God blessed the first week of our Easter nightly united prayer meeting. People gathered around small tables and studied the Bible based on John 18:1–19:42 under the theme, “Behold Your King!”
After the group Bible study, participants joined the Easter Chorus practice led by Tim.
We will have one more prayer week from Monday, April 14 to Wednesday, April 16. During these two days, each table will share personal reflections based on John 18:1–19:42.
The following day, Good Friday, we will hold a special service with Communion in the Church sanctuary.
The Easter service will be on Sunday, April 20 at the Church sanctuary.
Please make a note : There will be 2 more Easter season Sunday messages, 4/20 on John 20 and 4/27 on John 21.
Wishing you and your family a joyful and hope-filled Easter !
Semi-Annual Members Meeting, April 6, 2025
The Chicago UBF church gathered on Sunday for its Semi-Annual Members Meeting after the 11 am church service in the Church Sanctuary. An important moment of reflection, fellowship, and vision-setting for the ministry. The event brought together members from across the church to hear ministry updates, participate in small group discussions, and pray for the ongoing work of God in Chicago and around the world.
The meeting began with encouraging reports from the World Mission and Chicago UBF Campus Ministry teams. These updates highlighted the work God has been doing over the past six months, showcasing how the gospel continues to impact lives through campus outreach and global mission partnerships. Members together rejoiced in these these efforts and were reminded of their shared identity and purpose in Christ.
A key portion of the meeting focused on the 2024 Finance Report, which presented a detailed overview of the year-end financial results. The report covered trends in offerings, careful expense management, and the responsible investment of church assets, affirming the church’s commitment to stewardship and transparency. Alongside this, the Member Care and Visiting Report brought to light the compassionate ministry of pastors and elders—highlighting their visits to sick coworkers, guest hospitality efforts, and ongoing support for the church body.
In addition to updates, the church leadership introduced several proposed amendments to the Chicago UBF Bylaws. Members were encouraged to review the changes thoughtfully and prayerfully in preparation for voting.
The Second Part of the Meeting,
The members broke out into eight small group discussions on various key topics: Finance, Senior Missionary Support, Member Care, Children’s Ministry, World Mission, Campus Workers Cohort, Bylaws, and Communication. These interactive sessions were facilitated by elders and provided a valuable platform for members to ask questions, offer feedback, and engage in meaningful dialogue. The groups were well attended and diverse, drawing voices from every corner of the church community.
As the meeting concluded, all members felt a sense of unity and oneness. Members were encouraged to continue living out their identity in Christ, to hold onto their faith with perseverance, and to depend on the power of God in all aspects of church life. May God continue to lead Chicago UBF with wisdom and grace as the church moves forward in its mission to make disciples of all nations.
2025 UIC Spring Student Retreat
Falling in Love with Jesus
March 22-24, 2025
Okemos, Michigan
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever we believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” – John 3:16
“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest” – John 4:35
Report by UIC Shepherds/Coordinators
God Blessed this Retreat abundantly by the Power of His Holy Spirit.
This retreat was at Okemos, Michigan with 17 students, and 3 adults. We left Saturday morning and arrived safely on Monday. Most students were student leaders and had studied John’s gospel through the semester. God blessed Yue to debut his first message on John 3:16. The Holy Spirit helped him deliver with repentance and faith. Then we had a festival of born again testimonies. They were beautiful testimonies of how God gave new birth through faith in Jesus Christ personally. Everyone shared their own creative music album cover which summarized their born again testimony as their backdrop, and shared heartfelt testimony. For example, Theo cover album title was “Theo, one and only son, meets Jesus, God’s one and only son.” We saw the evidence of their life change in all of them. And especially in 3 students who indicated their desire to be baptized: Robyn, Sydney and Faith. We praise the Lord for His great work of salvation in each one of their lives.
On Sunday, we studied John 4b, and worshiped the Lord with P.David’s message on John 4b. We learned 5 points of “Jesus’ sanctifying love.” And afterwards God helped us to learn of God’s vision through Jesus’ words to his disciples that the fields are white and ready for the mighty harvest of the Samaritan people led by little Sarah. Through the evening prayer meeting, using the acronym P.R.A.Y. (praise-repentance-ask-yield), God moved in our hearts with overwhelming tears of praise, repentance, asking and yielding to the Lord. The Holy Spirit moved among us as students confessed sins and received His forgiveness. It was a powerful evening of praise, prayer and repentance. Students didn’t want to stop praying.
The next day, we all gathered with personal assessment based on the discipleship ladder, discipleship wheel and prayer topic to grow as disciples of Christ. We found that most of the students were converts, and growing Christians, and a few disciples. We prayed to move to the next step of growing as Jesus’ disciple based on ladder and wheel.
This retreat everyone contributed as a cooking team member, cleaning member and also sharing their personal testimonies. We thank and praise God for His blessing on this retreat. We all truly fell in love with Jesus and excited to get back to keep following Jesus at UIC with God’s vision. Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for the raising of 12 lifelong committed disciples of Jesus at UIC.
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:
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First Place (1 person): $500
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Second Place (2 people): $250 each
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Third Place (4 people): $150 each
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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:
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1,000 views
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100 likes
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10 comments
