It’s another reunion year!!! We thank God for His faithfulness. It is like only yesterday we celebrated the 50th anniversary of IVCU’s establishment as a student Christian fellowship on University of Ibadan’s campus. For many of us IVCU was the spiritual nursery that established our faith walk and formed the very foundation of who we are in Christ today. Those IVCU days are now long gone clearing the way for our faith to be tested and proven in the fire of life. Paul encouraged Timothy to fight the good fight of faith which echoes the essence of the IVCU’s motto “keeping the vision”. We are called to shine as light in this depraved world as we live our lives in the presence of such a great cloud of witnesses watching for the manifestation of God’s glory through us.
I stated earlier this is a REUNION year and the chosen theme is “Behold He cometh…”. It begs the question, are we ready for His return? Are we winning the everyday battle of living for Christ? As you ponder on the questions, we ask you to prepare and plan to participate in person or online. This year as a chapter we intend to participate as much as are able to the REUNION. The alumni is pledging to buy IVCU a new bus. The old buses have become “old old faithfuls” but desperately needing our faith to be put to work. The steering committee for North America is encouraging everyone to take part in fulfilling this pledge. The steering committee launched this year with great excitement and expectation of what God would do through us. We have since grown as a committee in working together as a small army of brethren committed to the vision of the Alumni Fellowship in North America. The committee is made of up 12 members located across North America:
• Michael Araba – Cleveland, Ohio – USA • Funmi Okhiria – South Bend, Indiana, USA
• Dave Ariyibi – Maryland, USA • Doyin Oyenuga (Secretary) – Burlington, Canada
• Deoye Adegorite – Toronto, Canada • Rotimi Akinbusuyi – Chicago, IL
• Segun Bamijoko, Calgary, Canada • Biodun Adeniran – Calgary, Canada
• Bamidele Tayo – Chicago, USA • Ibukun Olotu – Phoenix, Arizona
• Authority Ugbenin – Newark, NJ • Wole Ariyo – Columbia, SC
I also thank every committee member for their support since the launch of the chapter summer 2011. They have since sown much of their time, talents and treasure to keep the work going. We also want to thank everyone who has responded when we called or reached out. We were able to do much last year with organizing two events one Baltimore, MD and Brampton, ON Canada. But the vision is great and we intend to do more this year. Earlier in January we sent out fridge magnet business cards and 2012 Calendars to everyone that has registered with the chapter. If you like to get our business card magnets and 2012 calendar please forward your request to me at maraba@ivcuaf.org with your full name, cell # and mailing address.
The committee identified 5 goals to guide our operations for the year as follows:
1. Organize Meet & Greet Events in new areas
2. Online Communication
- Improve Website / Assist with launch of IVCU Student Website Launch
- Launch Digital Library
- Improve Membership Communication online
- Enable Online Donations
3. Establish a Membership Directory
4. Register as a Non-Profit in North America
5. Participate in the REUNION 2012
IVCUAF Calendar – 2012
Meet & Greet Events – (Watch Out for Details via Newsletters and E-mail Reminders)
- Baltimore – May 5
- Calgary, AB – May 19th
- Minnesota – May 22, 2012
- Chicago, IL – June 2nd
- Dallas, Texas – June 23rd
- Whitby, ON Canada – June 30th
- Atlanta, Georgia – July 7th
- New Jersey/ New York – July 14
- Columbia, S. Carolina – July 21st
- Burlington, ON Canada – Aug 18th
- Los Angeles, California – Nov 9th
Plan to attend one event close to you or let us know if you are willing to host any of these events by sending an email to steering@na.ivcuaf.org.
Chapter Meeting Schedules
- Spring Chapter Meeting – Online (March 31)
- Summer Chapter Meeting – Online (Jul 28)
- Fall Chapter Meeting – Online (Nov 3)
- IVCU REUNION – Ibadan, Nigeria (Nov 23rd – 25th)
Mark your calendars the Lord is our help.
We encourage everyone to register online on the website http:www.ivcuaf.org/member and encourage others to do the same. We have had a number of events now this year such as the Chapter Meeting on Saturday March 31st with attendees from differing graduating years such as 1974 to recent decade. The Lord is doing great things we encourage you to rise up and be a part of it. We trust God for great help this year because of ourselves we can do nothing but with Him we can take the mountains.
It is well,
Michael Araba
maraba@ivcuaf.org