Preface
In 2009, Triton Church celebrated its 20th anniversary, where the starting year was based on the first worship service in 1989. This article was the main lecture on the history during the celebration.
Main
Key Verse 1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”
God’s pioneering work at the Triton campus began in 1986 when Missionary Joseph Ku of Chicago UBF visited the campus and prayed almost everyday on his way home from work. Soon Missionaries Peter Chung, Mark Bay and Monica Barry of the Chicago UBF joined Missionary Joseph in campus prayer and inviting students to Bible study. In October they officially moved to River Grove a block away from the Triton campus. Every Saturday they met in the basement, studied Bible and prayed together. God heard their prayers and a few students began to join them for Bible study. Among them were Henry Rosado and Christine St. Lawrence.
In 1987, Missionary Joseph met Shepherd Carl Heusel at the Triton campus and invited him to a one-to-one Bible study. Even though Carl was also in the Army, he faithfully studied Bible and grew to be one of the ancestor of faith of our ministry as well as one of its Pillars of faith. Later he also brought his twin brother Clark who grew up also as a pillar of this ministry.
In late 1989, Dr. Lee told Shepherd Teddy and Liz: “TRITON NEEDS A SHEPHERD. WOULD YOU SERVE TRITON CAMPUS?” Soon after Pastor Teddy and Shepherdess Liz of Oakton ministry joined the Triton ministry. Then the Bible house was acquired through Dr. Lee’s prayer, as well as the generous gift of Korea UBF. Among the shepherds and shepherdesses of the Oakton ministry who accompanied Shepherd Teddy’s family were John Mike Pitts, Dawn Rompa, Carl Huesel, Rene Alonzo, Remy Alonzo, James Kokusulis, Little Mike Cedeno and Mary Lopez— all together totaling 12 Bible teachers.
Services were held on the main floor while Shepherd Teddy & S. Liz lived in the attic of the Bible House. The first Triton Worship Service was held in the Bible House in April 1989 with Mark 16:15-20 as the opening passage. “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.’” Soon after, the first Triton house-church family was established between S. John Mike Pitts and S. Dawn Rompa.
One year or so later, the Bible house already became too small for our needs and need to be remodeled to accommodate God’s growing people on Sunday. In 1991 the partition walls were demolished and a spacious congregation area became available. The remodeling work was necessary not only for the sake of making the house student friendly, but also to rid the BH from the animal smells — snakes and monkey, cats and dogs — which were housed here by the previous owner.
In February 1991, Shepherd Kevin Jesmer from Winnipeg, Canada joined the Triton ministry. At the time, the Canadian ministry was undergoing intense hardship and most of our missionaries there had left Winnipeg to pioneer new chapters elsewhere. It wasn’t easy for young S. Kevin to carry on the Canadian ministry by himself. So, S. Teddy invited S. Kevin to move to Triton to study the Bible and to take nursing courses and to participate in the Triton ministry. And so, bachelor – 26 year old – Kevin packed his belongings and began the 1,000 mile journey to Triton in his beaten-up Volkswagen Rabbit. Since then, S. Kevin has been a source of great blessing.
In September of that same year, Carl Heusel, Triton’s Abraham of faith, married Wendy Tockerman from Wright College UBF becoming the second house-church at Triton.
In the spring of 1992, Shepherd Kevin prepared to go to Russia as a permanent missionary. But at the very last minute it was called off because God had other plans for him. God established Shepherd Kevin and Julie Nugent from the Downey UBF as a house church so Kevin and Julie stayed at Triton. On that same day, Shepherd Sam Wahbeh from the Oakton ministry and Donna Rompa of Triton also established a house church.
In June 1995, Sam & Donna Wahbeh together with Mark Bae’s family pioneered UDUB in Seattle, Washington. Some of their co-workers from the Oakton ministry joined them as well. Since then, their ministry has been blessed with many growing disciples of Jesus.
The years from 1992-1996 were difficult years for our pioneering work at Triton. We experienced hardship in many ways. We were unable to fully serve Triton college students especially since we were unable to establish the necessary Club presence on campus. But in spite of the hardship, God worked mightily to raise many young disciples of Jesus, among whom were Charisma Moguel, Iris Moguel, Sarah Jimenez, and Ruth Hoffins. God helped us not to focus on the hardship but to grow in perseverance and in determination to bring our campus to faith in our Lord Jesus.
