CoD V.1.6.1- Urbana.
I realized recently that I never did post anything about the Urbana 06 trip. Well, in short, it was an amazing time of learning, being challenged and blessed, sandwiched between two 16+ hour bus-rides. Most of us got sick (although to different extents) at some time during those 5 days.
Here's what I wrote for the missions team at my church:
Listening to people’s stories, I realized that many of the young men and women who attended Urbana went to be challenged by God. They went for new vision on missions, for guidance and direction as regards God’s calling on their lives and for renewed passion for His kingdom. As far as these reasons go, I’m afraid Urbana came around a year too late for me- God has already called me, I know where I will be in the near future, and have some idea, if it’s the Lord’s will, where I’ll be in the not-so-near future as well.
I went to Urbana, therefore, not for direction, but for equipping. And equipping I got. The seminars I was able to attend- seminars like ‘Sharing the Hope with Muslims’, ‘Oral Tradition and Story: A New Paradigm for Global Missions’, ‘Cross Cultural Conflict’, ‘Creative Approaches to Church Planting’, and ‘Prayer, Revival, and Missions- Praying to Change the World’ began building the foundations for the work I’ll be doing over the next two years- evangelism and church planting in a largely illiterate, Islamic people-group in Tanzania (that relies heavily on oral tradition). Ideas I was introduced to, advice, recommendations, suggestions and tips I was given, will – I hope – prove invaluable to me for the rest of my life.
However, equipping wasn’t all I got out of this Urbana: the main-sessions that all candidates attended, sessions by speakers such as Oscar Muriu (Pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya, a church of around 4000 members with plans of planting 300 churches worldwide by 2020), and Rick Warren, among others, were tremendously challenging in areas of missions ranging from the need for international interdependence in the church, to the indispensable importance of the gospel to missions, to the need for Christian champions in issues of social justice. These sessions cut deep and asked weighty questions.
Equipping and challenge, in turn, were perfectly complemented by the indescribable blessing and encouragement that it was to worship God in Congolese, Creole, English, French, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish, along with over 20,000 other people, from over 140 countries, the vast majority of whom left Urbana ready and called to surrender all, die to themselves, and live for the glory of God. Never before in my life have I been closer to John’s vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language…(crying) out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Rev.7:8-10)
Here's what I wrote for the missions team at my church:
Listening to people’s stories, I realized that many of the young men and women who attended Urbana went to be challenged by God. They went for new vision on missions, for guidance and direction as regards God’s calling on their lives and for renewed passion for His kingdom. As far as these reasons go, I’m afraid Urbana came around a year too late for me- God has already called me, I know where I will be in the near future, and have some idea, if it’s the Lord’s will, where I’ll be in the not-so-near future as well.
I went to Urbana, therefore, not for direction, but for equipping. And equipping I got. The seminars I was able to attend- seminars like ‘Sharing the Hope with Muslims’, ‘Oral Tradition and Story: A New Paradigm for Global Missions’, ‘Cross Cultural Conflict’, ‘Creative Approaches to Church Planting’, and ‘Prayer, Revival, and Missions- Praying to Change the World’ began building the foundations for the work I’ll be doing over the next two years- evangelism and church planting in a largely illiterate, Islamic people-group in Tanzania (that relies heavily on oral tradition). Ideas I was introduced to, advice, recommendations, suggestions and tips I was given, will – I hope – prove invaluable to me for the rest of my life.
However, equipping wasn’t all I got out of this Urbana: the main-sessions that all candidates attended, sessions by speakers such as Oscar Muriu (Pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya, a church of around 4000 members with plans of planting 300 churches worldwide by 2020), and Rick Warren, among others, were tremendously challenging in areas of missions ranging from the need for international interdependence in the church, to the indispensable importance of the gospel to missions, to the need for Christian champions in issues of social justice. These sessions cut deep and asked weighty questions.
Equipping and challenge, in turn, were perfectly complemented by the indescribable blessing and encouragement that it was to worship God in Congolese, Creole, English, French, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish, along with over 20,000 other people, from over 140 countries, the vast majority of whom left Urbana ready and called to surrender all, die to themselves, and live for the glory of God. Never before in my life have I been closer to John’s vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language…(crying) out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Rev.7:8-10)
posted by dan at 1/28/2007 02:02:00 a.m.
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