By Jackie Koury, Oregon, United States
Courses offered by the Urantia Book Internet School (UBIS) provide a format that’s amazingly friendly, coupled with intellectually stimulating study of The Urantia Book. I found this to be the case last semester. Taking a UBIS course is a great solution for those who don’t have a study group nearby and desire to learn with other Urantia Book students.
Participating in a study group has always been important to me. I attended one for more than forty years while living in Anchorage, Alaska, and I have missed it since moving to central Oregon. So I looked into studying remotely.
In January the description of a course, The Agondonter’s Quest—The Ascent from Individuality to Unity, intrigued me. This UBIS “quest” would take us along the Agondonter path, beginning with Paper 53, “The Lucifer Rebellion,” and ending with Paper 56, “Universal Unity.”
This UBIS course had an added significance to me because it is instructed by Mark Khoury, who has the same last name (family name) as mine—which I almost never see. Mark lives in Lebanon. My grandfather emigrated from Lebanon to Canada many years ago. The ability of UBIS to bring the world together to study the revelation is an amazing happenstance. Through UBIS I found a fellow Urantia Book reader, from a country with special meaning to me, who has much to offer our community in the way of in-depth study and inspiring fellowship.
What I had been missing in a study group was fulfilled in this UBIS course. From the beginning, the course felt like an awesome study group with twenty-one participants from many locations around the globe. The honest sharing helped me realize that this format for study can feel supportive and loving even from a distance. Many participants in the course had taken UBIS courses together before and had formed a rapport.
As a student I found myself highly interested, challenged, stretched, and delighted in the process. Mark Khoury is an excellent teacher-facilitator. He shared fitting quotes with stimulating feedback and follow-up questions to keep the course exceedingly satisfying. One could feel his sincerity and respect for each student as he led the class with a personal touch. Here is an excerpt that he wrote early on in the course:
But, what I really care about is sharing how these words of the revelation touch and affect each one of you. By pooling in all our experiences, we can form a bigger and clearer picture of the truth contained. There are no guarantees that an opportunity like this one will repeat itself, so I encourage you all to seize the moment. Carpe diem!
My thinking has been enhanced after ten weeks of study. Answering insightful questions personalized the subject matter. I have gained new perceptions from my reading, writing, studying, and taking to heart my classmates’ responses. We all learned much from our personal sharing and our time together in the space provided by UBIS.
“Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.” 48:7.28 (557.12)