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July 2011 Mission Report: God Wants Us To Restore Our Hope And Our Vision

Augi and Louis at Canadian Summer Conference

God Wants Us To Restore Our Hope And Our Vision

NIU UBF July 2011 Mission Report Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF
Part l: People In Your Fellowship
Jenn finished her summer school and she started her job this summer, de-tasseling corn. It is a hard job. Sometimes she needed to be at work at 6 am and work a 10 hour day under the hot son. Several pairs of shoes were covered in mud. But she worked hard and was faithful. May she find joy in her work and in her relationship with Jesus. It was sad that Jenn not join our family vacation this year. She had to work. But she was very responsible. She even posted key verses from the daily bread passages on her Facebook page. I thank God for growing Jenn in personal and independent faith. She will definitely need that when she goes to college in one year.

Augustine spent this month in basketball camp. I am very proud of him because he is accomplishing something that I could never achieve in my high school days. I thank God that he has found something he loves and that he is making friends. May God lead him so that he could make the transition of being a shepherd for his friends. The following is a report of his basketball camp.

Summer Basketball Camp Report …..by Augi Jesmer

This past week I finished my summer basketball season/camp. It was more of a season because we had practices and games every week. It started June 7th. We had on average 2 practices a week and 2 games a week. We practiced at the field house at the new DeKalb High School and had our games at the Sycamore Field House. I do not remember our record but I would say we won about as much as we lost.

It was a good learning experience for me because it was the first time I have ever done something for sports in the summer. I did not want to do it at first because I would rather stay at home, but I realized that I need to work hard in order to get ready for the regular season this fall. It was also good for me to get outside and exercise. I started pretty much every game so I learned a lot about leadership.

God helped me to be able to execute on the court and also to try my best and work hard. God taught me that if I work hard and rely on him then great things will happen, and they did. I am thankful for this experience and am looking forward to the regular season. I can use this opportunity to invite people to Fellowship of Christian athletes because I myself am an athlete and I can bring them to our morning meeting sometime or just use it as a way to talk to them about the bible. So I am very thankful for this.

Sarah finished her summer school and had volleyball camp. It was a grueling week of hard training. But she demonstrated once again that she does not give up. She keeps on trying and in the end it paid off. She too is making many friendships. I also pray for Sarah that her friendships may translate to spiritual relationships where she can shepherd others to Christ.

James Kim worked hard on summer courses at NIU and he moved out of the dorms and into his own apartment. His parents also bought him a car. He comes to Sunday worship service and Bible study independently. James is actually one our most faithful Bible students.

Kevin and Mark sang with the Kishwaukeys Barbershop group at the Waterman Summerfest.
Part ll: Co-working With Other Chapters
When Augustine and Julie went to the Canadian Summer Conference, Kevin, Hope, Mark and Sarah attended the DuPage UBF Sunday worship service. Afterwards there was a delicious barbeque, with hotdogs, hamburgers and even Salmon burgers! We thank God for love of our DuPage UBF co-workers.

This month we were blessed to be able to visit the MPLS UBF chapter and join them for their Sunday service. We were coming from a visit with Kevin’s parents in Winnipeg. We are very thankful for all the love show to us by God’s people in MPLS. The following is a report written by Julie.

“On Sunday, July 24th, after visiting Pastor Kevin’s parents in Winnipeg, our family visited Minneapolis UBF. We attended their Sunday Worship Service, and enjoyed a delicious luncheon on the patio with co-workers outside the Center. Afterward, we visited and prayed for the University of Minnesota campus with Sh. Chuck Voght and Abraham Kim, Jr.

Recently their Pastor, Dr. Abraham T. Kim, was promoted to General Director of UBF ministry worldwide, and he and his wife, Sarah, moved to Chicago a few weeks ago to assume this new role. Missionary Stephen Yang has become the new Minneapolis UBF Director, co-working with Shepherd Chuck & Elizabeth Voght and several other families. The Yang’s and the Voght’s share common life in the bible house, together with Dr. Abraham & Sarah Kim’s children, Yesterday a joyful wedding was celebrated between Sarah Kim, Jr. and Shepherd Spencer, officiated by Pastor Ron Ward. Sarah is a Dentist and Spencer is a Genetics graduate student at U of M. May God bless Minneapolis ministry and this new family of faith to bear the fruit of life!”

Part lll: Networking In The Community
This month we continued joining the local community meal put on by Feed ‘Em Soup. Steve S. joined us one week. May God use this organization to help many people who are feeling the crunch of this bad economy. They are planning to operate out of The Church in DeKalb, in the fall.

Part lV: Reaching Out To Others
Sarah has a friend who underwent surgery 60 miles away. Sarah felt the need to visit her and show her some love and support. She invited two of her friends to go and visit with her. Julie drove them. I thank God for taking leadership in organizing her friends to go and show the love of God to others. This is a beautiful thing. Sarah and Hope also bring their friends regularly to our home to “hang out”. This too is a beautiful thing. I pray that they may grow and shepherds of God’s flock.
We supported the Hospital Group Bible study led by Jenn K. RN. We studied Job 35 and 36. We pray for hospital employees may accept Jesus. We also pray that the word of God may touch the hearts of over 30 healthcare workers through the bi-weekly manuscript ministry.
Jason D. (MBA online) has also finished studying the Book of Genesis with Pastor Kevin and will be moving onto the Book of John.
Part lV: World Mission
Julie and Augustine attended the Canadian Summer Bible Conference in Kingston Ontario. It was an opportunity to see the work of God going on in Canada. It was also good, for Augustine, a “New Generation” young person to see the people whom God used to lead his dad to Christ. I am sure the Canadian missionaries were encouraged to see him also. The following is a report written by Augustine.

