Cross Cultural Opportunities
Urbana
Urbana is a large (very large), 20,000 student missions conference that is normally held every 3 years at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. However, due to the ever increasing number of attendees, it will be held in St. Louis in 2009. The conference is sponsored by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship but over 400 different mission agencies participate in the event.
Students from all over the world go to Urbana. In 2006, we had 36 students from Bethel College as a delegation. They attended 2 plenary sessions each day (one in the morning and one in the evening) held in the 20,000 seat University of Illinois “Assembly Hall”. They spent their afternoons visiting over 300 mission display booths in the Exhibit Halls, attending special mission agency presentations and seminars/workshops, and fellowshipping with other college students who have a heart for world missions.
Urbana is a multi-ethnically diverse conference. The students, who attend, as well as the presenters, are racially diverse. Asian-American, African-American, European-American, Native-American, as well as Canadians and other internationals are all represented. The worship together is a little taste of what heaven will be like when people from every tribe, tongue and nation gather around the throne of God to adore Jesus. Those who attend the conference come away from the week with a greater appreciation for the cultural diversity of the body of Christ.
Impact
Urbana is also a place of decision. Everyone is challenged to surrender their lives to the Lordship of Christ. Many make commitments to become cross-cultural missionaries. Some find mission agencies to partner with on a short-term basis after graduation. Some decide to further their training by making application to be a part of Bethel’s Missions/Discipleship House or become involved with Bethel’s Kingdom Mobilizers. Others decide to pursue a graduate degree in preparation for long-term missionary service.
No one comes away from the conference the same person that he or she was going into it. It is a life changing experience…a “cutting-edge” student conference with a standard of excellence. We encourage anyone who is at all interested in missions to try to attend this conference in December 2009.
