This year our Pastors have decided to have a Spiritual Gift Series for us to recognize our unique gifts through the Holy Spirit, to build each other up and the Church. By recognizing these gifts, we are each made special and can appreciate God’s wonderful work in our lives. Pastor Kevin Albright had begun the series by delivering the first of seven messages in a once a month message on Spiritual Gifts. His first message was on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Based on verse three that everyone who has the true confession,”Jesus is Lord” in their hearts has the Holy Spirit in them. The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift given to every believer. The Holy Spirit assures us that we are children of God, our sins are forgiven, and we have the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. With this we can recognize our God given talents. The recent newly formatted United Friday Meeting with the theme, “Better Together” was based on this message.

The past United Friday Meeting was the first one for the year 2025. A new approach to a Quarterly System which is every three months to hold meetings this year. This format was planned by our newly formed Campus Committee Group. The theme for the evening, “Better Together”. At the beginning of the session a survey was conducted to get to know our member’s talents and skills followed by the Committee members from each campus ministry, shared their personal reflections based on God’s “Gift of Grace” and His work in their lives. The 6 were: Alinne from UIC, Angelo from Oakton, Jason from Lincoln Park, Gloria from Northwestern, Christopher from NEIU, and Victor from Loyola.

 Next,

For Part 2, we had breakout sessions by 6 peer groups: College students, High School students, Middle & Primary school students, Young Families, middle aged parents, and seniors. Through these breakout sessions, we grew closer to one another in the family of God.

A Self-Defense Session was hosted for the members of the church. We had an instructor from the School of Martial Arts (Catch Life Dojo) to come and teach the art of defense. A valuable lesson learnt on the gift you have called “Life”, how to protect yourself in any circumstance and finally the technique of spraying someone in the eye with pepper spray aha ! Thank You to all those who came and participated. We look forward to many more.

About 650 worshipers gathered on Dec.22 for a United Chicagoland Christmas worship service at Evanston High School. Coworkers came from as far as St.Louis, Springfield and Madison to worship our Savior King. For 3 weeks Chicago UBF had young messengers prepare us for Christ’s advent based on themes of Hope (Becky Rayas), Peace (Michael Young), and Love (John Lee). Pastor Mark Vucekovich gave the Christmas gospel message on the theme of Joy about the real good news of salvation and joy in Jesus Christ. A young praise team and a 60-member chorus helped us have a spirit of prayer and joy. A drama rewrite of the Wizard of Oz guided our quest for hope, peace, love and joy. So many coworkers worked hard behind the scenes to make a beautiful flowing worship service. The Christmas offering was collected to bless Bible houses in Namibia and Nigeria UBF. General Director Ron Ward gave the closing prayer. We thank and praise God for this blessed gathering and blessed year 2024!

*For the contest, we will only accept YouTube Shorts or YouTube long-form video URLs. TikTok submissions will no longer be accepted due to platform differences between YouTube and TikTok. We apologize for any inconvenience.

UNLOCK YOUR CREATIVITY!

University Bible Fellowship North America & Europe Social Media Contest

Dear UBF North America (USA/Canada) and European UBF Members,

UBF HQ is excited to host the first social media contest of 2024 for UBF members of North America & Europe UBF. Please submit your YouTube Shorts URL, and YouTube long-form videos URL to us by the deadline, December 16, 2024, at 10 a.m. CST. Winners will be chosen based on the requirements provided below with prizes. Please see more detailed information below. We encourage many UBF members in North America and Europe to participate and have a chance to be rewarded.

Prizes:

•     First Place (1 person): $500

•     Second Place (2 people): $250 each

•     Third Place (4 people): $150 each

•     Fourth Place (20 people): $20 Amazon Gift Card or Cash each

Requirements: Your YouTube Shorts (1 minute), and Long Form (no time limitation), will be judged based on the total number of views, comments, and likes. The videos with the highest combined totals will win.
Minimum Requirements: Each submitted video must have at least:

