The Script for the NIU UBF 2012 Report for the North York UBF Spring Conference.

1. I want to thank everyone for thinking about us and wanting us to share about our lives in Jesus together. This presentation will highlight God’s work at NIU UBF and it will also include some past history about God’s work among the missionaries.

2. You may not believe it but the Lee family and myself go back a long way. Here is some proof. We went through many struggles together and we grew together and I am sure we will be friends all of our lives.

3. A long time ago in a ministry far, far away. It was a ministry thousands of miles away, over two decades ago in a distant land where some of you have never been and before some of you were born. A mysterious land.

4. The ministry is Winnipeg UBF in 1986. Do you recognize some of theses sites? There is the old Bible house, the first Bible house in Canada UBF. There is the apartment that some missionaries lived in. There is an industrial sewing machine that some of the ladies used.

5. We had a wonderful time serving Jesus together. There was some great fellowship and deep Bible study and other joys that come from serving youth ministry. Those years were filled with good memories.

6. Paul and myself sang together. Here we are at a conference. We were probably singing, “Mansion Builders” for that was one of our ministry favorites.

7. We acted together. In this picture Msn Paul was a shepherd and I was “Bad college boy Bob.” John Giesbiecht was a Pharisee.

8. We worshipped together. Here you can see us really getting into praise and worship. We called it singspiration. We tasted the joy that is in the Lord. It looks like Msn Paul was playing guitar hero.

9. We ate a lot wherever we went. Here we are at a conference having a picnic. There were many sessions of eating fellowship during my years with the missionaries.

10. The bottom line is, Msn Paul and Joan Lee, and all the missionaries accepted me into their families. They showed me God’s love and accepted me for who I was. Do you recognize the young boy in Paul’s arms?

11. Part ll: I want to share a short life testimony. I lived a very idyllic boyhood. I had all the toys, dirt bike, car at 15. I worked and had money. I enjoyed the Northern Manitoba forest and grew up a nominal Catholic without knowing Jesus.

12. Even though I had everything, I was often bored and felt meaningless. I binge drank, smoked pot, loved heavy metal. But I was lonely, lovesick and empty. My sins were ruining my life and I failed my first year of university. Inside I was crying.

13. I tried to fix myself without Jesus. I jogged, took taekwondo, Hey yah! I studied chemical technology at a college. I even got B’s and some A’s.

14. But no matter how much I tried, I could change my outer person, but I could not change my inner person. I was still heart broken, lonely and bored to tear at times. I longed for hedonistic pleasure seeking.

15. In the darkness of my sin, I cried out to God in my pillow. I cried out, “Oh God!” It was my soul reaching out for a Savior I did not yet know. God was about to intervene in miraculous ways.

16. Part 3: MY New Life in Jesus! Jesus reached down and took hold of my hand and pulled me up out of the muck and mire.

17. God heard my pitiful, pillow cries and he sent me a Bible teacher. Msn Ruth Hwang, (the lady on the right) When we met she took me to SWS, but before hand, she took me for a hamburger, with…guess who? Yes! Msn Joan Lee, who also had also met a student and had bought him a hamburger too! Amazing grace!

18. This is my life key verse. I was a thirsty Samaritan man, but Jesus quenched my thirsty heart with his living water. Praise the Lord!

19. I served along side the missionaries for about 4 years. Here I am standing in front of the Bible house where all the action was. I also shared my Bible testimonies at meetings and even picnics.

20. The missionaries showed me God’s love. They accepted me for who I was. They believed in me and hope in me. In a nutshell they reveled to me the love of Jesus.

21. I had a lot of problems. Too many to list here. But one of my problems was stammering. I stammered from age 5 to age 22. But through discipleship and the power of God, I was healed. Here I am sharing my testimony in Seoul Korea before 10,000 people and not stammering once. Praise Jesus.

22. Part 3: A Canadian Missionary to America. In 1990 God led me to the USA. I did not cross cultural and language barriers as the missionaries did, but I did go to another country. Does that make me a missionary? You bet it does!

23. I first came to Triton UBF which is led by Pastor Teddy Hembekides and his wife Liz. It was a flourishing ministry with 70 Sunday attendants. There was deep Bible study and lots of mission work.
24. Little did I know at the time, but God was preparing my future wife Julie at Downy UBF in LA. We came from similar backgrounds. She lived a hedonistic life, but look at the transformation that Jesus brought into her life.

25. In 1992 we were united together in Christ. It was another miracle because I could never in a million years marry such a high quality woman as my wife Julie. God blessed me.

26. God began to equip our house church. After five years of study I became a nurse and Julie grew from office manager to executive assistant.

27. We cared for the flock of God and we grew through deep Bible study with Pastor Teddy and Liz.

28. Between 1994 and 2000 God sent 5 children. They came pretty fast. God has been faithful to provide everything to raise them. The person on the right is not my child, but I love him like one of my own.

