In 2003, as a senior at Valparaiso University, I attended my first Urbana Student Mission Conference. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was a big part of my college experience and the conference that year really challenged me to consider how I might serve not only my local church, but the global church as well. Although the experience itself was incredible, I was not really sure what God had planned for me.
Today, I’m fortunate to have an incredible family (with two ridiculously fantastic boys), an amazing career that’s taken me on adventures I could never have imagined, and I serve a local church that is thriving and on mission reaching the unchurched.
Through these professional and personal experiences, I’ve had the chance to travel around the globe as well as lead numerous mission trips to Ukraine and help plant a network of churches to reach the Russian speaking world. I’ve seen a shift in the way an entire generation engages with their world, through the use of technology, and I’ve been involved a number of initiatives that have convened people who have wanted to serve others in need and contribute to something bigger than themselves.
However, I knew that God had more planned for me, that he was preparing me for something bigger. The seed he had planted in 2003 still tugs on my heart regularly. When I was asked by InterVarsity to help organize #Hack4Missions at Urbana 15, I finally realized what God had been planning all this time.
Over the past 12 years, while I was helping organize over 700 hackathons around the world, in 100+ countries, visiting the most unexpected places to address the most unpredictable needs, God had been preparing me for what will take place starting at Urbana 15. He patiently shaped me so that I'd be prepared to help lead #Hack4Missions at Urbana 15. I’m thankful to be a part of this inaugural event and am excited to see what God is going to do through this community of servant-hearted, technology-enabled Christian leaders.
Over the past 12 years, while I was helping organize over 700 hackathons around the world, in 100+ countries, visiting the most unexpected places to address the most unpredictable needs, God had been preparing me for what will take place starting at Urbana 15. He patiently shaped me so that I'd be prepared to help lead #Hack4Missions at Urbana 15.
We live in an unprecedented time where technology enables us to connect instantaneously with someone on the complete opposite side of the world. Their problems are now our problems. We can’t ignore what’s happening in a far distant corner of Earth just because we don’t have the money to catch a flight, or time off of work to spend two weeks in a foreign jungle. What it means to be on mission, to serve others, and to be a global church is literally being redefined right in front of us and it’s technology that is making this a reality. There is a huge opportunity to rethink missions, to use technology to change the world, and to collaborate with others who share this mission.
My prayer is that God stirs your heart to join us, that he convenes an unparalleled group of technologists, and that he works in ways that none of us could predict today to bring his glory to the farthest corners of our planet.