•         1,000 views

•         100 likes

•         10 comments

Scoring Formula: Videos that meet the minimum requirements will be scored using the following formula:
[# of Views] + [# of Likes × 10] + [# of Comments × 20] = Total Score
Example: If your video has 1,200 views, 150 likes, and 30 comments, your total score would be: 1,200 + (150×10) + (30×20) = 1,200 + 1,500 + 600 = 3,300 points
Eligibility: Only UBF members who live in North America (USA/Canada) and Europe can participate.
Language: Videos must be in English (no other languages will be accepted).
Hashtags: Each video must include the hashtag #ubf in the title and #universitybiblefellowship #fyp #viral #foryou #christian #bible in the description.
Video Contents & Theme: The content should be Christian / Bible-related. But, no specific subjects are provided, so feel free to be creative! For example, the video can be of dancing, vlogs, skits, portraying your talents in the visual and musical arts, etc. Videos that are politically motivated or show imagery of violence, sex, and drugs will not be permitted.
Privacy Settings: Videos must be set to public (not private or unlisted) on YouTube.
Channel Requirement: Only videos from personal channels will be accepted.
Submission Limit: Each person may submit only one video url. We strongly encourage you to post multiple videos, but please submit only one video url that has garnered the most views, likes, and comments.
Submission Format:
– Send the video URL link with the original video MP4 file to ubfwebdev@gmail.com by the given due date. By participating in this contest, we have right to repost your video on our UBF social media channels after the contest is finished.
– Your full name
– Country name (USA or Canada or Europe)
– UBF chapter name
– Phone number (Optional)
– Describe your contents
Upload Period: Videos must be uploaded between September 16 and December 16 (3 months).
Deadline: Qualified videos must be submitted by December 16, 2024, at 10 a.m. CST. The view counts, clicks, and comments will be counted as of the deadline. Send the video link to ubfwebdev@gmail.com with your full name / UBF chapter name
Winners Announcement: Winners will be announced on ubf.org with your videos and notified via your email.

Questions?
Contact: ubfwebdev@gmail.com

The homecoming ceremony for Rebekah Mei Kim of Chicago UBF took place on Friday, 8/23, at Chicago UBF, with approximately 300 mourners from various chapters in attendance. Rebekah Mei Kim touched many lives with her faith, love, and encouragement, and her service blessed many.

Condolence gift for Mei Kim’s family can be made via Zelle to Siowmei Quak: 773-716-6061

*The ceremony was broadcast via YouTube

For this United Friday Meeting, there were testimonies on the Roman’s Bible study, the Acts Sunday passage, a report on ESBC, a report on the CBF Summer Bible Conference, a new member’s testimony, Kenya Prayer Topics, and Ministry prayer Topcis for the upcoming Fall semester.

Sammy S. – Romans 12:1-21 KV: 2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
From this passage, he learned that God’s mercy enables him to present himself to Him. He is transformed and of a renewed mind. This key verse spoke to him because he described himself to be a stubborn person and of one track mind. He prays to be watchful of what God’s will is and not give way to fear.

Gia – Acts 6: 1-7 KV: 4, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
From studying this passage he asks himself, what does it mean to have a life and character that is Christ-centered? He started to understand that it means to do everything in your life in reliance upon the grace and hope in the shed blood of Jesus. He realized he must have the same attitude with all the small things in his life. Now he knows that he must fill himself with prayer and the word of God so that the Holy Spirit can dwell in him and thus guide him in every step of his life.

Conference Reports

Tony- ESBC Report- KV of conference John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The conference took place from August 1-4 in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is known as the most atheistic country in Europe, so to have a conference there was a powerful statement against the darkness there. The conference title was “The Way”. He expressed how he saw the love of Jesus in the 2nd generation members. From group Bible study he learned that “The Way” is the person Jesus whom we are to follow. As long as you follow Jesus, even if you don’t know exactly what to do, he will surely lead us. He learned that to follow Jesus is to go without knowing and believing that Jesus will take us in the best way.

Tim CBF Summer Bible Conference Report- KV John 1:12, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”
They had the conference at the Brothern Retreat Center in Shipsewana, Indiana in the heart of the Amish country. There were 70 attendants, 53 children, and 17 adults. The children sang praises to God, shared testimonies, heard engaging messages, and played outdoor activities. Before the conference, they dedicated one week to studying the main messages, wrote testimonies, and prayed to have maximum Bible study and maximum fun time. They pray that each child may hold on to the word of God so that they have received it, and each may seek God with all their heart.

New Member Testimonies 

Abraham – Pslam 37:5-6, “Commit your way to the Lord ; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”

Abraham reflected in his testimony on how he had a full circle moment in his life: when he left Chicago to go to Portland back in 2012 and then was called back by God to start his 1 semester at the UIC School of Medicine. He shared how he was rejected by many schools before and through a door being opened at UIC he felt God vindicated him and like his key verse portrays he saw the Sun after months of darkness. God was calling him to examine what it means to commit his new way to him. He prays to establish a firm identity as a father of Faith, to adjust well to his new school schedule, and for his wife Gloria to grow both spiritually and physically healthy.

Gloria- Pslam 37:5-7, “Commit your way to the Lord ; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”

After staying in the U.S. for about 9 months she has been reflecting on how she did many things in Korea, such as clubs and bible study and keeping herself busy. It was hard for her to balance her life and she reflected on how she knew of God and believed in him as her savior, however, she was not able to fully commit to him. She believed in God but she believed also in herself. Thus it was not easy for her to repent of her deepest sins. She gradually and truly believed that only God is good and righteous. She learned to have silent time with God. The only way she can guard her heart is by being still and listening to the voice of God.

