sylvia Foisy, Andy Stumpf
- Europe Summer Bible Conference
- Double the ministry by 2010, 250 Canadian campuses to be pioneered
- May God send out 100,000 missionaries by 2041
