University Bible Fellowship

The Gospel Of Our Salvation                                       

                             March 2008 Mission Report by Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 

Romans 5:8,                                                                   

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us."

   There is no greater expression of love than that of God sending his One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world in order to die on the cross for our sins. Though this one statement has been said time and time again, it always rings true, clear and fresh in our hearts. We need to declare it to the world, because people need to know where true love comes from…only from our Father in Heaven. It is revealed through Jesus. The message is given to us through the God's word in the Bible. The month of March has been a month where our members have been growing in the love of God as his disciples. It has been a month of outreach, inviting others to accept the love of Jesus. It culminated in a three day celebration of Easter on the campus of Triton College. Let's see….

Part l: Disciples Of Jesus

     God has been helping Tim Sagel to grow in faith through his school studies. He has been spurred on to study and is struggling to watch less television for the glory of God. God is also helping to grow as a leader. He is accepting the challenge to step into leadership roles in ministry. He has willing heart but not much experience. This makes for many difficult situations. But Tim overcame them with humility and a learning mind and he grew a lot. For this month's Easter Conference, he, Jen and Augustine worked hard to practice 12 singspiration songs. During the Easter Conference, Tim learned how to co-work with others and how important it is to keep the time schedule. He was able to learn from constructive criticism. He is learning a spirit of self denial. In one week in March he was really sick. Yet he had to study and take three exams. He also wanted to serve the Sunday Service with presiding and singspiration.  He denied himself and overcame and did all things for the glory of God. He even hunted and caught a mouse in a mouse trap. He is gaining a spirit of conquest, by denying himself to follow Jesus. He continues to pray for God to send him one faithful Bible student.

    Augustine Jesmer has a continued prayer topic to be able to reach out to his friends. Actually all the three older kids have a prayer topic to have one Bible student who does not come from their immediate circle of friends. He, Jen and Tim have also committed themselves to practicing music once a week and the quality of their music is growing. Sarah joins with them each Sunday. Next month, Sarah is going to begin practicing with them, midweek. They are continuing to incorporate Christian poetry into their singspiration time. They pray to be able to commute with the congregation in order to help them turn their hearts to Jesus in worship. 

      Jennifer Jesmer is also growing in discipleship. She is co-working well with Tim in developing our singspiration team. She too prays that God may send her one faithful Bible student. Jen is making plans to enter high school. When she went to her orientation, she discovered that there is a Christian group operating at her high school, called "God's Athletes" She is looking forward to co-working with any Christians who want to co-work with her in sharing the Gospel of Jesus with fellow high school students.

    In the Month of March, Kathleen H, began attending our family daily bread meeting nearly every day. She prays earnestly for her son, Abraham and her daughter Emily. She has vision for her neighbors to come to daily bread and prayer. She is praying for direction in her future. Should she stay in DeKalb or move to a southern state, where she is closer to family? We pray for her to stay in DeKalb and grow as a mother of prayer for American College students.

    The month Andy started opening his heart more and more. He is disheartened with the life he has been living. He feels unproductive and fruitless. To him, things appear to going downhill for several years now. This month, Andy broke his clavicle when a friend was wrestling with him. It caused him to have to stop work. In doing so it made Andy slow down and learn to humbly depend on God. In sharing his heart I realize that he and I have had some similar life experiences prior to my conversion. God truly sends people to us through whom we can relate. I believe he is making spiritual progress. He is no longer equating progress with money and job. He is recognizing that progress is an inner progress. I pray that Andy may be able to see God, who has reached out his hand to save him and who has set his feet on a course of fruitfulness and victory. I pray that he is patient enough to allow God to do his life giving work in his life.

    Julie graduated from her six month pain treatment at a clinic in Chicago. She was one of their star patients. It was a total success. She learned to take charge of her body. She lost a whole lot of weight and she began to have regular exercise. It was a total life change. She is motivated to continue with it for a lifetime. Julie's month was filled with many conference calls for the preparation of Purdue '08. She is helping to bring all the regional workers together to form a holy vessel. She faithfully studies with Tom C, at her working place and with Trish, a nurse as well as three of her children.

Part ll: Outreach

    In March we have had our Friday night outreach. It is designed to provide a framework to help my kids and Tim to reach out to their friends. I think that this is very important. Recent studies have shown that the younger generation is socializing less and less due to their life on the internet. This is not a good trend for Christians, because, in order to raise disciples, it is best to have some face to face interaction with real people. I asked my kids, "Don’t you have any friends that you can call and invite them out?" They repented and decided to call their friends. On one Friday, Sarah invited three of her friends and Jen brought two and Augustine, one.  We tried to go bowling, but the lanes were full so we opted for visit to Culver's. On another night we had a movie and Kathleen came along with Sam and Joie, Hope's and Sarah's friend. May my kids and Tim learn to reach out to real people, face to face, with a prayer to raise up disciples of Jesus among American University and College students.

    In March we were visited by Amanda and her mother Trish. Amanda is a high school student in Chicago. She studies the Bible at Chicago UBF with Mary Park Jr. They were scouting out NIU campus for Amanda will be attending here in the fall. Tim and myself could host them for lunch at Applebee's. They could come and see the Bible house. We prayed together. Amanda is so full of energy and life. She is so excited about Jesus. She also has plans to make UBF an official group at NIU campus. I pray to catch even a small portion of her excitement about Jesus. We have hope for several people to join our small ministry in the fall. There is also a very real hope that we can become an official group on the campus of NIU this fall. Please pray for us.

