The feeling started to come over me even as I was browsing the bookstore at the back of the Connection Hall. Exhibitors had yesterday and today to get set up, and yesterday SIM finished in four hours. I got the chance to meander among the other exhibitors and the bookstore in the calm before the storm of thousands of students thundering through the conference halls.
Seeing all the different exhibits set up, then previewing the store to plan out my purchases, the diverse cultures, work, titles, authors... My heart stirred. A song that I loved when I was still in college myself and a new Christian came to mind: Flyleaf's "Beautiful Bride."
We are Christ's bride, His body, adopted into His family, and while this is my first Urbana, there is definitely a family reunion atmosphere.
Then a little while later, we received exciting news from our exhibitor coordinator. Urbana is not the only campus ministry conference going on in Indianapolis right now: Campus Outreach and Cru are here too. And Urbana reached out to these two conferences to extend the invitation for their students to come to the exhibition hall as well. We now have a chance to connect another 3,000 students to God's work in the world!
This is not about "our tribe," but every tribe.
Tonight we worshipped in English, First Nation's Miami, Chinese, Maori, Spanish, Pidgin, and more. We are brothers and sisters united in our love for our Father and our Big Brother Jesus. On December 30 in Seminar Session 5, SIM International Director Joshua Bogunjoko will further celebrate this beautiful family of ours in his session "Kingdom Diversity Disarms Resistance." What better way to celebrate than to glorify God together to the ends of the earth?
On the ground in Japan, we are excited to see who God is preparing to join the Asian Access family. In 2022, God finally opened the doors for our new missionaries to come after waiting and enduring more than two years of the pandemic. We praise God for the diversity He brought to our team: Chinese-American, Japanese, Taiwanese, African-American, Gen Z...
Are you next? Come see me in Booth 707 tomorrow afternoon!
Bethany first came to Japan in February 2011 to teach English at a school in Sendai. After experiencing the Tohoku Triple Disaster on March 11, she prayed and knew that God wanted her to stay. She taught at the school for four years and was also involved in a local church during that time. Her last year teaching, she felt God calling her to serve full-time with the church, and God opened up the doors for her to partner with Asian Access and the local church in Sendai. She served as a field missionary with the church in Sendai from 2016-2022, and she is now serving in the SIM Recruiting Department with a heart for multiplying the harvest workers sent to Japan.
More Information
- More about Urbana '22
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