USA (MNN) — Next, the largest youth missions conference in the World is still three months off, but Intervarsity Christian Fellowship is gearing up for the United States-based event.
Urbana ’03 will be held December 27th through the 31st. This will be the 20th Urbana. The theme for this year’s event is, “Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done.” Jim Tebbe is Urbana’s Director and says there are three hoped-for outcomes at this year’s event. “The first one is in the area of radical discipleship and what it means to live radically as a disciple of Jesus Christ. The second thing that we hope to see at Urbana is that students will be committed to sharing their faith to those who are close to them. And then, there’s the traditional call that we have for global and cross cultural missionaries.”
Tebbe says he expects more than 20,000 young people from all over the country at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign. According to Tebbe, the conference is half full. “Registrations are booming,” says Tebbe. He says , “if you want to come to Urbana you need to register sooner rather than later. In 2000, registristrations were closed by November. We are substantially ahead of where we were in 2000 at this time.”
He explains why there’s been such a great initial response. “I think that young people today have a desire to commit themselves to something that’s greater than themselves and they are looking for the call of God on their lives. And, that’s why there’s so many that want to come.”
Tebbe says most of the registrations are being done on-line. You can go to Urbana.org to register.
