News > North America

Indianapolis UBF
December 23, 2013

“… and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

Indianapolis UBF held its very first historic Christmas worship service on December 15th. Our preparation began with the study of “Mary’s Song” and “Zechariah’s Song.” We also decided to write our life testimonies as our small gifts for Baby Jesus. Through sharing our life testimonies, our hearts were filled with joy and thanksgiving because of God’s wonderful grace of salvation. We prayed that we could share this good news of great joy with many people around us through our Christmas worship service. We especially prayed that God would send 7 IUPUI (Indianapolis University – Purdue University Indianapolis) students to see Baby Jesus.

Then two weeks before the worship service, one of our Bible students, Jaimee, suggested that we might pray for 10 IUPUI students instead of 7. We couldn’t find any proper reason not to change our prayer topic. So, we began to pray for 10 IUPUI students and diligently invited our Bible students. Since we don’t have many co-workers, every person had multiple tasks and worked hard. We thank God that everyone participated with joy and thanksgiving.

At the Christmas Worship Service M. David delivered a message with the title: “A Baby in a Manger” based on Luke 2:1-7. We learned that the birth of Jesus is the center of human history and a sign of God’s love to mankind. We were deeply moved by the fact that Jesus humbled himself even to the point of being born as a tiny baby in a manger in order to understand our weaknesses and to become our friend and to save us. After the message we had a talent show and everyone presented something to Jesus. Hannah danced beautifully while M. Joshua and Sarah sang “Mary did you know?” James played several Christmas musical pieces with his clarinet. Alan recited Psalm 103 and Joseph recited Luke 2. After finding he had nothing to give to Jesus, Alex challenged his 100 push-up record. Though he had to stop at 57, he showed his strength that could be used for God’s glory in the future. Chris spoke in his excellent German as his gift. Karen shared her poem with us. Angel brought her two friends as her gift to Jesus and we celebrated her birthday. Abdul brought Kabsa, an authentic Arab food that he made, and everyone enjoyed it after the worship service. God blessed our historical Christmas worship service with 23 attendants including 10 IUPUI students. Praise God who answered our prayers! God also blessed us to send our Christmas offering of $1,193 to Philippine refugees and to one of our Bible student’s family! God also blessed us to send one of our Bible students, Khadijah, to the Christmas worship services of London UBF and Turkey UBF as our Magi. May God raise up 12 disciples of Jesus and make IUPUI a Bible believing and missionary-sending campus!

By Sarah Lee