URBANA! (:

Wow it has taken me what seems like forever to update this thing! Let me start off by stating the obvious... Urbana was beyond amazing! I wish I could give everyone a complete detailed run through of what I experienced, but instead I will provide you with some of my favorite moments with old friends, new friends, and of course amazing moments with God.

After running through airports and going through not only a time change but a vast change in weather, I arrived in snowy St. Louis. That is when the chaos and excitement began. Each day, we would wake up extremely early (7am Missouri time and 5am California time), eat breakfast then head on over to Bible study in our hotel. We would then walk a half mile (most of the week in the snow) to the dome, which is the HUGE convention center, and we would have worship and listen to a few speakers. Following the morning session, we would be free to go to lunch then attend up to two seminars a day, or you could skip the seminars and go the incredible bookstore or the hundreds of booths to meet with different missional ministries. All of that chaos was followed by dinner (watching 17,000 people shuffle through a dinner line was interesting...) then back to evening session where we would listen to a few more speakers and worship some more.

The days were very long, and by the time I would make it back to the hotel all I would want to do is sleep. But I would spend my days with my friend from high school, Micaela, and I would spend my nights with my new friends from school. I had an amazing time getting to know more people from school and getting to spend time with friends from my Bible study. I also met so many people from different countries and different states... It blew me away to think that each and every person I met loved Jesus, just like me. It was comforting to know that there are so many other people out there who share that same passion.

The first few days, I didn't hear any amazing speakers... I was getting a little antsy because I expected to be so blown away by what I was hearing. It was until the third night that two men spoke and left me completely convicted and speechless. The first was Shane Claiborne, a radical pastor from the midwest who has written amazing books and has dreadlocks. His talk was on radical giving and being missional in the way you give. The one thing he said that really stuck with me was that "the blessings of God are too great not to give away"... It stuck out to me because I had never thought of it like that. That this Love I have found would be so amazing that I would want to share it and give it away... It makes sense, but it just wasn't something that I had initially seen. Shane was followed by Oscar Muriu from Kenya who spoke about missions in general. He was probably the most convicting out of all the speakers I listened to. He made the point that going overseas does not make you a missionary, it's not about geographical location... It's about crossing through the door from pride to humility, power to powerless, riches to poverty, and harmony to brokeness; just as Jesus did when He came to earth. Our good intentions will never be enough unless they are accompanied by humility.

I went back to the hotel that night and thanked God for the amazing way He had spoken to me. It occurred to me that my heart has not been in the right place all this time; yes I would love to go overseas, but if I can't even be missional at home with that same humility then there is no way I could do anything in a foriegn country. So I looked up some of the verses they referred to and I came up with Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". Jesus begins by telling his disciples to start in Jerusalem, their home... That is where I have to start, in my hometown, my home church, my dorm room, and with my friends and loved ones. If I can't serve the people around me with the same humility and open heart as Jesus did, then how will I ever be able to serve so lovingly overseas?

This whole experiece has changed the way I view my life and its purpose. Although global missions may not be my life calling, I would love to make it a part of my life. I just have to get my heart to that place... I continue to work on that daily and pray that God will be my teacher through all of this. Urbana was such a great experience... And everything that I described is not even the half of it. I wish I could have stayed longer; it has definitely been hard to readjust to normal life back in Clovis while still keeping in mind everything I learned in those five days. I imagine it will be even more challenging to go back to school. But I have most definitely enjoyed break overall and feel very fortunate to have had such a great opportunity to attend Urbana.

As for the rest of my life, I have decided I would like to marry Colt McCoy... He is the quarterback of the Texas Longhorns, incredibly cute, and amazingly humble. This video sums it all up! (: