2009 Canadian Summer Bible Conference Report
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” Philip. 3:10
Thank God for blessing the 2009 Canadian SBC so abundantly. The Canadian UBF chapters held the biannual national SBC from the 23rd to the 26th of July, at the beautiful campus of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. There were more than 280 attendants, which is about 30 attendants more than the previous conference. The theme of the conference was “I want to know Christ.” Paul strove all his life to know Christ. When he tried to know Christ, he was changed from a persecutor of the church to Saint Paul. His spiritual desire to know Christ moved the hearts of all the attendants at the conference. I want to report briefly how God worked mightily through the conference.
First, God worked powerfully through the 9 messengers. M. Joshua Lee (Toronto), S. Louis Perdomo (North York), Luke Hong Jr. (Montreal), Joshua Brinkerhoff (Ottawa), Sylvia Foisy (Montreal), Paul Lee Jr. (North York), Jason Northey (Montreal), Dr. Andrew Stumpf (Waterloo), Philip Wong (Montreal), Andrew Christopher (Montreal). Unlike past SBC, the Junior shepherds were raised as messengers, and they received message training sincerely. God blessed them with heart-moving messages that touched many attendants’ hearts. Dr. John Jun and P. Ron Ward from the Chicago Headquarters came and helped the messengers and trained them for message delivery. Dr. John Jun commented that the quality of the Canadian messengers has improved. We thank God for the prayer and labor of God’s servants for the growing disciples in Canada.
Second, there were 6 life testimony speakers and 5 “I AM symposium” and 8 one-word testimony speakers. The life testimony speakers were Veronique Gagnon-Bilhete (Montreal), Paul Stanish (Ottawa), Meredith Ovenden (Waterloo), Rita Podolyako (Montreal), Paw Wah (St. George), and Kayla Pixley (Montreal). God worked beautifully in their lives and called them to grow as disciples of Jesus. They confessed God’s grace of forgiveness of their sins and accepted God’s calling. Also, there were 8 one-word testimony sharers who were mostly young students. Praise God!
We planned to reveal some of the different aspects of Jesus through John’s gospel. Sara Lee (Toronto), Andrew Han (North York), Sheila Htoo (St. George), Dr. David Kim (Toronto), Matthew Northey (Waterloo) presented who Jesus is through John’s gospel passages and shared how Christ worked in their lives.
Third, cooperation among preparation committees. God blessed the coworking of the directors as we work together as small committees. God blessed their humble coworking and blessed us to improve the quality of all the programs. Over all, this conference was very graceful and we are greatly encouraged to know Christ deeper in our lives. The Canadian chapters also built altars of prayer through 1000 united prayers for this conference.
Montreal UBF Dancing team presented a Singkil Dance as a prayer offering for Muslim nations. M. Melissa Christopher choreographed the dance and trained 20 dancers for the best performance. North York UBF presented a Marionette Dance that depicted God’s love for fallen sinners through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Waterloo UBF presented Jesus’ heavenly image dance. God blessed the hard work of the dancing team members to perform their dances beautifully for the glory of God.
Fourth, the second generation missionaries and shepherds actively participated in the program and contributed to the conference. There was orchestra camp for 4 days right before the SBC in Montreal UBF. They worked very hard practicing the orchestra pieces and performed beautifully. S. Andrew Christopher and Philip Wong served the orchestra team sacrificially. We thank God for raising them as well-disciplined future solders of Christ for Canadian campus pioneering work. Two second-gens, Luke Hong Jr. and Paul Lee Jr., were raised as morning devotion messengers. Two second-gens, Sara Lee and Andrew Han, presented beautiful images of Jesus through the “I AM” symposium. In addition, Rebekah Lee (Toronto) and Mary Cha (Humber) presided for the morning devotion. The Canadian HBF presented beautiful and heart-moving Handmime. 26 HBF members worked together in one heart and mind to describe their desire to know Christ as brightly as light in the darkness.
Fifth, Dr. John Jun’s presentation on the House Church during the Prayer Breakfast. At this conference, we put a new program called the Prayer Breakfast on Sunday morning. We wanted different groups of attendants (e.g. married shepherds, engineering students, etc.) to have some time of fellowship together to encourage each other through one another’s faith. Dr. John Jun opened a presentation session about the House Church for the directors and young disciples who would prepare for future House Churches. Many attended and were encouraged to build future house churches between believers.
Sixth, Shepherd Deuk-Hyun Kang from Hangang UBF, Korea came to support the conference through prayer. Before and after the conference, he visited different chapters (London, Montreal, Ryerson) and gave a special lecture on the book of Revelation. The Canadian missionaries were refreshed by his lecture and expanded our knowledge of God’s word.
In conclusion, to know Christ is eternal life (Jn 17:3). We may have knowledge of the entire library, but that cannot save a man; this is just trivial knowledge that makes little difference in life. But when we know Christ we have eternal life. Knowing Christ is the essential knowledge for everybody to have eternal life. God helped us to know Christ deeper through this conference. Praise the Lord!
Prayer topics:
1. Double ministry through 1:1 Bible study by the year 2010. Pioneer 250 Canadian campuses.
2. Western chapters’ Easter conference in 2010: Noah Chang (Edmonton), Daniel Kwon (Vancouver), Matthew Jun (Calgary), Abraham Lee (Evanston), and Joshua Park (Victoria) to cowork closely.
3. European SBC—6 main messengers and Dr. Peter Chang
4. Muslim countries & M. Ray Grondin in Japan
One word: I want to know Christ
