Urbana Mission
Conference Changes
Young Lives
Ever since it began,
Urbana has always had a
strong Canadian touch.
10 n January / February 2013 n www.Faith Today.ca 10 n January / February 2013 n www.Faith Today.ca
Urbana, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship’s (IVCF) student mis- sion conference that takes place
every three years, closed this year how it
began years ago – with a strong Canadian
touch. Geri Rodman, president of IVCF
Canada, offered the closing address to a
crowd of thousands, including more than
2,200 Canadians who travelled to St. Louis,
Missouri for the conference, which took
place from Dec. 27
to 31.
The very first
Urbana conference
actually took place
in Canada in 1946.
The conference has
grown to become
the pivotal event
of IVCF, an organization committed to
“the transformation
of youth, students and
graduates, in all their ethnic diversity, into
fully committed followers of Jesus Christ”
(www.ivcf.ca).
“The challenge is to take the mission that
they’ve heard back home,” says Rodman.
“During the whole week, the challenge is to
engage, and the theme is the Great Invitation. It’s an extraordinary invitation requir-ing an extraordinary investment.”
Although the conference is now held in
the U. S., (with the next Urbana scheduled
Geri Rodman
Job’s Blues . . .
Photos: InterVarsIty ChrIstIan FellowshIP/Usa
Sometimes an idea grabs hold of you and just doesn’t let go. that is what happened when r.
william Muir heard a 12-part sermon
series on the Book of Job at emman-
uel (Crossroads) Baptist Church in
Victoria, B.C., in 1976. “I realized then,”
he says, “that I wanted to do something
creative” with Job’s story.
over the years Muir, managing
editor of the magazine Canadian Men-
nonite, experimented with different
ways to retell the story of Job and his
trials. he tried writing an opera, an epic
poem, a play – but the right medium
eluded him.
an epiphany came in the late 1980s
