2024 North American Representative Members’ Annual Meeting Report By James Rarick Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” The 2024 North American UBF Representative Members Meeting was held at the Chicago UBF Center on February 9 & 10, 2024. This is the annual meeting of 64 Representative Members who serve as the official board of North America UBF recognized by the United States government. It represents all UBF Chapters in North America. More than a legal body, however, this board is comprised of mature servants of God from throughout North America to hear the status of God’s work in UBF, provide recommendations, and pray for God’s work in all our chapters and for all North American people. This year, for the first time, the North American Elders and staff met on Friday, Feb. 9th, for dinner and key verse testimony sharing together. Saturday morning, there was another meeting to discuss cooperation between elders and staff, as well as ministry goals for 2024. It was a beautiful time of fellowship and cooperation. Pastor Mark Vucekovich presented a wonderful prayer topic and plan via PowerPoint to raise future spiritual leaders in North America. The official Members’ meeting kicked off with a lunch at noon on Saturday, Feb 10th. 55 of the 64 members attended the in-person-only meeting. This was followed by gathering in small groups for prayer, testimony sharing, and discussions. The main meeting began at 2:30 p.m. in the Chicago Center Sanctuary. There was a warm welcoming address from Missionary Luke Hong, prayer by Dr. Liz Lincoln, and a message by Jim Rarick on 1 Peter 2:24. We pray our ministry can be used to bring the gospel to all people of North America so the people of our nations may be healed spiritually. After the minutes were read from the 2023 Members’ Meeting, we heard reports from various Committees: Education Department (Dr. Augustine Suh), World Mission Department (David Kim), Finance Department (Luke Moon), Building Committee (Dr. Elijah Park), Reconciliation Committee (Dr. Abraham Lincoln) and Introduction of Prayer for N.A. Missionary (Dr. Sam A. Lee). This was followed by a By-Laws review from Dr. Charles Kim, Luke Hong, and Peter Park. There was a lengthy discussion about several issues, which took a long time. In the end, By-Law updates were adopted to refine the process of N.A. Member nomination and acceptance. We plan to nominate several people to become N.A. Representative Members in 2025 and will use the newly adopted By-Laws. Pastor Mark presented his prayer topic to raise spiritual leaders for North America to all the Members, and his presentation was distributed to all the Members. Pastor Ron Ward delivered a wonderful report of God’s work through his visits from Asia to Africa, South America, and the Middle East. He was in Norway for the European Directors’ Conference, and we praise God he stayed up until 2 a.m. his time to attend online. We then prayed 2 x 2 according to Pastor Ron’s and Pastor Mark’s prayer topics. After prayer we joined together for dinner in the Chicago Center basement. We praise God for all our N.A. Representative Members who pray for our church and for all our spiritual leaders, such as Pastor Ron and Pastor Mark, who lead our spiritual fight. We thank God for the great hospitality of the Chicago UBF Hospitality Team that welcomed and served guests Friday through Sunday. They were incredible in their humility and service. Finally, we thank God who has blessed North America UBF to increase in number by 156 Sunday Attendants in 2023. We pray the Lord Jesus uses us to bless all people of North America, beginning in our ministries, and reaching to all campuses and cities of North America. May God raise North America as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation through us!