Nancy from Kenya UBF stayed in Chicago for a couple of weeks and shared Kenya UBF prayer topics you can read about them here: https://www.chicagoubf.org/cbf/prayer-topics-for-kenya-ubf

Fall semester is starting and many college ministries are busy with preparations and outreach, you can read about each ministry prayer topics and outreach schedules here: https://www.chicagoubf.org/true-vine/2024-25-new-school-year-outreach-plan-and-prayer-topics

by Nancy M. 

Kevin and Nancy have three sons. Nancy works at an international school and is a CBF teacher in Kenya. Nancy shared her prayer topics at the Chicago UBF Daily Bread meeting.

Prayer Topics

I am humbled and greatly honored that God has allowed me to be here with His servants at this time and to share the following prayer topics. My name is Nancy M. from Kenya UBF. I have divided the prayer topics into three categories: UBF Kenya prayer topics, CBF Kenya prayer topics, and my personal prayer topics.

Kenya UBF Prayer Topics
Vision and Key Verse: To deeply learn the power of Jesus’s salvation grace by obeying Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

1. For our director, Pastor Juma F., to have wisdom and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead the ministry.

2. To raise 20 house churches.

3. To pioneer 5 new chapters.

4. For 120 teams of Bible study and 200 attendees at worship services.

5. For each shepherd to feed at least two sheep.

Kenya UBF

CBF Kenya Prayer Topics

1. For our children to learn the ways of the Lord, according to our CBF key verse, Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

2. For the children to meet Jesus personally and tell others about Him.

3. That God blesses the devotion of the CBF teachers and gives them strength and grace as they serve in the Children’s Ministry. As the leader, I co-work with Missionary Esther H., Shepherd Kevin N., Dr. Lucy O., Shepherd Cliffton O., Shepherd Edith, and recently Shepherd Queenter O.

Kenya CBF

Personal Prayers

1. For wisdom and strength to do what God says.

2. We desire to serve in Kenya UBF, but in recent years, we have experienced several challenges, including economic difficulties and concerns about the future of our children’s education. We are asking God whether we should continue staying in Kenya or if He will open an avenue for us elsewhere.

3. For our children: Daniel, Nathaniel, and Lamuel.

4. That our family may be a source of blessing to this generation.

Nancy after Meeting and serving breakfast at the Morning Daily Bread Meeting

Prayer Topics & Plans for Upcoming Fall Semester – According to Each Ministry

Lincoln Park

• 9/2 (Tue): Welcome Students/Labor Day Cookout

• 9/3-11: Outreach & Daily Campus Visiting for New Students, New Student Convocation (9/3) & Fall Quarter/Classes begin (9/4).

• Praying for Friday’s students’ meeting/GBS (9/6 resume), Jason, Margaret & Elias can grow as GBS leaders/disciples/shepherds

• Praying for Encounter students retreat (9/27-29), 4 students (Jason, Margaret, Elias & Eleanora) can register/attend

• Praying for LP children to grow as leaders/coworkers

Loyola

Outreach Dates: Aug 19-Sep13

Prayer Topics:

• Being renewed as a club in the 2024 Fall + preparing group Bible study

• Student’s club fair on Aug 28th from 4-7 pm to get students signs – 83 signed up!

• Outreach by leaders with God’s wisdom.

• Three club leaders may grow spiritually: Janice (President), Alejandra (Treasurer), Caleb (CAN R)

• Three new board members may join for the next semester 2025.

• We finished the 70-day prayer walk on Mon, Au 19. May God bless each family’s devotion and prayers for the Loyola campus to go and pray during this whole summer.

• Lunch (Fri)- 5 students attended. Breakfast and Bible reading (Sat), BBQ (9/6).

NEIU

• Campus prayer walk (Thursdays).

• Evangelism workshop during the summer to prep for the Fall.

• Go fishing every day for the first 3 weeks of school, participating in Golden Eagle Welcome Day & Org fairs- 85 signed up!

• Game Night outreach event the 1st and 2nd week of school.

• Meet & Greet the 3rd week of school.

• Weekly Group Bible study Thursdays 3-4 pm.

• Mainly focus on 1:1 ministry & Gospel appointments with students.

• Game nights 2 (Thursdays), GBS (9/12, 3 pm).

• Student Leaders: Chris, Arcenio, Alysha)

• Pray For:

  • A new generation of True Vine disciples may come from the Freshman class this Fall.

  • Raise disciples and disciple-makers among students.

  • Student leaders: Chris, Arcenio, and Alysha grow as disciples of Jesus and good stewards of the Bible club. Prepare them to lead group Bible studies on campus in the future.