     At the end of the month we had a huge visit by family members. On the evening of Easter Sunday we were visited by Helen, Julie's  mom, and Julie's sister's family. Later that week we were joined by my (Kevin's) mom and dad. There were seven family members and all of my five kids were off of school. We had a full house to say the least. We could show them Chicago, the Art Institute, Navy Peer, Millennium Park,  etc. They ate Chicago hot dogs and deep dish pizza. We could be with them for a week. Our prayer was to reveal Christ to them. We also maintained our spiritual life during their visit. I was proud of my kids who stood up as Christians even in the midst of a huge family visit. This is not easy. My mother came to group Bible study and my parents came to the Sunday worship service. We pray for each one of them to grow in their personal relationship with Jesus.

Part lll: The Joint Triton/NIU Easter Conference.

    We held a joint Triton/NIU UBF Easter Conference at Triton College. The following is a report submitted to UBF.org. ….

"This year we held an "Easter Celebration" on March 21-23, 2008. On day one, we had a group Bible study led by Pastor Teddy Hembekides as well as a prayer journey. On day two, we were led through a Passover Seder ceremony by a co-worker in the Messiah, a representative of the "Jews for Jesus" ministry, David Ortega. And on day three we heard a Resurrection Message, delivered by Pastor Kevin Jesmer from NIU UBF. This Easter Celebration was very special, not only because the contents of the celebration were satisfying spiritually, but because all of the programs were held on the campus of Triton College. Indeed God is helping us to influence the culture of Triton College with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    The opening night consisted of a group Bible study and a three room prayer journey. Shp Teddy led about 50 people through Mark's account of Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. Through it, we discovered the heart of the Gospel message. We could see the simple, gospel truths, that Jesus was crucified and that he has risen. These truths are enough to change, sorrowful and despaired and fearful people, into joyful and powerful witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. After the group Bible study we were all invited to participate in the J.O.Y. prayer journey. J.O.Y. stands for Jesus, Others and Yourself. When we live with these priorities then we can taste true joy. Three rooms were set up as a multi-sensory prayer experience. One prayer room was set up to pray for our relationship with Jesus; the other for World Mission and the other for prayers for ourselves. The prayer rooms utilized all the senses in order to help people to meditate and pray with all of their hearts. People went through the prayer rooms alone or 2X2. Everyone prayed sincerely for over an hour. We hope to present this prayer room journey to the greater Triton Community in the future.

     On Saturday night we had a special guest, David Ortega, to perform a Passover Seder ceremony with us. The presentation was entitled "Christ In The Passover. A presentation of Jews for Jesus." At the Seder were people from Triton UBF, NIU UBF and also West Loop UBF. Several people attended through the Triton Bible Club outreach. David identifies himself as a co-worker in the Messiah. With true missionary spirit, he took time off of work to prepared an extensive ceremony in which approximately 65 people were provided with bitter roots, matzoh bread, salt water, a boiled egg, minced fruit, five small cups of grape juice, basically everything needed to demonstrate the Jewish Passover ceremony and how it points to Jesus. He involved the entire group, even small children. We all sang Messianic themed songs. It is amazing how Jesus is not only found in the story of the Passover, from the Book of Exodus, but Jesus is also found in the Passover traditions, practiced by the Jews for thousands of years. God has been making it clear He is the only one who can deliver us from our bondage to sin. David encouraged us that Jesus will be clearly revealed to the Jewish people if there are only people to step up and explain it to them. David Ortega gave us some hints on how to minister to the Jews. He also pointed out, that we, as Gentiles, have a unique opportunity to reach out to our Jewish friends because they are more open to our words than the words of a Jewish convert. We all enjoyed a delicious fellowship meal together, prepared by our woman co-workers.

     The final day of our conference was Easter Sunday. On that day Shp Kevin Jesmer delivered a message based on Mark 16:1-20, "He Has Risen! He Is Not Here." Even though the death of Jesus has power to change hearts, we need to also have faith in the resurrection of Jesus in order to truly empowered to live as witnesses of the Risen Jesus. He urged people to hold onto the simple truths that Jesus was crucified and that he was raised from the dead. These simple truths, coupled with prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit is enough to touch the hearts of even post-moderns. We are thankful for the music servants, who worked hard to prepare and practice music not only for Sunday, but also for the opening night.

     In conclusion, we thank God for sending Jesus as our Passover Lamb. Just as he delivered his people from bondage in Egypt, God is still delivering his people of every nation from their bondage to sin and bringing them into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We thank God for making this Easter one of the most meaningful, memorable and joyful Easter celebrations. We thank God for opening the way for us to celebrate it on Triton Campus. We pray that, through this celebration, God may prepare our hearts with Gospel faith, so that we may stand up as powerful resurrection witnesses on our respective campus'."

    After the conference we experienced the hospitality of our Triton UBF co-workers. They hosted us to a brunch at the local Chinese Food Buffet. We are thankful for their love and support for us. May God bless them to continually touch the hearts of Triton students with the Gospel.

One word: God's love is revealed to us through Jesus' death on the cross. May we tell students this fact.