“HAVE FAITH IN GOD”
2024 North American Staff Conference Report (by Mark Vucekovich)


Eleven North American regional coordinators (Philip Wong [Canada], Moses Kim [Northeast], Paul Sambuco & Phillip Brown [Mid-Atlantic], Peter Park [Great Lakes], David Miller [South/Central], Joshua Hong & Bob Henkins [Midwest], Paul Choi [Missouri Valley], Mark Moran & David Park [West Coast]) and Mark Vucekovich (NA coordinator) began meeting in August to plan for this event. They appointed a planning committee (Mark Moran [Berkeley], William Larsen & David Park [LA], Abraham McIlhenney [West LA], John Baik [El Camino], John K. Lee [Central IL], Lydia Shin [Chicago] & Mark Vucekovich) that also met almost every week for five months. God helped us develop a clear theme and vision that would encourage both larger chapters and smaller house church ministries. 


Our North American UBF staff conference was held at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel on February 22–24, 2024. The title was “Have Faith in God,” based on Mark 11:22, our 2024 UBF key verse. A total of 271 attended, including 50 commuters from our local chapters. Mark Moran (Berkeley) gave the opening message, “God is Able” (Eph.3:20), with the prayer to believe God can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Ron Ward (UBF GD) gave our main message based on Mark 11:20–25, with the direction to pray and forgive based on faith in God. Mark Vucekovich (Chicago) gave the closing message, “Jesus Christ is the Same” (Heb.13:7–8), with the prayer to imitate the faith of our spiritual leaders and pass it on to a new generation. People were assigned to small group Bible study by gender and age. Twenty-six leaders prepared and led the small groups Friday morning, and on the last day, everyone shared Bible reflections in small groups based on Mark 11:22.


The conference sub-theme was “How to raise disciples of Jesus by faith in God.” For this, on Friday afternoon, we held a total of eight workshops led by six UBF leaders (El Camino UBF, West LA UBF, LA UBF, Triton UBF, UIC-Chicago UBF, and Next-Gen Discipleship) and two guest speakers, Pastors Steve Shadrach and Ed Kang. We want to learn how to better raise disciples among young people by faith in God.


Our vision and main prayer topic for North American UBF were also introduced and explained by Mark V, NA Coordinator: “to raise spiritual leaders for the world and for future generations.” We asked God to ignite the spirit of prayer among us for this vision. Chapters prayerfully invited young staff candidates, and a total of 32 people under the age of 35 attended. For them, we had a special workshop entitled “Is God Calling Me?” 


On Friday night, we introduced two new chapter directors, Jason Perry (DuPage) and Michael McCandless (Eau Claire), and seven candidates: Daniel Kim (Vancouver 3), Caleb Park (Vancouver 4), Abraham Sohn (SAIT), Truman Lee (Windsor), Abraham Lee (Knoxville), MTSU (Daniel Sohn), and Luke Yang (U-City). Elder President Jim Rarick prayed for them. We also introduced a new internship program for recent college grads that will begin in our local chapters. We showed a video about our European SBC preparations and had committee reports from our Education, IT, Online Global Prayer Map, and Short-term Missions Departments. Then, we prayed for all those sent out as missionaries from North America to 16 nations.


At our last session, we heard the testimonies of two full-time staff families, Teddy & Liz Hembekides and Mark & Anna Yang, to help younger attendants grasp what such a life is like. We were deeply moved by their faith in Jesus and whole life dedication to student ministry.


We thank God for our conference coordinators Dr. Charles Kim (Chicago/HQ) and Paul Kim (DuPage), for our HQ staff Joshua Min and Helen Jung, who prepared tirelessly, and for Dr. Moses Noh (Philadelphia) and Bob Henkins (IIT-Chicago) who selected group Bible study leaders. We are especially thankful for our LA-area chapters, who handled all the logistics and co-worked to lead the general sessions. They also willingly hosted many guests before and after the conference. They welcomed all God’s servants wholeheartedly and prayed for everyone to be spiritually refreshed. Thank God for each one of them. 


May God richly bless our campus disciple-raising ministry throughout North America as we hold on to our Lord Jesus’ words, “Have Faith in God.” May God especially raise new UBF full-time staff as spiritual leaders for the world and for future generations.