USA (MNN) — A week from today, more than 20,000 students will be gathering in the United States to participate in the largest missions convention in the world. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Urbana '09 will attract not only students in St. Louis, Missouri, but also dozens of Christian mission organizations.
Wycliffe Bible Translators will be one of many who will be there hoping to inspire young people to join their work around the world.
Senior Vice President with Wycliffe Ruth Hubbard will be there for the event. "Here's an opportunity for us to connect with thousands of students who, many of them through InterVarsity, have been on a journey to learn to love God and His Word and His people. It's an opportunity for us to come alongside them and help them in that journey."
For many young people, it's the first time they are able to see what God is doing around the world. Many of them become more open to God's calling on their life. Organizations like Wycliffe want to provide resources to help them in that quest.
Bible translation is a major part of evangelism, discipleship, and outreach. However, there are still many who can't read God's Word in their heart language. Hubbard says that's why Vision 2025 was created, "To see work in progress in the 2,200 language communities who don't yet have a translation program even started. And to do that in the next 15 years is a ridiculous goal. It's going to take a big team to get that work done!"
While Hubbard says the goal seems unachievable, significant progress is being made. "We were starting 25 new programs per year. We've received our latest statistics, and it's confirming that we're at a 75 start per year pace right now. We've never seen that kind of acceleration."
Hubbard is praying that many young people will catch the passion for Bible translation. At Urbana '09 Wycliffe will be encouraging that through prayer. "We'll have a wall. And on that wall we'll have a list of a little over 1,000 of the language communities where language work hasn't even started yet. We've created a mural that young people can come and add their prayers to. The work of Bible translation really starts in a language community when someone begins to pray."
Wycliffe and many other organizations will be at Urbana all next week. Mission Network News will be there, too. We'll be providing you coverage right here at our Web site, not to mention on our radio broadcasts. We'll also be posting "Video of the Day" shots at our Facebook and YouTube sites.
Pray that God will move in the hearts of many young people this year. There's still time to register. Click here: http://www.urbana.org/articles/still-time-to-register
