Do you even Urbana, bro?!

Hello, friends!

Every 3 years, InterVarsity/USA, alongside InterVarsity Canada host a global missions conference called Urbana. Now held in St. Louis (it used to be held in Urbana, Illinois, thus the name "Urbana"), InterVarsity welcomed over 10,000 students to Urbana to take part in multi-lingual worship, hear amazing speakers, attend seminars about a myriad of topics, and visit an exposition hall where hundreds of missions organizations, seminars, and Christian organizations set up shop. Urbana is an amazing experience for those who attend and I was excited to be at my 5th Urbana. (If you want to see the talks from Urbana and such, you can click here!)

Well, I was sort of there...

See, it depends on what you define as being "at Urbana." I was in St. Louis, working for InterVarsity with an Urbana specific job, so in that sense, I absolutely was at Urbana. But, did I get the full "Urbana experience"? That's another question entirely.

My job at Urbana was to be one of the staff running the Asian American/Canadian student lounge. This lounge was for students to come hang out during the afternoon, before, after, and during the seminar blocks. We had food, art stations, special gatherings, special guests, karaoke, Nintendo switch, and lots of fun. It was my second time being a part of the lounge and I can definitely say that it's my favorite Urbana job.

One of the great things about the lounge is that it runs from 12:30-6, meaning my breakfasts, lunches, and dinners were all open. Now that we live in Omaha, I have less of an opportunity to see folk in St. Louis, especially ministry partners and potential ministry partners. With all this free time available, I decided to make the most of it and pack my morning and evenings full of meetings while working Urbana in the afternoons. Here was my schedule:

26th: Arrive and staff orientation
27th: Lounge orientation and setup in the morning, helping with Urbana registration in the afternoon/evening
28th: Breakfast with a ministry partner (one!), going to the morning session (my only one!), running errands for the lounge during lunch, working the lounge in the afternoon, and dinner with another ministry partner (two!)
29th: Breakfast with a ministry partner (three!), lunch with another one (four!), working the lounge in the afternoon, and dinner with another ministry partner (five!)
30th: Breakfast with a ministry partner (six!), lunch with another one (seven!), working the lounge in the afternoon, and dinner with another two ministry partners (eight and nine!)
31st: Breakfast with a ministry partner (ten!), lunch with another one (eleven!), working the lounge in the afternoon, and dinner with another two ministry partners (twelve and thirteen!)

If you're counting at home, that's 13 meetings with ministry partners and only one main session of Urbana.

You know what? I don't regret a thing. Some of my meetings were first time asks. Others were for increases. Some were partner care. All of them were life giving and great for my soul.

The most popular question I get nowadays is whether or not I like my new role. I absolutely love it. I'm never going to stop loving student ministry. In the lounge I had some great conversations with students and was able to minister in ways that I haven't been able to do as much these past few months. But, MPD is my jam! I love every part of it. This week was confirmation that I'm doing exactly what I should be doing.

Did I Urbana? You bet I did. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam