Mary Koh sends her greetings from Korea

Mary Koh who is in Korea sends her greetings.
She writes:

i will be home in a week. i miss everyone so much, but it makes me a bit sad now that i have to leave here.
yesterday john and mary jeong shared their mission reports. i was really moved by their struggles to live for God at U of I. anyways, i will see you all soon!
mary

Please remember her in your prayer. Here is Mary's Genesis testimony.

DuPage NU Summer Bible conference

Missionary David who is a campus pastor for the college of Dupage sent this report to us.

Here is the photo album and his report.

Please pray for them.

The first drive thru in the nation

Springfield has many things to offer such as the Abe Lincoln museum and the presidential library But it has one of the nation's first -the drive thru. McDonald and Burger King and so forth copied the idea and then a new era had dawned.

The restaurant is called "Maid Rite". The American revolution started at Springfield, IL.

Grace Koh and Grace Choi paid the homage to the first drive thru in the nation and enjoyed one of its delicacies -the horse shoe. It was a heart stopping experience.

In addition, we also visited the Springfield ministry.

Wisdom from above part 4- Patience

How can we live out as firstfruits of God? James gives wisdom so that we can live out our faith. Specifically he talks about our need of patience.

Here is the link to this week's message on James 5:6-12.

10 stupid mistakes to avoid in planting a church

Ed Stetzer interviewed Geoff Surratt who is the Pastor of Ministries at Seacoast Church Geoff wrote a new book, Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing: How Leaders Can Overcome Costly Mistakes,

Amen, brother Geoff.

Here is Ed's interview:

Fellowship 101

1 John 1:3-4 describes fellowship like this:

"We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete."

Everyone wants to be connected. How can we be connected with God and with others?

We will study the book of the 1 John in the Fall 09 semester.
Our aim is to know what it means to have fellowship with God and his Son and how can we articulate this fellowship with others.

This is our open invitation and come and learn together.

Here are tentative Fall 09 1 John schedule.

Rich in God

What it means to be rich in God? James addresses this topic in James 5:1-6.

Here is the message for this week.

Make people love Jesus

Comeback Church part 5- Renewed Focus on Jesus and His Mission from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Engage Everyone for God's kingdom work

Comeback Church part 3- Lay Mobilization from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

C cube- Christ/Camp/Concert (July 18-19)

We had a retreat called C cube (Christ, camp and concert) at Shadona State Park, which was about 2 hours north of Champaign, IL. The aim of this retreat was to learn Christ while enjoying camping and concert. (You can click the picture above to enlarge it for better viewing).

All enjoyed the camp ground and its beauty. Some attended the Ignite concert. But mostly we meditated on Matt 6:33 and Psalm 103. The Springfield UBF and U of I UBF worked together and worshipped Jesus.

Paul Toh organized the camp part and Danny Kim organized the concert part. Our women coworkers fed us well. But we thank God taught us what it means to seek God's kingdom and righteousness first based on Matt 6:33 and Psalm 103.

See the C cube schedule and notes on Matt 6:33 and Psalm 103.

Toldeo coworker's visit

Missionary Joan and Peter, Jason and Faith Lee visited us over the Fourth of July.

The fireworks was canceled due to weather but we had plenty of fireworks among us.

Here are some pictures.

Wisdom from heaven part 3

Live then plan and do.

James talks about big issues such as what is life and what is sin. As we continue to study James, we pray to get God's wisdom.

Here is this week's message on James.

Jeremiah Park won the Youngnak Scholarship

Jeremiah Park,RA, Physics, U of I, won the prestigious Youngnak Scholarship. This scheolarship is given to outstanding Korean graduate students.

Jeremiah thanked God for his grace and is donating the monetary award to the overseas mission.

Pray for him to be an excellent research for the glory of God and grow as a disciple of Jesus.

He is a scholar and student missionary. Here is Jeremiah's recent learnings on the disciples workshop.

Congrats Jeremiah.

State of the church

Here is the conversation between Ed Stetzer and Darrin Patrick who is a lead pastor at Journey church in St. Louis. Darrin is a regional coordinator for the Acts 29 network, a church planting organization.

Listen and join the conversation below.

Abe Song in Korea

Abe Song shared the mission testimony at Hanyang chapter where Gideon Shin came from. You can read Abe's testimony here (In Korean)

Abe is handsome but with a short hair cut and with a tie, he looks even better. Better yet, he would be much better wearing something orange. Pray for him to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

Abraham Lincoln Lecture

Pastor Abraham who is currently serving the Yale university as a campus pastor visited us over the Fourth of July and presented us with a talk entitled "GOD'S BIG PICTURE! (How do we read the Bible with the eyes of mission?)".

Here is his lecture.
And some pictures.

Benji Toh's Philippine mission report

Chrity Toh of the Westloop church sent us Benji Toh's mission report. Please pray for him to live a Holy life based on 2 Tim 1:9. For of you who do not know Benji, Benji is a UIC student. You can see Benji singing in the video below. Here is Benji's report.