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Urbana^® 2000:
Beyond Expectations
Tricia Candell, writer
Madison, WI

When I left for Urbana in 1996 I had no clue what to expect. I was a senior in high school, and it was my first time to attend. I didn’t know that God would take my casual desire to be involved in missions and ignite it into a fiery, driving force in my life. I had no clue that I would experience the Lord in the beauty of his majesty while I worshiped with people from different races and nationalities. I didn’t expect a seed of missions to be planted in my heart, only to grow and grow.

On the way to Urbana, I was picturing church conferences I had attended in the past with my youth group. I envisioned a lot of kids running around playing games all day. I saw myself listening to speakers who were either successfully—or unsuccessfully—trying to get us all hyped up and excited about going home and reading our Bibles. I was expecting to have a lot of fun, to make a lot of cool friends, and to leave a little more excited about my faith.

Instead of meeting these small expectations of mine, God completely blew them out of the water. When I arrived at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign I found over 19,000 brothers and sisters from diverse backgrounds, all in different places in their lives, from students and graduates to missionaries and church leaders. For five days we prayed together, worshiped together and studied God’s Word.

Seminars on prayer introduced me to the power and need for prayer as I had never experienced it before. I began to realize just how amazing it is that I can come before Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and talk to him. Not only that, but I also learned that he can’t wait for me to come to him.

I did end up having a lot of fun. I made some cool friends, and I returned to campus excited about my faith. But more than that, my eyes were opened to the hungry world around me, those physically hungry and those spiritually starving. I left having made a commitment to missions.

God showed me that the call to be involved in the mission of the Lord is a call for all believers, not just a select few. God could actually use me, and he even wanted to use me. I tried to tell him a million reasons why I was unfit to be used. “I’m unfaithful and so weak, Lord,” I said. But as I stood there praising him, my heart was changed and my eyes turned from myself onto him. I stopped looking at my weaknesses and I began to see his power. I stopped focusing on my faults and I began to see his strength. The joy and total love and acceptance I experienced there in his presence is what drove me to give my future totally to him, to commit myself to be used by God as he saw fit.

God is still teaching me new things about missions. He is still growing that seed within me. He is continually opening my eyes to the world around me and to the fact that he loves the world enough to give himself for us. He is not just working and moving in me and those near me, but is also moving to bring about his purposes around the world. The global vision of missions that God is casting through Urbana has come to be a very important one to me.

This December I’ll return to Illinois for Urbana 2000. I’m anticipating Urbana 2000 to be an opportunity for God to lead me further into growth, fellowship and worship. It will also be an opportunity to investigate what the Lord has for me next.

I encourage you to find out more about the Urbana 2000 Missions Convention, and to grab a couple friends and pray about attending. I hope to meet you there.