Urbana Conference

I felt God saying that the work was his before I got there and it will be his long after I’ve left. God’s kingdom coming to Mokkattam wasn’t contingent upon my presence there. Heartbroken, I committed the work back to him. In faith, I committed the work back to him. I am not the savior. Nor am I the solution. God alone is. And I can trust him.

In 2009 Claudia’s InterVarsity staff member encouraged her to attend Urbana. "Urbana was a switch for me," Claudia said. "It made me realize that not only do I want to missionary work in the inner city in my home, but eventually I want to work overseas."

If you are a TCK yourself, know that you are not alone. You are uniquely gifted as a bridge-builder in God’s global mission. You can see, interact, pray, mourn, and make peace in ways that no one else can. We need your voice in our faith communities so we can learn how to be better witnesses cross-culturally!

Back at the end of March, we mailed out a print publication called Testify to all Urbana 15 participants. While we don’t have anymore Testify’s in print, we have been we publishing posts from Testify here on urbana.org. Here they are all gathered together for your reading pleasure.

God is not seeking so much to use us as to love us. Our participation in his work comes out of his love for us, not the other way around. If we really want to be a part of God’s work we must first linger in his love for us in the present.

Micah Albert knows a thing or two about discomfort. In his photojournalism career, Micah has collected nearly as many stories of peril as he has awards for his work—which is to say, quite a few.

You have been fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139; Genesis 1:26). But you have not been made in a vacuum. Whether or not you’re aware of it, who you are is intricately and uniquely linked to the communities you’ve been a part of (your family, your church, etc.). The worship style that resonates with you most deeply—your worship story—comes out of these communities.

On April 2, 2015, four members of a terrorist group called al-Shabab entered Garissa University in Kenya, separated the Christians from the Muslims, and shot the followers of Jesus. By the time the police arrived and killed the attackers, 148 students were dead and 79 were injured.

Every every time someone asks you, “How was Urbana?” it’s an opportunity to share not only about your conference experiences but also about the broader story of God you’re living in.

Three years ago, Anthea had a dream where God called her into missions. This past fall, she came to the United States from Germany to study and got involved with InterVarsity at the University of Utah. From there, she came to Urbana 15 and as a result, she has gone from being interested in missions to pursuing practical next steps.