NIU UBF     September 2011 Mission Report Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF

Psalm 98:4

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music.”

As Christians we must sing a new song of praise to God who has done marvelous things, for he has made his salvation known to all nations. He has accomplished his great salvation plan through Jesus. In Jesus God has kept all of his promises. Therefore we must join all nature in thanking our God for his mighty work of salvation and sing to him a new song of praise for his work in each of us. This month God used our house church to sing songs of praise at two outdoor music festivals. We are very thankful to develop our singing talents for he glory of God. He has done so many other wonderful things through us. Let us see.
Part l: People In Your Fellowship

Julie visited LA to see her mother who had a health crisis. We are thankful that she could see her family and also our UBF co-workers. On Sunday she attended Downy UBF. This month, Julie’s work was also in transition because of a buyout. As with any changes there is a certain amount of stress involved. We pray for Julie to overcome this unpredictable time. God sent a new Bible student for Julie to study with. His name is Gus L. He is from Triton UBF and they began to study Genesis. We thank God for his love for Jesus and his willingness to study Genesis 1:1.

Augustine really tried hard at soccer. He practiced or played six days a week, sometimes 4-5 hours a day. Augi’s grades suffered. He did not know the intensity of effort that is needed in order to do well in school and sports and maintain his spiritual life. But God is training him to give up fruitless things in order to focus on what is truly important. Jesus first, school and then sports.

Sarah and Jenn are pursuing their love for singing. They auditioned and were accepted into the Madrigals program at DHS. This means a lot of work, but they are up for it. Sarah had her first bass guitar lesson. She wants to serve on the Praise & Worship team. Jenn is the still the backbone of our praise band with her voice and guitar prowess. We pray that they can use their musical talents for the glory of the LORD.

This month the kids went back in school. That means daily bread earlier in the morning. 6 am to be exact. We are thankful for their co-operation and their faithfulness.

Since we let Andrew live in the Bible house, we began to have Sunday worship service in our living room. It turned out pretty nicely. We were going to try group Bible study Sunday worship service. But we were not willing to eliminate certain things and our Sunday service would be too long. We want to go back to Saturday group study.

Steve S. is sharing his testimonies on Sunday. It is hard for him to focus. But he tries and he gets some help from him GED tutor. I pray that God may help Steve to be able to focus and write down his thoughts in a very clear fashion and share what he learned from the word of God.

Hope is playing volley ball. Though she is on the B team she does not give up and she is never discouraged. She has a great spirit. She also leads the daily bread meetings. And even though some of the topics are too much for her, she tries her best to say something. She also maintains a weekly 1:1 Bible study with her friend, Emma. They are studying the book of Revelation together.

Part ll: Co-working With Other Chapters and Churches

This month we had music practice with Dave Young on several occasions for the upcoming music festivals. We thank God for his mentoring of our kids in developing their praise band.

Part lll: Networking In The Community

The kids worked together with other Christian students to promote this year’s, “See You at the Pole” event. There was a rally at the Harvest Bible Church attended by the youth of 5 area churches. The SYATP meetings were organized for DeKalb High school and the Middle School. A group Bible study was also organized out of the students who met at the Middle school flag pole. The following is a report written by Augustine.

See You at the Pole
By Augi Jesmer

On Sunday, September 25th, a Rally was held at Harvest Bible Church to organize the plans for See You at the Pole at various DeKalb County schools. Middle and High School students and their Youth Pastors attended from 3-5 area churches. The SYATP theme this year was “Converge”. The key verse was Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three come in my name, there I am with them.”

At the Rally, we started with some worship songs led by the Youth Praise Team. After that, we then we heard a short message from the Youth Pastor at Harvest Bible Church. Concluding the message, we all divided into our different schools to plan our SYATP events. In total, about 35 people from DHS attended the Rally, including Jenn, Augi and Sarah. We all decided that Jenn would be our leader. We then talked about what time we would want to meet and what we would do.

So the next Wednesday, we all met around the flagpole. We started the meeting with some praise and worship songs led by Jenn on the guitar and Harrison on the bongos. Then we all split into different grade levels to pray in a circle. After that, we all came back together to pray in one big circle as our fellow friends and classmates walked by into the school. In total, about 50 people attended, including the DHS Principal As with last year, FCA at DHS was better attended the Thursday after the event.

At CRMS, about 30 students gathered as well, including Hope and Mark.
Afterward, one of the 8th grade students expressed interest in organizing regular prayer servants there also.

We praise God for all this, and our prayer is that the youth of DeKalb may have a clear identity and a strong gospel witness to the world around us!

On 9/10 we sang at St Matthew’s church Summer Fest. St Matthews is a large Catholic church in Glendale Heights Illinois. It was a good opportunity to break down barriers and promote Jesus and the Kingdom of God with another denomination. Our family sang there with Dave Young and his wife, Jill. Various friends from Triton and DuPage UBF attended the festival to come and support us as we sang 10 Gospel songs for the people of the St. Matthews church. The following is a report written by one of the Jesmer kids…

Report on St. Matthew’s September Fest concert.