In the midst of all this, God was also working greatly to strengthen our ministry by establishing American house churches that became a source of blessing and encouragement to all of us. Lt Mike & Mary Cedeno, Michael & Grace Norte, Gideon & Ruth Sherwin and Joseph & Charisma Magno — all established a solid foundation house churches that became the backbone of God’s work at Triton. Through these families, God built up his church and gave us a strong prayer base on campus.
In 1997-1998, we were all inspired to see Triton ministry expand to the ends of the earth, praying to send out coworkers to pioneer different campuses. Our families and coworkers each picked a campus to visit and to pray for and in that way God opened the doors to the pioneering of campuses everywhere. We began to travel as far south to Moraine Valley Community College and as far west as Elgin and DeKalb.
In 1998, the Shepherd Kevin’s family moved to DeKalb to pioneer NIU campus. A few months later, Christopher Sagel decided to be a permanent missionary to South Korea where he currently serves students of Yansei and Ewa Univ with his wife Maria and son Johnny. They pray that some day they would go to North Korea as missionaries. The following year in 1999, the Cedeno family and their newly born daughter Janai went to Nagodoches Texas as short term missionaries and served the students of Stephen F Austin university for one year before returning to their home chapter Triton.
After Dr. Samuel Lee’s homecoming in January 2002, Triton committed to serving the African continent as well as the Middle East as our long term missionary vision. So we diligently prayed for the nations of Africa and the Middle East one by one and carefully considered how we might aid them spiritually and financially to grow as independent chapters. Our vision for Triton UBF was then born and we prayed that we might be a World Mission Center. In response, Shepherd Joseph Magno went to Nigeria in 2004 and stayed for 8 months co-working with Peter and Monica Park to serve young students. In 2005, Shepherd John Mike Pitts went on a 6 week short-term mission to Mongolia where he taught Bible to eager Mongolian students. Maggie Strazcek spent more than a year in Sri Lanka and after returning to Triton went out again to Bebong chapter in South Korea as an English teacher. She prays to teach English Bible and to lose weight. Many coworkers also went overseas throughout the years to serve different missions around the world.
In February of 2006, Shepherd Moses Marji went out as a permanent missionary to Sudan. When he was well established, his wife Iris joined him together with their son Nathanael. Their family worked side by side with the Kim family in Sudan until God answered their prayers to establish a new independent pioneering chapter in Bahri Khartum focusing on Moslem people.
Indeed, thus far has the Lord helped us to be a World Mission Center. Not only that, God has helped us to establish our presence and his work right here at Triton College. For many, many years a few groups at Triton College had tried to snuff out God’s work on campus, rejecting our presence and efforts to establish a club on campus. Severe persecution and pressure were felt by all. These groups worked hard to discourage coworkers from even stepping onto campus. Threats of being arrested for fishing on campus were often in place. However, over 10 years later, God had mercy on us and opened the doors for us to begin a new club on campus. Still attempts to get Triton Bible Fellowship (TBF) as a legitimate student organization was being turned down by the administration. Finally, in the spring of 2003, Triton Bible Fellowship was officially registered. Its purpose was to invite Triton students to study the Bible and challenge them to live according to its teachings. Ian Turner, Sarah Dallal and Iris Marji took turns in leading group Bible studies on campus, playing music and providing snacks to a handful of students. At first, the club encountered a lot of criticism. The students were suspicious and tried to avoid it, calling it “strange.” Our coworkers however, did not give up and prayed continually that God might open the heart of the students to the word of God.
We thank God for Dr. Esther Kim who worked as a math instructor at Triton College and sponsored TBF so it could be registered. God began to work through TBF preciously and later it became knows as Triton Bible Club (TBC).
On Valentines Day of February 2008, a tragic event occurred in DeKalb when a gunman shot and killed six students at the Northern Illinois University campus. Right after the NIU shooting incident, the administrators of Triton College formally requested that Triton Bible Club lead a memorial service to pray for those who perished during the shooting. It was truly beautiful to see God’s people coming together to offer comfort and counsel to students. There was a time when Triton College despised our manger ministry. But now they turned to God’s servants for words of comfort and prayer during this time of pain and confusion. God is working mightily in our favor.
On May 1, 2008, Triton College awarded TBC as an “Outstanding Student Organization of the Year and Outstanding Student Organization Program for the 30 Hour Famine Event. In the Spring of 2008, a new website (tritonbibleclub.com) was created. During its seven year of existence, TBC had engaged in many activities such as: developed, promoted and taught original Bible study material, Beauty for Ashes Event, garage and bake sale and many others with photos on the website. We thank and praise God for the hard work of Charisma Magno who is the current president of TBC and for Tim Lopez the vice president. We also thank God for Dr. Crystal Shannon-Morla who has been a vital supporter of TBC and a mother of prayer for Triton students. We thank God for all those who prayed and supported TBC for the last six years.