29. Part 4. God sent us to pioneer NIU UBF inn 1998. This is the world mission command of Jesus. We wanted to go and raise disciples of Jesus among the student of NIU.

30. The main focus of our ministry has been Jesus Christ and knowing him better. You can read some of our secondary foci.

31. This was our first Bible house. The five kids occupied two bedrooms upstairs and Julie and I lived in a closet on the first floor. It served our purpose well and it was filled with the love of God.

32. NIU is state college. There are 26 thousand students with 500 acres. 90 countries our represented and they have several PhD programs. NIU is courting Jennifer these days.

33. Over the years we have held many Bible schools. Supported by Triton and DuPage UBF. The kids participated fully.

34. We have summer Christen book club every month during the summer and we also write and share testimonies on the previous passage on Sunday.

35. We have joint Bible conferences. We are now planning an Easter bible school and a summer conference with DuPage UBF.

36. There are times when we host visitors. We had some recent visitors. Can you recognize them? Yes Andrew and Msn Luke and Msn David from Edmonton.

37. We do a lot of visiting ourselves. It is good to visit other chapters because in doing so we are promoting communities of Christian love that is equal to obeying Jesus’ world mission command.
38. Here is list of our visiting in 2011. Julie did most of the visiting. Maybe we can all come to visit your ministry one day. Is that OK?

39. Part of our goals, as a single family house church, is establishing alliances with other area churches. One way we are doing it is by attending the open mic night at a local church. We prepare 10 songs each time we go.

40. We have a music ministry as I know you have too. We are getting into singing at some open air Christian concerts. The kids sang at a local UBF wedding.

41. Jenn leads FCA, the “Fellowship of Christian Athletes”. Augustine and Sarah support this. They weekly group Bible study and organize “See You At The Pole”. Mark and Hope meet weekly on their middle school campus.

42. We support Feed ‘Em Soup community project. Mostly by eating their food. lol. But also financially. They do a great work in the community.

43. We recently started to worship at a local Christian church. Over the last two years we built up a trust relationship. They don’t even charge us rent. It is a blessing to be in a church setting.

44. I now want to talk about all the brothers and sisters at NIU UBF. We are in this boat together. It takes a village.

45. Our 2012 ministry Key Verse is John 10:10. Yes, we want to have life to the full I Jesus. And why not? If there is life to the full in Jesus we want to live in that life.

46. James Kim is our faithful member. His is the nephew of David Kim of DuPage UBF. He is here for two more years to get a masters Degree in accounting.

47. Jason goes to a local community church. he loves to run and operate the light and sound at his church. He is like a Bible scholar. We really enjoy talking about the Scriptures together.

48. Steve is a good and faithful friend. He works in food service at a nursing home. I believe he has met Jesus personally.

49. As we know the closest co-workers are our family members. These are some recent photos taken on a warm day. When I look at these pictures I praise Jesus who took a fruitless single seed person like me and helped him to bear fruit.

50. Jenn is a senior She likes Acapella, musicals, reading. She heads the praise team, leads FCA, and is going to university in the fall. She wants to study English literature/education.

51. Augustine is in grade 10. He likes soccer, sings Acapella and serves in percussion & guitar in the praise band. He also presides on Sunday. He supports FCA.

52. Sarah is in grade 9. She like Acapella singing, choir and drama. She plays guitar, and is a prayer servant on Sunday. She supports FCA.

53. Hope is in grade 7. She likes singing and is a prayer servant and piano player on Sunday. She teaches Emma the Bible 1:1. She serves the middle school Bible club. She like fashion design.

54. Mark is in grade 6. He likes his ipod touch & baseball. He sings in a men’s barbershop group with his dad. He reads psalms o Sunday and supports middle school Bible club.

55. Julie is the backbone of our ministry. She is mother, wife, IT person, treasurer, manager, ministry representative. We are one in the Lord. That is why I am with her in this picture. We are attached at the heart.

56. This is a list of how we disciple. I am sure that is thrilling many of you. The most important thing is daily bread times as a family and I forgot…relationship building.

57. Here I am at the side of my trusty tool for ministry, my computer. I have a light bulb in front of me for inspiration. I might just wear out a computer one day.

58. Christians are also called to serve God at their work. I praise God for opening up a hospital ministry. 35 heath care workers read the Sunday message every 3 weeks. A nurse took the lead to teach the bible every two weeks.

59. We are also developing a web site dedicated to Bible study and house church ministry…why? Because that is how we roll.

60. Every ministry needs vision. Without vision a people perish, the Bible says. This is our vision. May God fill all of our hearts with his vision.

61. Here are our prayer topics. There are a lot of them. Actually the list is about 15. But these are the main ones.

62. I want to repeat once again…thanks you for your love… your hope and your prayers. We love you all in Christ.