Hello Everyone. This is the first article on ubfriends.net on the Downey UBF chapter.

Here is a timeline of the chapter’s atrocities, actions, secrets, and more with the aid of a former member:

– 1982: Isaac Hyung Kim arrives in the US.
– The first “center” is in the neighborhood of UCLA (I think, SaMo), and UCLA was the pioneering campus.
– 1989(ish): UCLA pioneering is bombing, and Isaac moves the center to Long Beach and begins pioneering Cal State Long Beach, at the direction of Samuel Lee.
– late ’80’s and/or early ’90’s: some coworkers (Korean missionaries and American shepherds) leave Long Beach UBF to go to Chicago UBF and to West LA UBF.
– early 90’s: the first way of American “shepherds” leave, except for a few that have remained till today. This was due to problems seen locally that went unresolved. I heard stories from those that were around at that time –Check out Shane’s story. But the basic consensus is that they realized the authoritarianism and tight control over their lives and didn’t want to hang around.
-November 2000: Isaac Hyung Kim writes a letter to the Korean UBF reformers in an attempt to defend the UBF founder. [more details in a future article]
– 2001: Long Beach UBF moves to Downey, now called Downey UBF. This was done supposedly to secure more space and be more centrally located to college campuses in Southern California. Long Beach UBF had been using a renovated old house that they had outgrown.
– 2001: an American shepherd (a “young” shepherd who had been in the ministry just a year or two) sent a letter to Samuel Lee with 95 theses in the spirit of Martin Luther. Samuel Lee brought attention to this publicly during his closing announcements at the 2001 International Conference. This was at ISU. [Unfortunately the letter is lost.]
– [early?] 2004: John Chun Baik left Downey UBF. At first, he started his own “new ministry,” as he called it, but then later that year officially rejoined UBF as a separate chapter, El Camino UBF.
– Sometime in the 2010’s name change to LA UBF at the suggestion of Chicago for US chapters to be named after the city they are in or most represent. Other chapters also get a name change, such as Grenada Hills UBF becoming North Hills UBF. In the same year a UBF Korean missionary family left and sent a letter to the whole congregation. [more details in a future article]
– 2010(ish) to 2014: some UBF Korean missionaries left Downey UBF to start other chapters due to disagreements locally with Isaac Kim and a desire to do things on their own (e.g., Cerritos UBF, Glendale UBF).
– 2012: John Kwon appointed by Isaac Kim as the new director of Downey UBF because “Koreans will listen to him and are not yet ready to listen to an American director” as John recounted to me.
– 2013/2014: John Kwon is publicaly and officially announced as the new director of Downey UBF (LA UBF). Isaac Hyung Kim retires as LA UBF director and moves to Redding, CA.
– 2014: An American shepherd family leaves after 15 years. Their leaving was related to problems brought up locally and by reformers, anti-UBF, and still-in UBF people who had had problems and been hurt over many years, but were ignored by UBF at large.
Additional notes:
– Names held: Long Beach UBF, Downey UBF, LA UBF, LA UBF I (John Baik’s chapter was called LA UBF II for a short while).
– Different fellowships have had registered clubs on campuses. I’m not sure if the UBF name was used or not. It was used for the club registered at CSULB. Check out this article by an on/off member:http://web.csulb.edu/~d49er/archives/2003/spring/news/v10n110-rel.shtml
– LA UBF was on many campuses. It was near 20 at one point. In 2016, I think, they decided to just focus on 2 campuses, Long Beach City College and CSULB. For the most part, other campuses had just the presence of a family or two.
– Although the timeline of Downey UBF isn’t involved with the reform movements, old timer American shepherds and Korean missionaries were well aware of what was going on. New sheep were always advised to stay away from the internet stories. I was told to not even read them or talk to anyone associated with them or else my heart would “crack” and I would eventually leave. There were a couple sympathizers in the congregation, Korean missionaries, but they remained silent and inactive in the ministry. According to one of them, he was just remaining in order to “see the day that UBF repents.” They were effective in keeping us away from those stories. For example, John Baik didn’t allow internet in the common life (he oversaw it). For a long time, we were too far from everyone else to really get the full info. I remember at the international conference in 2001, reformers were protesting and the Chicago elder shepherds surrounded them in order to shield them and keep them out of the sight of the new sheep and attendants of the conference.