Urbana Missions Conference is here. This year’s theme is “What STORY will you tell?”
I’ve been given a great privilege to be part of a Student Social Squad here at Urbana 15 to put out content into social media describing the Urbana experience 🙂
However, this is still my photography blog, so I’m calling my posts this week “Urbana Through A Lens.”
EWR->STL: Departure 12:10 PM EST, Arrival: approx. 1:30 PM CT.
In both New Jersey and St. Louis, the weather was terrible- foggy, rainy, soaking wet. However, my flight had no delays or difficulties. That’s something to be thankful for. My prayers go out to those who are still waiting to get here. Stay Strong!
This chalkboard world map Urbana set up in the convention center gives an idea of the amount of diversity there is here at this conference.
Large Group: approximately 16,000 people filed into Edward Jones Dome (the St. Louis Rams play football here!!). Everyone gathered for one purpose: to learn more about God and our mission to tell His story.
Session 1 (speaker – Patrick Fung, M.D.):
- The book of Matthew “starts with worship and ends with worship.”
- Matthew chapter 2 – there are three stories: the story of the Magi, the story of Herod, and the story of Joseph. However, these three stories all point to Jesus’ story.
- The story of the Magi: “Jesus’ coming is of cosmic significance.”
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“Jesus’ coming is of cosmic significance.” – Patrick Fung, M.D. - The story of Herod: “God’s story is always bigger than others. Man’s ambition can never circumvent God’s plan.”
- The story of Joseph: “Jesus was born into a refugee family” as Joseph immediately obeyed God’s command to flee to Egypt. “The faith journey requires obedience… it is NOT a risk-free journey.”
- “Our best gift to Jesus is to tell the world Immanuel – God is with us.”
A quick meet-up with members of our home church, Rutgers Community Christian Church in central Jersey.
Prayer with the church members.
Roommate huddle – time to bond and talk with our roommates about our first day at Urbana so far.
We are challenged this week to:
- Be a learner.
- Be a team player.
- Be a story teller.
I already get a chance to do all these things by sharing what I’m learning here as well as pictures that describe my first Urbana experience on this blog!
Day 2 has already begun as I post this, so I ask you to keep on praying for all of us here at Urbana, that God will continue to reach out to us! Also, I believe the main sessions are being streamed for free on Urbana’s website: https://urbana.org/, and follow Urbana on twitter and instagram @UrbanaMissions. Also, follow me on instagram for photos 🙂 @mattlau95.
I’ll be posting updates around noon during lunch break hopefully every day!
Matthew Lau 