50th UBF World Mission Report

A Royal Priesthood

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”              1 Peter 2:9a

Our family took a trip to South Korea in order to attend the UBF 50th Anniversary World Mission Report on May 29, 2011 and Missionary & Shepherd Seminar on May 30-June 1, 2011.  Dr. John Jun delivered the main message; Mother Barry, opening message; and Shepherd David Kim, closing message. We arrived at Seoul, Korea on May 24th so we had plenty of time to visit relatives-namely my mother who is 81 years old. When Noah Jr. was born she came to the US to take care of him for a year. So we were glad to see her. 

During our trip, we stayed at my nephew’s house. My brother passed away years ago, so my sister-in-law has been raising her three children. She ran a restaurant, though recently she switched to a different job. Nevertheless, she is an excellent cook. We also visited Missionary Noah’s fiver brothers. Missionary Noah’s brothers are very successful. His 2nd brother is a Special Advisor for Science and Technology for the President of Korea; his 3rd brother is a medical doctor; 5th brother is a physicist. Both the 3rd and the 5th brother hold numerous patents. All of them were happy to see Noah Jr. whom they saw last when he was one and a half years old. My nephew provided a cell phone and subway pass cards. Between the subway system and bus lines, one doesn’t need a car. The size of South Korea is about 55% the size of Missouri. The population in Missouri is just under 6 million, while just in the Seoul, there are over 10 million people. Seoul is a beautiful city that is surrounded by mountains. However, the roads are not easy to navigate-there are lots of narrow alleys, side paths and tangent roads. Not to mention, the road is packed with traffic! We wouldn’t dare rent a car or drive in this city. Seoul is a very busy city. For example, my three nephews are out all the time, and only come home to sleep: even then, they only sleep five hours. The oldest nephew works from 7:00 Am till 11:00 Pm, while the youngest nephew is a senior in high school and spends his entire day studying for college entrance exam. The buses are packed and the subways are crowded, even late at night. During our sightseeing, we found that Seoul offered tons of great restaurants, and we tried out numerous ones. The dishes were beautiful and portions were good, but too sweet for our tastes.

After visiting relatives, we attended the World Mission Report on Sunday. Supposedly, there were over 5,000 attendants, including 600 oversee participants.  UBF is the number one organization in sending out missionaries from Korea. On the global scale, Korea sends out the 2nd most missionaries in comparison to other countries. During the event, a video was played showing other Christian leaders recognizing UBF as an influential organization. It is good to see supportive encouragement from Christian leaders from other organizations. Dr. Kevin, Esther, Jenny, and Sam located us. Dr. Kevin and Esther Hong were exchange professors at UMKC  roughly five years ago.  After the World Mission Report, they invited us to a restaurant and also gave us money to spend. The following day, the three day conference began. It was held at an upscale hotel though we needed to share a room with two or three other people. Dr. John Jun stated that the seminar program was prepared during the past year. The content of the seminar had three major facets: Spirit, Ministry and Vision. The following is a summery of the seminar. 

1.     1. The Biblically based spirit
UBF stands for University Bible Fellowship. Our meeting is Bible centered. Via video presentation, Missionary Grace Lee stated that late Dr. Lee loved Bible. He slept holding a Bible. Testimony writing and sharing is very unique activity of UBF, and it is one of the important strengths of UBF. One of the best methods of Bible study is writing and sharing testimonies. At first, Dr. Samuel Lee published daily bread.  Then, testimony sharing started about 1973. Writing sharpens our thinking process. We meditate on the word of God deeply.  By sharing, we publically and clearly state our stand and commitment to Christ. We are disciplined in the word of God faithfully through weekly testimony sharing. Testimony writing and sharing prunes out worthless and unneccesary desires. Our thinking world is focused on Jesus' teaching; we are transcended into different dimention of God's kingdom. Testimony writing has been proven to be an effective for fruitful ministry. The vision is that we need to write and share prayerful and repenting testimonies.

2.   2. The spirit of Campus Mission
UBF focuses on campus evangelism. College students are to be leaders of the nations. College students, who are in their late teens or early 20’s, are vulnerable to wrong passion and temptation. Knowing Jesus during college days becomes the most crucial life event. By helping college students through 1 to 1, and disciple making ministry UBF has been used for producing influential leaders and building up a holy nation. The vision is to build a personal relationship with college students in the course of 1:1 Bible study and disciple making ministry. 3  3. The spirit of Manger Ministry
Here manger was not illustrated as poor situation, rather humble co-working attitude. Rather than individualistic ministry, humble co-working has been proven to be one of the most important elements for successful ministry. Manger spirit of humble co-working has lasting effect.

4.      4. Pioneering Spirit and World Mission
Naturally we don’t think about world mission. It requires great courage, confronting uneasy challenging reality in foreign lands. Though Jesus clearly commanded us to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, many of us didn’t become missionaries voluntarily.  God had used Dr. Lee to inspire many to accept the calling for world mission. For example, in 1985 Dr. Lee gave prayer topic to pioneer Moscow in 10 years.  In 1985, Gorbachev began to talk about failing Soviet economy that would require political reform.  In 1985 it was unthinkable for most of people to be missionaries to Moscow. But in 1990 Moscow pioneering work began through UBF missionaries. UBF world mission spirit has been a shock to other Christian organizations. The vision of UBF is to send out 100,000 missionaries by 2041 and pioneer Muslim countries and North Korea.

5.   5. The spirit of Self Supporting
Self supporign means doing mission work as laymen. Paul supported world mission task through tent making. Due to self-supporting, mission work is permanent rather than temporary. Missionaries find job at mission field, and raise children in mission field. These 2nd gens have become valuable mission coworkers. Some of older missionaries are sent out to 3rd counties as silver missionaries. The life of mission gives meaning and purpose of life over struggles of survival.  There is no sense of loss in serving the mission out of own means.

One Word: Prayerful 1:1 Bible teacher as a royal priesthood

 

Reported by Sweety Rhee