As a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I was often the target of an aggressive proselytizer. A couple times a week, a Korean man would approach me with a broad smile and invite me to study the Bible. I had no idea that he was among hundreds of Korean missionaries spanned across college campuses trying to win the country for Christ. I didn’t know that the headquarters for University Bible Fellowship (UBF)—Korea’s second largest missionary sending agency—was just a few miles away.
I did know that UBF was seen as intense and cult-like. This was significant because I was part of a similar campus group: The Local Church, where I had grown up. Like UBF, The Local Church was an Asian Christian movement that had been evangelizing in America for decades. We also invited strangers to study the Bible—and we were also accused of being a cult. At UIC, we were in competition.
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