A little of my Urbana experience...

I am so thankful I had the opportunity to be a part of Urbana 06. It was such a great experience and through my time there I learned so much about myself personally and the world around me. Throughout the week we studied the book of Ephesians, in which Paul makes a strong emphasis on the unity of the body of Christ. Taking a deeper look at these passages really made me see some things in a new way. As Paul writes, we are all ONE body. Yes, of course I've been taught this before, but sometimes I forget what that really means. We all come to Christ the same way, kneeling before him, and are all unified through him. As one body, each part should feel the effects of the others. Urbana game me just a small picture of the oppression faced by many people in other countries. Some of these issues include the effects of AIDS on children and families in Africa and the horrific reality of child sex trafficking. As I thought about Paul's teaching of being one body in Christ, and then learned about some of the issues that others are facing everyday, it changed my heart and really made me feel for these people in a new way. It's easy to feel the effects of things that happen to people in our own church body, but in these passages Paul isn't talking about just the people we see on Sunday or in our community; he is talking about our brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere. Many of these people suffering from the effects of AIDS or from human trafficking are our own brothers and sisters in Christ; and as one body, we should feel the effect of their suffering. Of course we can't all go out and save each person, but as I was also reminded at Urbana, God is greater than we could ever give Him credit for and he hears our prayers. Many of these people are crying out to God for freedom from their suffering and though we will probably never know these people, we can at least join them in prayer so they will not be alone!