Urbana 2009

From December 26th-January 1st, I was in St. Louis working at InterVarsity's Urbana missions convention, which happens once every three years. Urbana was awesome again this year, and worshiping with over 16,000 college students is truly indescribable. But I shall attempt it...

My most memorable part of the conference was on the last night, when I helped serve communion to the masses. Having the honor of helping that many people worship God through taking communion together was a humbling blessing. As I was walking amongst the crowd, I was filled with a deep sense of hope to see "world changers developed" (which is part of our Mission statement), and I know that this generation of Urbana attendees literally going to change the world.

Some numbers from the convention -

2,232 decided to re-commit, or commit for the first time, to follow Jesus.

2,676 committed to serve on a long-term mission (two years or longer)

4,990 committed to serve short-term (one week to two years)

Nearly $900,000 was donated by attendees, to support various global organizations.

SSU brought 35 students and here is what two of them (pictured, and yes they are dating) had to say...

Matt (Junior) - "Urbana was very formative in my future plans and how I desire to serve God with my life. It really developed a sense of an international community of Christians that I had never seen before."

Amber (Junior) - "I'm really glad I decided to go to Urbana. It was a wake up call I was not expecting. It opened my eyes to a new type of bravery and fearlessness with God."

Please pray that the students will...
- Follow through with their commitments to go on missions, share their faith, give money, etc.
- Will use what they learned and experienced at Urbana to help shape the future of their life.