Lakehouse: Urbana 15

Urbana is the national missions conference for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and it happens every three years. This was Stephen's third and Ginger's fourth.

There was aproximately 16,000 participants at Urbana this year, mostly college students, but also a wide variety of people from around the world. We studied stories from the book of Matthew every day.

And we brought scripture to current events, including Black Lives Matter and the persecuted church around the world. 

Ginger's two favorite talks about racial issues in America:

Christina Cleveland gives a very calm talk- she's a social psychologist and has good insights about bias. I'm usually recommending this one first since it's less provocative.

Christena Cleveland - Urbana 15 from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

The next speaker, Michelle Higgins, is much more intense and speaks prophetically. It's made some people super uncomfortable, and InterVarsity has been in the press a lot for her talk. Michelle thinks many people don't want to listen to the Black Lives Matter movement because they don't want anything to do with liberals or people who are pro-choice. She calls out the problem of putting politics before compassion.

Michelle Higgins - Urbana 15 from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

InterVarsity was in the news after Michelle's talk, including Sojourners, Christian Post, Religion News, Christianity Today, and many more.

Michelle did several follow-up panel discussions about Black Lives Matter, and invited the students to join in a "die-in," where we marched through the hallways of the America's Center repeating chants, then lay on the floor for four minutes in memory of those killed by injustices.

Urbana dedicates a large space for students to meet mission groups around the world and find organizations that fit with their skills and passion for short or long term missions trips.

Mandy's college roommate, Lindsey, found her mission calling at Urbana '06, and was back this year to help share about Africa Inland Mission with others. Lindsey is currently living in Nairobi, Kenya, flying and fixing planes for missionary travels. 

Ginger was also excited to see a booth for Pioneers, a mission agency that employs her friends in a sensitive region of the world. 

We were excited to catch up with Lindsey, and also Texas Tech Alum Howard this week. Howard volunteers with his church in reaching out to refugees, including doing a computer skills training class. He wished that Urbana had talked more about the refugee situation, especially regarding Syrian refugees. In Texas, the government is trying to get rid of the same refugees he is trying to help. 

Ginger served Urbana for the second time as a Prayer Intercessor. The many different teams who make the conference happen send us prayer requests, and there is a prayer team working 24 hours a day in three hour shifts. 

Ginger, Kate, Anne, Lisa, Jason, Sara, Tim, and Osup.

Ginger's last prayer shift ended just in time to run to the stadium and ring in the new year with songs of praise and rejoicing with thousands of students seeking to show Christ's love to all people.