A Join-In: How A New Chapter Of My Life Began

      Last year, I was told that something called Urbana was coming up. I thought that perhaps I was suppose to be a part of missions, so I prayed about it and decided to go.
      At first, Urbana was overwhelming; there were so many missionary organizations to be a part of, so many people there, and so much to take in. I felt that I had no idea what I was supposed to learn. However, the worship, skits, seminars and Bible studies were amazing. The worship drew you into the presence of God and they taught us to sing the songs in other languages. The skits symbolically illustrated Biblical truths, and the seminars taught us a lot of great information. The morning Bible studies taught us a new way to study scripture; first, look for questions or things that stood out to you. Next, look at the text and see if the questions can be answered by looking at the verses around it or at the text as a whole. Finally, find a way to apply it to your life. It was interesting to do this as a group and to hear what others had to say.  

      The third night, we had something called "A Join-In" for our evening session. We had no idea what that was until we got there. It turned out that all 16,000 of us were going to make something called Caregiver Kits. They showed us videos like the one below, and explained that they are medical kits that Caregivers bring to the homes of people with AIDS to take care of them. http://vimeo.com/56112963
They also gave us a booklet that shared some of the stories of the caregivers or the people that they help. When it was my section's turn to go and make them, I felt that there was something special about it. It was then that God encouraged me to want to be a part of this project. I mentioned the idea of bringing it back to campus and was told that I should go for it. Hesitantly I agreed.. and the journey began.