Urbana!

Well, this update is certainly coming much later than I had meant for it to. But in any case, I really wanted to share more with you all about Urbana '09!

As a part of InterVarsity staff, I had the privilege of going to Urbana this year to help run the conference. I went back in '06 as well as a student, but seeing the conference from the perspective of someone working for it. In a good way, too. I actually arrived a day earlier than all the students with the rest of the staff, and when we had our staff dinner that night, it was like a huge family reunion. In fact, that feeling only grew as I continued to meet people I hadn't seen in months or years and once again experienced all of the great things Urbana has to offer, remembering the life changing experiences I had my first time there.

The first actual day of the conference was mostly check-in, and I was one of the staff workers designated to help give out name tags. Not hard, but it did take up a large portion of my first day, and I had to miss the first hour of the welcome session. All in all, not hard, and I actually got to run into some of the students who went with me on the Kenya GP this summer! I then came in part way through the plenary session, seeing the 17,000 Christian crowd filling the America Center Stadium. They were worshiping when I got there, and immediately I realized what a great thing the event would be.

The next few days made up the body of the conference. In the mornings, we had what are called Manuscript Bible Study sessions. Manuscript study is a common InterVarsity method. It is an inductive style that allows the students to look at a passage without relying on presuppositions and to approach it at their level of understanding while also learning from what others are learning from the same passage. We usually do this kind of study over 1:30 to 2 hours with a group of about 10 students, but for Urbana we were doing the study in a shorter period and with 200+ students per study leader. Hans happened to be one of the study leaders, and so I got to help him those mornings alongside his wife, Jill, a UNM IV alumnus, Glory, and another staff worker, Ryan. The others ran mics to students who had input while I ran the PowerPoint slides. It was a lot of fun, and while I didn't get as much out of the sessions as the students (it was hard enough just getting my job done by itself), I really had a great time in those sessions. Plus we managed to wrangle some students from UNM and from the Kenya GP into our group, so that was fantastic!

After the manuscripting sessions, we went to the morning plenary sessions where our expositor, Ramez Atallah, preached from the passages. The whole week was focused around John 1-4, so the manuscript sessions focused on some passages while Ramez took the others. These morning sessions were also another chance to worship together and to see some incredible skits and other performances. We got to sing songs from a variety of Christian traditions, styles, and ethnic backgrounds - songs in English, Spanish, French, Swahili, and Arabic. The performers acted out scenes from the Gospel of John, danced, sang, and even rapped on occasion. Then Ramez brought the whole thing together with his messages on John, showing us the incredible nature of Jesus's incarnational ministry. He described just how astounding the incarnation is, passing all boundaries while defying our expectations for missions, especially compared to how we think of missions today.

Afternoons were open times for the students to attend some of the dozens of open conferences designed to explore more specific topics on missions and Christian life. I got to sit in on some and helped as an assistant for others, all of which were great. Probably the most influential sessions for me was an excellent seminar which was part of the Business as Missions track. The speakers described how they have gone against cultural norms, using their successes and drives to further missions work and allowing them to live humbly. I was convicted deeply about how much I desire to acquire wealth and affluence for my own benefit, but feel now that I want to live below my means, using my money more and more for God's work than for my own pleasure.

Besides the seminars, I also got to use my afternoons to explore the bookstore and Global Connextions areas a bit to see the many missions organizations that came to the conference to try to recruit students. While I wasn't really looking for any real missions opportunities myself, it was still fun to see what kinds of work is being done by these hundreds of agencies. I found time to hang out with my church group, the Rio Area IV group, and even a Kenya GP reunion. The reunion was really special to me; it was the first time most of us had seen each other since the summer. We got to catch up with one other, reminisce on all the things we miss (or don't miss in some cases...), and really just enjoy once again the fellowship we shared together this summer. I had another opportunity to just hang out with two of the students from the small group I lead that summer (the others couldn't come to Urbana), and it was such a blessing to spend some quality time with them.

The evenings, though, were probably my favorite part. Each night we had even more worship and skits plus two special speakers each night to talk about topics related to the morning's plenary session. They spoke on living among the poor, the modern sex slave trade and AIDS epidemic, environmental responsibility, and a variety of other topics. My favorite, though, has to be Oscar Muriu, who talked on the ideas of money and power. He compared our modern methods of evangelism to those of Jesus and the cross. We are so concerned with funding, safety, and carrying our American affluence with us on our missions, but God was willing to come down from heaven and become one of us, taking on the nature of the people he ministered to. It was really convicting to think of some of the ways that we have hurt people we try to witness to by being unwilling to stoop to their level. He then encouraged us to witness as Christ did: incarnationally. I'm still trying to process what that will mean for me, especially while working with the students at UNM. All the same, though, I'm really thankful for the perspective Oscar gave us all on being part of God's mission.

Urbana was awesome, and I'm so glad I was able to go once again. I know it's been a huge influence on the students that went as well. Please pray for them and me as we continue to process the lessons we learned there and work to become the next generation of missionaries in God's kingdom.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 1:14