Over a thousand youth and college students gathered in San Diego on Monday for Korea Campus Crusade (KCCC)'s annual 'Higher Calling Conference,' a conference characterized by its focus on missions.

This year, the conference is taking place from December 21 to 23, and is centered on the theme, "Go Beyond," based on John 14:12: "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

"The night Jesus was arrested, Peter betrayed and denied him three times, and all his disciples deserted him," said Dong Whan Kim, the director of KCCC USA in words of welcome and encouragement to the conference attendees. "However, they did not remain in defeat. They rose to their feet with the resurrected Lord, and they went beyond their limits, capacities, and failures."

"We are powerless and empty-handed. We have been defeated and have failed many times in all areas of our lives. BUT, we will not stay in defeat either. We will 'Go Beyond' for Jesus and His kingdom," he said.

To start off the conference, the first plenary session on Monday focused on aspects of God that make him a God 'beyond belief' - particularly, the session focused on God's 'unbelievable' love toward his people. A dance performance displayed a woman hating and rejecting God, and God's willingness to embrace her again when she returns to him. And Doug Fields, the senior director of HomeWord Center for Youth and Family, spoke a message about God's personal love toward each person.

Fields spoke of the story of the woman in Mark 5 who suffered from a bleeding disease for 12 years, and grabbed the edges of Jesus' clothes amidst a crowd that swarmed around Jesus in hopes that touching his clothes would lead to her healing.

"We don't even know her name, but we do know that she must have been ... a social outcast," Fields said, referring to her disease which gave her a particularly low social standing.

In response, Jesus "didn't allow her to remain anonymous, to just slip away unnoticed," Fields said. Instead, Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" and "looked around to see who had done it," according to Mark 5:32.

"Jesus displays the character of God - that he has the leisure of heart to care for you," he continued. "He loves you as though you're the only one to be loved."

Higher Calling Conference will also feature 15 different elective seminars on topics varying from career decisions to purity and health in personal relationships. 'Leadership Training' sessions will also take place on Tuesday and Wednesday to train attendees on how to share the gospel.

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