“On Saturday, September 10th, The Jesmer family, Dave and Jill Young participated in the St. Matthews Festival, under the band name, Voices in the Desert. We sang a total of 10 songs in a 45 minute time period. The festival lasted a total of 4 days, stretching from the September 8th-11th. A couple hundred people were there yesterday. We sang at 2 pm, and our voices carried throughout the fair with an intercom/microphone system so everyone heard us. Dave Young and Jenn played the guitar, Augi played percussion and the rest of us sang.

We had been practicing for at least a month before, and it finally paid off. I liked the festival because we got to spend time with the Youngs, and we had lots of fun during it. It was the biggest music event “Voices in the Desert” has performed in, and we were exited.

We are also thankful for the people that came from Triton and COD UBF including Missionary David Kim, Shp. Liz H, the Magno family, Sh. Jeremy, Matt Cizek, and the Bahns. They were really a source of encouragement for us, and were very glad they came. Because she is such a great friend, Charisma Magno served as Official Photographer. We pray that we can be renewed and refreshed, so that we can sing for the glory of God, and praise God in song.”

Praise-A-Palooza, a Christian Music Festival was held at Hopkin’s Park in DeKalb on 9/26. We worshiped the LORD with other Christians from many different churches and other bands. Pastor Kevin and his sons, Augi and Mark were in two singing groups, Voices in the Desert and Kishwaukey Barbershop singers. We enjoyed watching other bands, worshipped, drank hot chocolate, and had a lot of fun. We are happy for this opportunity, and are very excited, to spread the joy of the Lord to the people of DeKalb. The following is a report written by Julie.

Praizapalooza
by Julie J.

Praizapalooza is a yearly music festival designed to bring churches in the community together to share the love of Christ through worship. Since 2009, the event has taken place at the Dee Palmer Band Shell in HopkinsPark. A major part of Praizapalooza is giving back to the community, so it includes giveaways and free raffles of CD’s, t-shirts, and even a guitar. Several well-known bands also played. Between sets, local community organizations like DeKalb County Youth Service Bureau and Neighbors House explained their work in the community.

Throughout the day, Vineyard Christian Fellowship of DeKalb sponsored a prayer tent, inviting people to share prayer requests with brothers and sisters in Christ who were on hand to pray with people.

This year’s event took place yesterday, and for the second year, Voices in the Desert performed several praise songs. For the past few months, NIU UBF praise team has focused primarily on the singing the song set prepared for this event and the St. Matthew’s festival two weeks ago. With Jenn playing guitar and Augi on percussion, our voices rang out throughout the park and even into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Our prayer throughout was that the name of our Lord Jesus would be lifted higher, and that songs of praise would reach our Father in Heaven and please Him. May God continue to use as servants of his word and use our mouths to sing his praises!”

The Kishwaukee Barbershop singers also sang at the Presbyterian church. They blessed the annual Presbyterian Pot-Luck dinner with spiritual songs. Kevin, Augi and Mark sang in the group.

Part lll: Reaching Out To Others

James Kim, as president of the Asian Businessman’s Association, is always looking for volunteer opportunities. This month they volunteered at Chicago half marathon. May James’ spirit to volunteer grow to blossom to Christian service.

God has also blessed the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) this year. Three of our kids are involved in the leadership of that group. Jenn is the president. The following report was written by Augustine.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Report
By Augi Jesmer

This past week, Fellowship of Christian Athletes held its first meeting of the year at the new high school. We met right outside the room of our advisor, Mr. Beverly. In total, about six students attended, in addition to Jenn, Sarah and myself. We talked about our plans for the future of FCA, what book of the bible we will be studying this year, and started to make plans for See You at the Pole (SYAP).

See You at the Pole is a national prayer time scheduled on the last Wednesday of October, and is designed for students to congregate on every campus in prayer and fellowship around the flagpole. It will be held on Wednesday, September 28th around the flagpole at DHS. The theme this year is “Converge”, with the key verse:

“For where two or three gather in my name,
there I am with them.” — Matthew 18:20.

There will be a Pre-SYAP Rally on Sunday, September 25th at the Harvest Bible Chapel. All the Youth Pastors of all the area Christian churches will gather to make plans for the event. We plan to develop a one-page flier for distribution, describing what God did last year at SYAP and throughout the year at FCA. We pray that once again, the SYAP event may be a catalyst to build up FCA at DHS, so that high school and middle school students can have a clear Christian identity and community on their campuses, regardless of their church affiliation.

Julie’s Bible student, lives in Chicago. Tricia R had baby shower. Julie attended to show her support and study the Bible and pray for her.

Part lV: Repentant Topics And Vision

This month I had fallen into despair and fatalism on several occasions. We need new sheep. That is for sure, but more importantly I need a spiritual cure for my despair. I pray to God to help provide the cure and the strength to make a new beginning in the Lord.