[kisstheson]

Hello dear ones, beloved of God,

I posted this over at "the other forum" five days ago, but I wanted to include this post over here in my blog as well. Please forgive me if you have already read this over at "the other fourm".

My family and I were very privileged to be able to attend this year’s “Christian Family Conference” held at Longwood University in Farmville, VA. This is an annual conference hosted by various assemblies which receive the ministry of dear brother Stephen Kaung and the other ministers of Christ who co-labor with dear brother Kaung. (For the few who do not know, Stephen Kaung, like Witness Lee, is a brother who co-labored with Watchman Nee in Mainland China during the first half of the twentieth century. Stephen Kaung is now 94 years old.)

The general theme of the conference was “Waiting For And Hastening The Return Of The Lord”. (Links to the spoken messages can be found here.) For us, this was a time full of fellowship and full of encouragement. In the large “ministry” meetings, in the smaller prayer and fellowship groups, and in the times of very informal fellowship around a dinner table or in a dormitory lounge, we enjoyed a lot of sweet time together with other dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

This conference was very interesting for us in particular, since one of the last Conferences we attended in the LC was the 2005 Thanksgiving Conference in which the BB’s spoke regarding the Lord’s Return. Using our time in the LC as a background, there were many things which really impressed us about this recent conference with dear brother Kaung and the other brothers:

1. There were eight spoken messages, and brother Kaung only spoke two of those messages. This was not due to brother Kaung’s age – sharing the pulpit has been brother Kaung’s practice for decades. This “Christian Family Conference” is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, of the annual events for the assemblies which receive brother Kaung’s ministry. Just imagine if WL, while he was still alive, had shared his pulpit with other brothers during his major trainings and conferences. Having been in many WL-only trainings and conferences over the years, seeing brother Kaung sharing the speaking with other dear brothers was so refreshing to us.
   
   
2. Not only that, but the other brothers were by no means merely repeating the speaking of brother Kaung. The other brothers were fully free in the Lord to speak based upon their experiences in Christ and based upon the light they had received while diligently laboring over God’s Word. And what marvelous, rich, things they shared! While many of the things they shared could be traced back to WN’s ministry, it really was the simple expounding of the Word that touched all of us the most.
   
   
3. Dear ones - what a book room! We were fully expecting to see the book room only selling books by brother Kaung and CFP’s translated works of WN, similar to the LSM pattern of selling only Lee and their versions of Nee. Were we ever wrong! Yes, Christian Fellowship Publishers’ translations of WN’s speakings were there. And yes, books by brother Kaung were there. But there was so much more – books by TAS, Bakht Singh, G. Campbell Morgan, Andrew Murray, Gerhard Tersteegen, George Mueller, J.N. Darby, various Puritan authors, Madame Guyon, Amy Carmichael, etc., etc. There was a whole table devoted to books by Govett, Panton, Pember, and Lang. There were several tables dedicated to Church History books and many tables full of Christian biographies (My wife bought a biography of Mary Slessor and has been reading me some precious excerpts for the past five days).
   
   
4. O the prices of the books! Christian Testimony Ministry was literally selling all the books at their cost. Dear ones, all the books were incredibly cheap! WN books for either $2 (thinner volumes) or $3 (thicker volumes)! All the books by brother Kaung and the brothers who co-labor with him were priced the same way. Even the books not published by CFP or CTM were priced at cost. I picked up John Saunders’ classic The City of God for only $2 and two volumes by Gerhard Tersteegen for only $3 each. CTM was also sellig MP3 CD’s containing piano music for all the hymns in the new hymnbook Christ in Song. Their price for the CD’s was $1. Every time I paid for some books, I told the dear ones that I felt like I was shopping at a thrift store! They responded that the low prices are CTM’s way of serving the brothers and sisters. How wonderful to see a ministry so eager to serve the brothers and sisters in Christ!
   
   
5. A true spirit of humility and submission to the headship of Christ pervaded the conference. The matter of Laodicea was clearly presented as a warning in the second message and this theme continued throughout the remainder of the messages. These dear ones truly desire to “not think more highly of themselves than they ought”. They are very open to the Lord’s judgment and the Lord’s discipline over them. I can not put into words how much this meant to us. This is the same spirit we saw in Raleigh during our time there over the Memorial Day weekend.

To God be the glory!