UBF ANCESTORS’
GOSPEL FAITH AND MISSIONARY SPIRIT
By Mother Barry
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out
of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although
the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.” (Ex 19:5,6a)
Today I want to focus on the first 20 years of UBF history
from its beginning, with the title, “UBF ancestors’ gospel faith
and missionary spirit.” The continuing and growing world mission
activity after this first 20 will be covered by a brief list,
including names, dates and places. Since the UBF faith and spirit,
which was formed during these early 20 years has continued and
is maintained to this day, this lecture may be considered as
covering the entire history of UBF.
During the last two years, some members left UBF and
formed another group. Because of this, we have had to reconsider
seriously who we are, what we are doing, and what we ought to
do. Forty years have passed since UBF began. The times have
changed a lot. We are challenged to rethink our mission and
methods as we seek to serve the students in this present generation.
As we face this challenge, we need to find a clear direction
for our ministry. We must maintain our identity and remember
what God has done and is doing in our midst. We can find the
identity of our ministry and have a sense of history if we prayerfully
review what God has done in our midst.
For this reason we want to look back at how God used
the UBF founders?Dr. Samuel Lee and Mother Barry and at innumerable
UBF ancestors of faith and find out what “UBF faith and spirit”
is, and how God has been leading our ministry so far. Through
this, we want to renew our identity, form a strong unity, and
serve God’s mission powerfully as a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation in this new generation. What then, is the faith
and missionary spirit of the UBF ancestors?
I. The forming of the UBF movement
The UBF movement began in Sep. 1, 1961 on the second
floor of a building located at 176-1 Daein-dong, Kwangju, Korea.
While CCC, Navigator and IVF began in foreign countries and
came to Korea, UBF began in Korea and spread to the whole world.
Korea in 1961, when the UBF movement began, had many
political, economical and social problems. Korea was liberated
from Japan. The Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950 and 2.5
million people were killed. Still, Korean people did not know
why Koreans should kill each other. After that, there was the
revolution of April 19 and the military revolution of May 16.
During this period, Korea was in total chaos and college students
wandered about. The Korean government could decide its annual
budget only after the American Congress approved of the amount
of aid to Korea. The people were in deep distress and college
students could not find jobs even after graduation.
At this time God gave Dr. Samuel Lee a sense of problem
and original insight concerning the times. He saw that the real
problem was neither political nor economical. He saw that the
real problem was the lack of true leaders. He realized that
only when true spiritual leaders are raised up, Korea has hope.
So he thought that raising up college students as leaders based
on Christian gospel faith was a matter of first importance.
At the beginning, Dr. Lee thought that it was important
for college students to establish a clear philosophy in their
hearts. As a result, he gave them many lectures on philosophy.
The themes of his lectures were to break a dependent spirit
on foreign countries, foster an independent spirit and overcome
a fatalistic Korean way of thinking. His original understanding
of the problem of the country and passionate lectures fascinated
the students, who had been oppressed and wandering about in
that dark situation. They were moved by his broken shepherds
heart towards them. They began to have a burning zeal to overcome
their own fatalistic problems and start a new life. They gained
a sense of pride and mission that “a man is destined to agonize
over life; it is much better to agonize over others’ souls,
his own country and pray for them.”
Meanwhile, Mother Barry was born as the only daughter
of a rich father in Mississippi, USA. She could have enjoyed
worldly glory and live comfortably. But during her college days,
she accepted Jesus as her Savior and decided to live as a missionary.
She heard about Korean people who were poor and hungry after
the Korean War. She had a broken shepherd heart for them and
came to Korea as a missionary in 1955. At first, she belonged
to the American Southern Presbyterian Church and engaged in
missionary activities around Kwangju, supporting rural churches,
helping out orphanages, and teaching English. Then she met Dr.
Samuel Lee and began to cowork with him, realizing the importance
of raising future spiritual leaders through campus evangelism.
After she committed herself to campus evangelism, she became
a kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies. At that
time, most American missionaries lived in a white house built
on the hill of a beautiful green park in Yanglim-dong, furnished
with air-conditioners and refrigerators. They had a Korean security
guard, cooks and secretaries. But Mother Barry lived together
with Korean college students in a rented room heated by coal
and served them, eating a soy sediment soup and kimchi. Moreover,
in order to shepherd Korean and American students as a spiritual
mother, she did not marry yet. Often other America missionaries
hated her because her poor and sacrificial life of faith was
contrasted with their own way of living.
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