“This past week I traveled to Kingston, Ontario with my Mom to attend the Canadian Summer Bible Conference, on the campus of Queen’s University. The conference included attendants from 14 UBF chapters in Eastern Canada, one representative from Western Canada, and 3 guests from the USA. The opening message was delivered by Matthew Northey on 1 John 4:19 called “Because He First Loved Us.” The first lecture was delivered by Dr. Andy Stumpf on Hosea 2:1-23 called “I will betroth You to Me Forever.” After that various people shared life testimonies. Concluding the evening program, we all split up into our group bible study groups. My bible teacher was Shepherdess Anna Sung. There were about eight other kids in my group all about my age. Our first bible study was on Luke 15:11-32, God’s Welcoming Love or The Prodigal Son. Through this bible study, I learned that God loves me so much no matter what I do. I can always come to him and he will welcome me with open arms, just like the father in the parable.

The next day, after breakfast, we heard a message on the same passage we studied last night from Joshua Brinkerhoff. After that, we had testimony writing where we could all take time to really meditate on the word of God and write on it. Then we had lunch and testimony sharing in our bible study groups.

Following that, we had soccer fellowship, a huge thing with the Canadian ministries. The North York team even had custom-made uniforms, which looked pretty boss. They have the Canadian Bible Cup Tournament and award the cup to the ministry that wins. I was drafted on the Montreal team. There were many younger kids on our team but also some talented older people so it was all good. We only played one game that day and won easily. After the game, we all went to dinner.

The evening program consisted of a lecture delivered by Paul Lee Jr. and more life testimonies, followed by another group bible study. We studied John 15:1-17. In this passage, Jesus compared our relationship with him with that of a vine and its branches. I learned that I need to remain in Jesus and stay connected to the true vine Jesus in order to grow and bear fruit. Trying to live without Jesus is like trying to live without air. We get strength and sustenance from God. I also need to comply with Jesus’ pruning of the unfruitful branches in my life. Jesus prunes our branches in order for them to bear more fruit. Everything that hinders me from glorifying God needs to be cut off.

After the group bible study, there was a HBF program. We started with icebreakers an then watched an interesting video of the history of the Canadian HBF ministry. After that, we had another group activity, which was somewhat hard to explain, but it involved drawing pictures of various bible events. Then we all prayed and got to bed very late. The next day, the morning message was delivered by Jason Northey on the vine and branch passage. Then we had testimony writing again, then lunch, and testimony sharing. That afternoon we had the championship soccer game, which was Montreal vs. North York. We all played a good game but we, Montreal, came out with the victory with a header goal from Joshua Christopher. After we had the awards ceremony, where we got the cup and the whole Montréal team received medals, including me. The evening message was delivered by Ernest Chan on John 13:31-38, about Jesus’ command to love one another. After that, we had various one-word testimonies, life testimonies and Special Programs. Sam Yoon from Waterloo did a duet dance with one growing Shepherdess, and then there were songs and there was a skit and dance based on Slum Dog Millionaire. After the program, while the adults had snacks and fellowship in the main lobby, the HBF group had a special praise night performed by the North York praise team 5ive2wo.

It was a lot of fun and I could really feel God in there with me. It was an indescribable feeling just standing there worshiping God sincerely from the bottom of my heart. It left me very spiritually satisfied. After that, we had personal prayer and we slowly trickled out to our dorms. The conference ended on the final day with a worship service. The message was delivered by Philip Wong on 1 Peter 2:4-10. We are called to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God. The closing message was delivered by Andrew Christopher on Jesus’ World Mission Command. So I was really blessed to be part of this conference and I’m glad I got to be a part of it. I learned a lot about how much God loves me and how important it is to remain in him and let him be the main focus in my life. I need to love because he first loved me. He even died for me. “

This month we also visited Winnipeg Manitoba. As usual our whole family visited the University of Manitoba to have daily bread and pray in the student center. We pray that one day a 1:1 Bible study and discipleship ministry may be established on the campus. We stayed at my parents house. We pray for them to accept Jesus very personally.
Part V: Visitors
We were visited by Christa and Josh Pitts of Triton UBF. They were in DeKalb for a band camp. Our kids grew up with the Pitt’s family while we were at Triton UBF. It is nice that we can carry on a spiritual relationship together. It is joy when co-workers from other UBF churches can come and visit us.
Part Vl: Repentant Topics And Vision

In July, Julie and myself had the privilege of visiting with Pastor Ron Ward of the Chicago center. We could share our struggles and our prayer topics. We could receive wise words of council from a servant of God. We are still grappling with some issues, but we felt the love of God through this visit and pray to restore our vision for our house church ministry. Through it all, Julie and I agreed that we must get more involved in world mission, visiting other chapters and attending conferences in other countries to be encouraged and encourage the fellow believers. I believe God has many more things he wants to show us. Please pray for us.




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