2008 SDA Summer English Bible Camp – “The Incomparable Christ: A Man for All Time”

August 4, 2008 Gyeonggi English Camp, South Korea 

1700 attendees and 135 baptisms: the highest number ever in the history of the Summer Bible Camp. SDA Language School in Korea directed by Pastor Kim, Si-young held their annual grandest Summer Bible Camp from July 17 through July 20, 2008 at Gyeonggi English Village in YangPyong.
This year’s speaker was a renowned evangelist and the general vice president of the General Conference Pastor Mark A. Finley with the theme “The Incomparable Christ: A Man for All Time.”

Pastor Finley is a global veteran evangelist who has been to over 80 countries and held over 150 evangelistic meetings sharing amazing testimonies of people from all over the world and touching the audience with their stories.  On the Sabbath day of camp Pastor Finley introduced God as a “God who moves stones from our lives” and encouraged us by reminding us that “Nothing can become an obstacles when we go forward to the Lord.”  Every hour the speaker invited our students to accept Jesus as their Savior and made appeals to come to the front.
The praise and worship time before the message was a thrilling and uplifting time. The zealous and spirit filled praise team consisted of foreign missionary teachers who lead people heavenward adding a double fold to worship.

During the afternoon hours of the first and second day of camp, the camp offered varieties of English seminars and outdoor social activities where we could enhance friendship and fellowship. The English seminars were conducted by experienced teachers who had been in Korea for a long time. They had the expertise to meet the needs of Korean students. The seminars were on “Having Fun with everyday Idioms!” “Konglish Clinic” and “How to Increase Your English Skills.” Different cultures and countries were displayed. Not only that they also offered a Bible seminar, health seminar, Harvard story, and seminars in Korean. These seminars brought wonderful responses from students.

The atmosphere among the students was a little awkward in the beginning, however, through seminars, small group Bible studies, outdoor activities, soon they became one in spirit and enjoyed the programs and blessings of the words of life.

The camp’s finest event was the baptismal ceremony that took place on Sabbath afternoon.  In the midst of pouring rain, the determined souls went forward giving their hearts to the Savior which was really a touching moment. Even though it was raining, the born again souls faces were enlighten with smiles and tears of joy. Mrs. Park JooHee from the DaeJeon Dunsan Institute expressed her feelings by saying, “I feel like I am a newborn and my heart is filled with peace and joy that words cannot express.” This baptismal ceremony was more meaningful because some baptismal candidates were experiencing personal trials. Kim, Hyun Jae from the Suwon Institute is paralyzed in the lower half of his body due to an operation to remove cancer in the vertebra in 2000. He joined the All Day Club in Suwon and studied at SDA for many months. While attending this camp, he listened to Pastor Finley earnestly and reconsidered his faith and decided to become a child of God. Again, in the Japanese camp, we had two escapees from North Korea 4 months ago named Lee, Ji Yea (fictional name) and Kim, Chan Woo (pseudo name) who got baptized.

Lee, Ji Yea went to the sauna where she met Deaconess Han Hae Nam who attends Seoul English Institute Church and through her she was able to meet Jesus Christ. From that time she has been attending the Japanese church and she got baptized at the camp. Kim, Chan Woo is a friend of Lee, Ji Yea and he got baptized with her at the camp. When we asked Miss Lee, Ji yea about her baptism, she said, “I want North and South Korea to be unified so I can take this gospel to North Korea.
On this Sabbath, we had a total of 135 baptisms making this the highest number of baptisms since we have been holding Summer Bible Camp.
On Sabbath evening, The Northern Asia-Pacific Division’s singing missionaries, the Golden Angels gave a concert. Many people were blessed by their talents. After the concert, the foreign missionaries had a celebration time for newly baptized members. Pastor Kim, Si-young stated during this time, “May your precious decision not change until you make it to the Kingdom of heaven.”

There are no better treasures than the tears that they shed as they accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. We give thanks and praise to our living God as we witness God’s amazing miracles and blessings that he gives to the SDA Language School every summer.
So far, we have held 16 camps since 2001 and we have had 16,948 people attend our camps with a total of 1,403 people baptized.
SDA Language School’s vision is to be a leading mission organization leading students to God. In order to accomplish this mission and vision, we the workers and the missionaries will put our hearts and spirits together to carry out this mission.