News > North America

• 2016 Annual Review

In 2016 we studied the book of Mark for Fall and also started John for Spring semester.  Over the summer we also started a DVD series called the Alpha series. It was focused on reaching non-Christians or very young Christians.  It was a very good tool to get many non-Christians or even some of our members who only go to Sunday service to attend Bible study. We are continuing our study of John’s gospel for the upcoming semester.  

We also did some networking with other ministries such as Calvary Church which is one of the closest community churches by UIS.  We joined there Christmas service since the campus was closed and also had a Christmas fellowship night.  We were praying about turning into a parachurch model but after much prayer and thought we decided not to do so.  One other thing we did with the community was the help out at St John’s Breadline which is a soup kitchen that feeds the homeless.  It was a good opportunity for our students to help the local community.   We also networked with another campus ministry called Christian student Fellowship through a praise night.

Some students that have been growing are: Alex Phelps, Noel Merwyn, Logan Gonce, Vince Walker, Zach Steinberg, Chris Marbi, Vincent Joseph, Maricella, Qi Jang, Haydee franklin, Jeff Wittah, Patricia Mubirigi, Adelle, Yvette, Winston Joseph, Mahima, Joel Arahana, Sneha, Mouna, Raj Kiran, Daniel Onura, and Dede.  We also have a lot of athletes who have been joining our ministry this past year.  Many students from the basketball, tennis, volleyball, and cross country team. I am praying about how to help them best since they are a unique group of students.

Also one new family joined us this past school year.  David and Esther Choi from Chicago came and have been a blessing.  David has such a heart to serve young people and is a great help to me.  He is always willing to drive students, taking them out to lunch, organizing sports fellowship with them, etc.  He is very precious to our ministry.  Esther is interviewing at St John’s Hospital. We pray that she may be able to get a good job and stay in Springfield if it is God’s will.  She will also interview at Swedish in Chicago.  So if God leads her there, we are happy for her as well.  Also God granted us two new coworkers who are not students.  Elise Dismer who graduated a year ago has returned after her 1 yr short-term mission trip to France.  Mike Jones also has finished school and decided to stay in Springfield.  He is doing an internship with Springfield UBF and is reading many assigned books that I have picked out.  We’ll also try to fish on the campus from time to time and other ways to serve.

Our numbers are slowly growing and this past semester we are seeing about 40-50 students every Sunday.  Our Bible studies are averaging around 20-30 students.  We do a men and women’s small group on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  We also started a Tuesday afternoon prayer meeting and it is student led.  Alex Phelps and Joel Arahana have been leading it. 

We also had a guest speaker Pastor Mark Vuckeovich come a week before Thanksgiving.  He gave a heart-moving message about Thanks and many students attended that event.  We served Turkey and a traditional Thanksgiving lunch afterward.  We were also on the local ABC news channel that Sunday for helping students.

• 2017 Vision and Strategy

My key verse for 2017 is Isaiah 49:6 which says “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

My prayer for the new year is that Springfield UBF can be a launching pad for world mission.  We have a very diverse ministry with students from all over the world.  I hope that some of them can be like Ison Hong and go back to their nations to establish UBFs there as well.  I am also praying to reach out to more Muslim students at UIS. We have Hindu, Buddhist, and many other non-Christians who come through our ministry.  But not many Muslims are faithfully attending our services or Bible studies.  We have a lot of Arabic students at UIS who we hope to reach out to with the gospel.  But it is hard since they are very exclusive and also know little English.  I pray that we can reach the Muslim world with the gospel through them.  I am currently working with International Students Inc as well as Saudi Advocacy Network to learn how to best reach these students.  They have been very helpful and actually reached out to our ministry first.  

Also we will try to work with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) this semester in order to co-work in helping our athletes.  Only a few are attending Bible study and prayer meetings.  So we pray to help students get plugged more into FCA or our club.  I pray that we can have unity and work as a team through doing so.  

We also pray that some of our students can possibly stick around after graduation.  We don't want all of them to do so but only the ones who have calling for campus ministry.  We pray that God can raise up leaders like Mike who can both work and do ministry with us.  Otherwise I pray the others may find a nice community church elsewhere.  
We pray that we can also eventually start our own conference or retreat.  We have some nice places in Springfield but I’m praying about when and what the theme should be.  I pray that we can also start doing some mission trips in the future.  I’m looking into doing local projects in the States an hopefully in other countries as well.