Every three years the ministry I work for sponsors a student missions conference to help college students and others discover what God is doing in the world, and how they can be a part of it. For many years the conference was held on the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign campus, and came to be called Urbana.
Urbana is an incredible experience and a little bit overwhelming. It was at Urbana where I first heard the phrase, 36 years ago, “it’s like trying to take a sip from a firehose.”
Arrival at Urbana 15 occurred in the midst of an intense 3-day rainstorm, causing some flooding in the area that led national headlines. But Urbana 15 went on as scheduled.
Urbana registrants were offered makeshift rain gear following registration: 50 gallon trash bags.
The 16,000 Urbana attendees came from 88 countries, but mostly from the U.S. and Canada.
My job was in the press room at Urbana 15. Media turnout was light, so we turned the news conference over to Andy Kim and his Periscope crew, a new video technology on the Twitter platform.
Some Twitter followers were watching in the room, during the news conference.
We discovered the interviewees (including David Platt, Evelyne Reisacher, and Patrick Fung) enjoyed the informality of the Periscope technology and the questions of Andy Kim.
We continued the Periscope news conferences with main conference speakers and seminar leaders. My colleague Steve Lokker discovered he was a skillful Periscope videographer.
Gideon Para-Mallam, a leader of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Africa, is interviewed by Chloe Carlson of JUCE TV.
I assisted the JUCE TV crew (one of the channels of Trinity Broadcasting Network) with some of their interviews. Here are the JUCE on-air team members after wrapping up their broadcast on the floor of the Edward Jones Dome.
One of the most moving times at Urbana 15 was the evening devoted to prayer for persecuted Christians around the world.
Here’s one of the Urbana 15 summary videos:
One of the most amazing events at Urbana 15 was Hack4Missions, led by NASA technologists Ali Llewellyn and Nick Skytland (on the right in this photo). Also at the technology news conference, Caryl Mallory of JAARS and Alan Lawton of TWR.
While all this was going on, the Mississippi River was cresting at one of its highest levels ever, just a few blocks from the Edward Jones Dome. Urbana 15 was not greatly impacted but flooding in areas near St. Louis was devastating to many residents.
Traffic on the river was at a standstill. This barge was immobilized for several days.
A landscaping renovation around the Gateway Arch was impacted by the flooding but the arch was above it all.
As New Year’s Eve arrived and the end of Urbana 15 neared, the atmosphere was celebratory backstage. Here are my friends Sergei Belkin and Andy Kim, great musicians.
Sergei’s wife Christy is my supervisor.
Finally 2016 arrived and the 16,000 at Urbana 15 went wild.
And then it was time to head home. For many it was a long, long bus ride. But the ride was worth it. The impact of Urbana 15 will be seen in thousands of lives changed and, through them, millions of lives impacted in the years ahead.
For the meantime, here’s a quick numerical summary of Urbana 15:
And a final summary video:
More videos available at Urbana.org.
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