  • Raise one Abraham and Sarah of faith.

NU

• Outreach Days-

  • Sep 19 for Graduate student resource fair- we may get a table and invite incoming graduate students to Bible studies

  • Week of Sep 24 for undergraduate org fair

  • Student Welcome cookout Sep 27

  • Student Leaders: Gloria & Esther

• Prayer Topics-

  • Weekly fellowship through testimony sharing among growing disciples- Gloria, Grace, Esther, Shannon, Sammy, Annie, Anna-Marie

  • To establish a weekly graduate student GBS

  • Student leaders, Gloria, Esther to grow as stewards

  • Sammy to adjust in his first year at Northwestern

  • Returning students to resume Bible study- Shun, Gabrielle, Lucas

Oakton

• Outreach Dates-

  • Oakton Fall festival; Skokie campus 8/28 & Des Plaines 8/29 – 53 signed up!

• Prayer Topics-

  • Raise 12 disciples, new 1:1s through fall fest, discipleship meeting; Bible study, and reflection sharing on campus and each co-worker has 1 one to one student. Oakton will be the new president of the Oakton Mission Bible Club.

  • Student Leaders: Oscar, Angelo, Miranda

UIC

• God may bless 2 weeks of daily prayer dedication & prayer walks for the UIC fall ministry.

• Pray for DrinC officers: Theo and Yue to be filled with the Holy Spirit & grow as shepherds for UIC students.

• Pray for all UIC current & returning students to grow as lifelong disciples of Jesus who live based on the great commission (Mt 28:18-20)

• Pray to raise 12 new disciples through three outreach events & active evangelism with Dindo & Little Sarah & 20 volunteers.

• 8/30 BBQ Night – 60 signed up! Student Involvement Fair (9/4-5) – 153 signed up! 9/6 Game Night; 9/13 New Beginnings night

• Pray for incoming freshmen Hannah and Nehemiah as they enter UIC to encounter Christ personally while at UIC.

• Pray for group & 1:1 Bible teachers to grow in their foundation on Christ & grow in faith through teaching the word of God & shepherding God’s sheep: Theo, Yue, Miguel, Marcos, Joel, Grace, Miriam, Nery, Musa, and Lydia.

• Pray for West campus group Bible study and Christian Community to be formed for the next 100 years. Pray that Abraham and Gloria adjust well to medical school.

• Pray for Rafael to follow God’s vision, pray, and trust future direction & job.

• Becky’s continual growth in Christ & job search.

• Pray for 2 men’s common life to be Christ-centered & devoted to prayer & ministry of the word of God: Theo, Rafael & Yue; Dylan & Parham.

North Park

• For the university ministries office that cares for students (Campus Pastor Terence, Community Outreach Coordinator Ben, Spiritual Formation Coordinator Pete, Worship Coordinator Grace, Office Manager Anna & Director Tony).

• For many students to get involved with Life groups ( a form of a fellowship group on campus for students) & come to Christ.

• For specific students who participated in bible studies last year, that they may keep seeking God: Steph, Delaney, Steve, Christian

• For protection over our students against depression, anxiety & self-harm

MVCC

• Bible students formed last year to return and grow in faith.

• Success at this year’s Fall Fest Sep 11.

• First group meeting Sep 18

• Students may join Bible club.

• S. Carmen prays to coworkers with another Christian group on campus this year

• Leaders may be raised, who can assist S. Carmen on campus, esp. with campus club meetings & Bible study preparation.

CBF/BBF

• Key verse Luke 2:52, that children may grow like Jesus, in wisdom and stature and favor before God and people.

• For parent leaders to take stewardship of the BBF ministry, more can serve and new parents can join.

• For UBF/CBF/BBF to be one in missions and vission

• New members Othelia, Collin, Adrian, and Coraline to meet Jesus

• New teachers for CBF to fill 4 vacancies

• Baptism of Olivia, Luke, and Boaz on Aug 31st

• CBF/BBF kickoff Sep 7 (food, fun, fellowship)

• Thank God for all returning teachers! And for new teachers: Haiti G. & Annie KR. Pray for 2 more new teachers still needed.

HBF

• Outreach Dates:

  • Aug 30, Freshman welcome night: We plan to welcome Jospeh and Timothy.

  • Aug 31, Annual parent orientation meeting: leaders will introduce ourselves & share our vision & prayer topics with parents.

  • Fall outreach event in October

• Prayer Topics

  • God may continue to bless Summer daily bread meetings

  • Every student has a 1:1 bible teacher

  • Revive devotionals in the coming year for all students

    • Annie will lead the girls’ devo group

    • pray for a boys’ devo group

  • Starting in the fall we will have a testimony-sharing rotation for students

  • College application for seniors

  • More open communication between parents & leaders.