The DuPage/NIU Fall Conference Report – “Jesus, Friend of Sinners” 11-16 to 11-18-12

We thank God who abundantly blessed our fallBibleSchool. Initially there was a difficult question as to what the theme should be.  We wanted to provide something to others that would bless their hearts.  Many ideas came up, but the one idea that caught our attention came from a song by the band Casting Crowns, “Jesus, Friend of Sinners”. The song introduced Jesus as the friend of sinners.  And so the purpose of the conference became bringing our friends and family and introducing them to our Jesus, discovering who we are before him, and why he is the best friend we could possibly have.

We began planning by producing a 2 minute conference video mixing audio and video – which was really well done. It was produced by Jeremy Knarr, Amanda Kender, Matt Cizek, and Matthew Monroe from DuPage UBF.  Despite everyone being busy with work and school, we could produce this invitation video to share over the internet with our friends and family.   Through the course of the Bible School God sent 29 people to attend every night and, in total, 43 people came.   Special guests included Msn Daniel and one student, John, from Harper ministry, Augustine and Hannah Park from NU ministry, and Dr Augustine and Teresa Sohn from Chicago UBF.

Many new speakers to participated.  Each day was divided into a theme.  Friday night was, “Who is Jesus?”   We wanted to introduce Jesus to our friends and family in a way that they might not have heard.  The first message was shared by Jeremy Knarr from John 10. We were all moved by his sincere heart to prepare the message. (He also prepared all the A-V for the conference.)  His message was entitled, “Jesus the Good Shepherd.”  Many people don’t know that Jesus is the good shepherd for their lives or that he wants to lead them to heaven and that he laid down his life to do so.  The second message was from John 13, prepared by Pastor Kevin Jesmer entitled, “Jesus is the Greatest Friend Because Of His Love For Us.”  This title was used because Jesus is the greatest friend for us because of his bearing, forgiving and serving love.  He loves us so much and he demonstrated this by humbly serving his disciples and washing their feet.  We learned that for those who come to Jesus, Jesus washes all their sins away and they can love him and love others through this forgiveness. Hope Jesmer shared her testimony giving thanks that Jesus is her good shepherd no matter what environment she is in. Julie Jesmer shared her testimony about how Judas rejected Jesus’ friendship but Peter accepted it and grew in friendship with Jesus. When the gospel restores our humanity, our prayer should be to befriend the sinners that our friend Jesus came to save. Afterwards we had a hybrid Bible Study/Testimony time where we split into groups by age and gender and discussed five questions related to the message.  This went well as it gave people a chance to talk freely and ask more questions about the messages they heard.

The theme of the second night was “What did Jesus do for us?”  Saturday night turned out to be the sister’s night.  What do I mean? Our program presider was Paula Terova, and the messengers were Esther Kim and Amanda Kender.  We were encouraged that these young, women of faith wanted to participate in such a way.  The first message covered John 8, about the woman caught in sin.  Esther Kim prepared long and hard and focused on Jesus, who is holy and righteous. He has the right to condemn the woman, but out of his love, he did not condemn her nor does he condemn us but rather forgives.  We were so moved to know Jesus who does not condemn us.   The second message was delivered by Amanda Kender.  She delivered from Mark 10, “The Son of Man Did Not Come To Be Served.” We learned that Jesus came to serve us by forgiving our sins. In this passage Amanda asked us “Whom do we serve?”  Matt Hicks shared his testimony about the wonderful grace of God that had come into his life.  He was saved 2 years prior from a self-serving lifestyle but now joyfully testifies, “How awesome Jesus is!”  Phil Chang also prepared a piano song and song very beautifully as well.

On Sunday morning we had our regular worship service.  The theme was “Why are we thankful this year?” The answer is not because of money or circumstances.  The reason is Jesus.  The first message was delivered by Jeremy Hajek and focused on Genesis 4, “Cain Rejects God’s Sovereignty.”  At first this passage seemed out of place.  But it was chosen to show how Cain rejected God’s sovereignty in his life and became unthankful and slid into sin, rebellion, and separation from God. Cain poisoned his descendants with this attitude as well.  It is important to learn how un-thankfulness leads to sin in our life.   The final message was delivered by Matt Cizek, who worked hard preparing, writing and rewriting his message on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  “Be Joyful Always!”  Matt shared that the reason we are always joyful is that we have Jesus’ promise on deposit and that our circumstances cannot take that away.  Like Paul and Silas, Matt Cizek wants to always praise Jesus.  After the service messages, Gary Ziemba, shared his life testimony. Garyhad been a member of the ministry some 12+ years ago but left for various reasons. Garytestified that sin and selfishness led his life to a dark place.  He was separated from his wife, alienated from his children, and his health was failing.  Upon being diagnosed with cancer.  He called his Bible teacher Gideon Bahn and began to study the Bible again and come to confront his past and winning the victory though Christ. He thanks God for forgiving his sins and restoring his relationship with the Lord.

There were so many “behind the scenes” servants who provided snacks and lunch on Sunday; Julie Jesmer, Mary Bahn, Joy Kim, and Susanna Hajek. Alan Boyd was a prayer servant, NIU Sarah, Augustine, Mark, Hope were the praise band on Friday.  Isaac Bahn provided wonderful special music on Sunday.  Sarah Bahn and Phil Chang provided piano music each day.  We are so thankful for the participation of the NIU ministry that are always a blessing to co-work with.  Though NIU is over 45+ miles away they faithfully participated and travelled each night and we were very encouraged.    Through this conference we want to continue to encourage those, who want to know Jesus, to come to Him…giving their hearts to Christ who is the true friend of sinners. We pray that we may all grow in friendship with Jesus together, worshipping together and studying the Bible together, giving thanks to our friend, Jesus Christ, this Thanksgiving Season and always.