Thus far the Lord helped take care of his servants, Pastor Teddy and Shp. Liz. They lived in the attic of the Bible house. They had no kitchen, except for a hot plate and the bathroom was very small. The stair leading to the attic was very narrow. Pastor Teddy struggled to go up and down the stair. But love of God, sincere conviction and obedience to serve God’s children at Triton enabled them to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice and endured living in this condition for more than 15 years.
Their situation however, did not go unnoticed. In February of 2005, our merciful God provided them a cozy house, a few blocks away from the Bible house. They have opened their home to Monica Park from Nigeria and now to Tim Lopez. Surely, God has taken care of his servants.
Thus far the Lord has helped us also with our Triton Bible House. It was over 18 years since the last major renovation of the Bible House. It was time again to renovate God’s house. The worship area needed to be redone so that it would become less cluttered and more inviting to the students and sheep who visit. So finally in July of 2008, after much discussion and prayers, the elders decided to proceed with this much needed renovation. We hired an independent contractor at the last minute and he was able to finish the job a few days before the 2008 International Summer Bible Conference, in time for us to serve delegates after the conference. This time we agreed to have laminated wood flooring instead of carpeting. We also replaced the ceiling and installed new lights. The whole area was repainted and the sound system had been improved. When the works was completed, we invited Mother Barry to bless the building. There are many more things left to be done. But we will continue to pray that God may provide and help us finish all the work needed to make the Bible house beautiful and a decent place to worship God. May God fill his house with many students to worship Him.
Thus far the Lord has helped even our families. For the last twenty years God had established numerous house churches through Triton ministry. It seems as though they are as countless as the sands on the seashore but God has been using each of them for his work. There were many struggles but God has helped each family. The house churches from the very beginning are: J. Mike & Dawn Pitts, Carl & Wendy Huesel, L. Mike & Mary Cedeno, Kevin & Julie Jesmer, Sam & Donna Wahbeh, Gideon & Ruth Sherwin, Michael & Grace Norte, Chirs & Maria Sagel, Joseph & Charisma Magno, Beverly & Jim Pendowski, Thomas & Hannah Handshu, Ron & Faith Areola, Elijah & Lucy Kasongo, Clark & Petra Huesel, Richard &Jennifer Covelli, Seed & Rebeckah Gumalda, Nick & Jessica Kryda, Dr. Mark & Melissa Park, Moses & Irs Marji, Abraham & Sarah Dallal, Alejandra & Alejandro, Carlos & Elisa, Jay & Carrie Irwin, Duran & Dhalia Parish and Ian & Mercy Turner. Although some of them were no longer with us and have chosen a different path, we are still thankful that God had blessed their marriage while they were still with us. Wherever they maybe, may God continue to bless them to live as husband and wife under God’s grace and mercy.
In September 2007, one precious family Missionary Mark and Christy Moon from Amarillo, Texas, moved to Triton to be a part of our ministry. Their decision to join Triton proved to be a blessing. Missionary Christy finished Nursing and is now working as a Nurse. Missionary Mark just graduated from Triton’s Nursing program last month and is now reviewing for the board exam. God also used Missionary Mark to prepare and deliver Sunday message from time to time. Their family has already been a blessing to our ministry.
Also in the hot summer month of August 2007, Monica Park, the daughter of Missionary Peter Park from Nigeria, came to America to attend high school. She lived with Pastor Teddy and Shd. Liz during the school year and they treated her like a daughter.
Indeed, thus far the Lord has helped us! For twenty years, Triton UBF like other ministries suffered many hardship and persecutions. In the course of living a life according to the gospel, our co workers experienced being mugged and yelled at. They have been chased by car. There is one incident that a shepherd was beaten up. Sheep, shepherds and house churches come and go. Even the Bible house did not escape persecution. The front door was kicked by an angry relative. A stone was hurled at the front window. Pastor Teddy had to appear at channel 2 news to answer complaints from parents. In spite of all these, God protected our ministry and no one was seriously harmed.
God is pouring continuously his blessing to Triton. Lately, God has even helped us to establish a new Friday Young People’s Meeting. Many new students now attend our Friday meeting and share testimonies. Please pray for them to continue studying the Bible and to grow as spiritual leaders.
We praise and thank God for really blessing Triton for the last twenty years. Since then, God has blessed us with more than thirty faithful members, created four new ministries, established house churches, send out short term missionaries and raised spiritual leaders. “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”
