Each day of Urbana started with Bible study in our hotel. We would look over a passage of scripture and come up with observations and questions to share in a small group of people around us and then with the the whole group. This was a great time to really look carefully at scripture and to hear the different things different people saw in the stories and teaching us Jesus. Everyone had a different take on the scripture or different background knowledge that made it very interesting and helped me to see things in the passage I had never seen before!
Each morning, after Bible study, and night, to end the day, we had sessions in the dome that consisted of worship in MANY different languages, testimonies from students on how missions had changed their lives, testimonies from people who have worked in missions, dramas, dancing, and a message. One night we got to pack 32,000 medical kits to send to caregivers in Swaziland! Hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ and rededicated their lives to Christ and thousands committed to sharing the gospel with their unreached friends, doing short term missions, and even doing long-term missions! It was super exciting! Our last session in the dome was to ring in the New Year! We danced and worshipped together and rang in the New year with a Hindi song "Yeshu Tera Naam" finishing off our time together by going crazy to "I Am Free."
During the day we got to pick different seminar teachings to attend. There were SO MANY it was so hard to choose! I went to seminars on women in missions, building community for at-risk children and youth, contemplative activism, living in the slums, ending extreme poverty, human trafficking, and multicultural worship! I took lots of notes and received a lot of useful information! Between and after seminars we had a little time to go to the book store of "apostolic proportions," where they had great deals on books of every topic imaginable! There was also an exhibit hall full of 250+ booths representing missions agencies, ministries, seminaries, organizations, and things like that! I spend time talking with people at these booths and getting information on ministries I could potentially work with! It was overwhelming, but exciting! At Urbana they also had several different prayers rooms. They had a worship room, ministry prayer room, and missional prayer room.
Needless to say, we had hardly any free time and were overwhelmed with information, but it was all wonderful! I may post later about some specific things I learned as I go through my notes, books, and pamphlets trying to process the loads of information I received. Overall, this experience was encouraging, as I joined together with thousands of people on fire for God and His mission in the world, informational, as I sat through teachings and seminaries and had conversations with people, and very inspirational!
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