Travel warnings meant to keep people away from hotspots won’t stop the Gospel.

By May 27, 2004

International (MNN)–Intervarsity Christian Fellowship is getting ready to launch the Global Urban Trek 2004.

This year, teams are going to cities in Egypt, Ethiopia, Thailand, Argentina, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Mexico. In spite of global travel warnings, it seems that the teams will be going ahead as planned.

The purpose of the Trek is to call students to consider ministry to the poorest of the poor in each of the Trek cities. Law students, students in health-related fields, business and economics majors, and students in the social sciences will have an opportunity to see how their fields of study apply to urban transformation.

ICF’s Scott Bessenecker compares the commitment and the growing interest in missions to the Franciscan movement that exploded in Europe eight centuries ago. “These were the youth movements in those centuries that took radical steps to bring the gospel forward. I am seeing a spirit of the mission-al monks and nuns of those periods, ready to take the Gospel to some of the difficult places.”

Despite the travel warnings and terror threats, Bessenecker expects that won’t stop young people from answering the call. “I think we have to be careful not to define ‘mission’ solely through the North American lens because there’s some awesome things happening with youth from other countries who are passionately and zealously going to the lost, the poor, the broken.”

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