VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 01/11/07)-A team of eight recently returned from St. Louis where, from Dec. 26 through Dec. 31, 2006, they learned to "live a life worthy of the calling," along with more than 22,000 young adults, parents, pastors and youth workers at Urbana -- the missions conference organized every three years by Intervarsity, a campus mission ministry serving more than 560 colleges and universities across the nation.
"Urbana 2006 was interesting, chaotic and impressively orchestrated, challenging in its sheer size, and yet a good place to listen to God," said Elena Borquist, one of the team members. Borquist, a student at Williamette University in Salem, Ore., is the daughter of IM missionaries Ann and Bruce Borquist who serve in Brazil and had served in the Philippines.
"Urbana was a little glimpse of heaven," exclaimed Emily Hargis, another IM representative, and a seminary student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. "It was a blessing to be able to share with other believers what God is doing through IM and encourage them along their paths in finding God's special mission for their lives." A special mission for Hargis, an ABC preacher's kid, was serving from 2004 until 2006 as a volunteer missionary, teaching at the American School of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Other members of the team included:
Ed Broaddus -- the associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Moweaqua, IL, Broaddus has co-led short-term mission trips to El Salvador.
Kim Kushner -- associate in Volunteers for Global Mission, Kushner assists hundreds of volunteers and dozens of short-term teams plan their mission experiences through IM.
Mark McClary -- an alum of the 2003 Xtreme Team (IM's young adult mission immersion program), which went to Ghana, McClary serves as youth pastor at United Baptist Church in Concord, NH.
Marlon and Diana Millner -- Millner is managing editor in communications at IM and his wife is executive director of Save Africa's Children, a ministry that supports orphans in Africa infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS
Kit Ripley -- on US/PR assignment for the first quarter of 2007, Ripley is an IM missionary who serves at the New Life Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which provides shelter, educational and emergency services to tribal girls at risk, and to women who have been forced into prostitution.
Not only did the IM team share resources about short-term missions, volunteer opportunities, and career missionary service, they interacted with a variety of American Baptists attending the conference, including Dr. Daniel Fountain, a retired missionary from Congo, who was a workshop leader, and Rev. Ken Fong, pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church in Los Angeles, who took a team of several young people to Urbana.
The ministry of Urbana and Intervarsity has long been tied to the work of IM. Retired missionary and theological educator Samuel Escobar has been a featured speaker and published books for Intervarsity. Tim Moore, IM's director of missionary kid ministries attended Urbana in 1984 and 1987, while he and his family served in Congo. "Both experiences continue to be milestones in my spiritual journey that I go back to regularly to reorient my future direction," Moore said.
Stan Slade, who leads the staff group from IM that organized the trip, attended Urbana in 1976 and said "listening to Billy Graham preach on New Year's Eve is an experience I will never forget."
Even IM's new executive director, Reid Trulson, attended Urbana, and worked with Intervarsity as a student at the University of Minnesota.
Andrew C. Jayne American Baptist Churches, USA Mission Resource Development http://www.abc-usa.org/