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 For
many delegates, the most-life changing parts of Urbana happen far away from
the high-profile events. Urbana 03 exhibits will feature over 350 missions
agencies and seminaries,  represented by thousands of career missionaries. In
interacting with this diverse group of workers for God’s Kingdom, you
will have the opportunity to put the convictions that God’s giving you
into action, explore specific missions opportunities, and find out what God’s
doing in the places and fields that are close to your heart.
Why don’t you meet some of the missionaries who will be exhibiting
at Urbana 03? If your school or agency is interested in being an Urbana 03 exhibitor,
visit our exhibitor info page.
What kinds of organizations will be present?
An incredible variety of organizations will be present at the convention,
but all our exhibitors share a common passion to see God’s Kingdom
go forth in the world. Exhibitors include:
- Ministries to children
- Music and arts ministries
- Urban ministries
- Groups working in closed-access countries
- Medical ministries
- Ministries to specific ethnic groups
- Seminaries and missions training
organizations
 To search through our database of exhibitors, use MSearch.
(What is MSearch?) You can also browse the complete list of agencies and schools.
Criteria
for exhibitors
The Urbana 03 Team works hard to ensure that Urbana delegates
will have an excellent experience with our exhibitors. We strive to bring
a wide
range of missionaries to Urbana 03, people who are creative in their
approach to missions, from drama to public health. Exhibiting agencies
are all actively involved in God’s cross-cultural mission and are
ethnically and culturally diverse themselves. We look for exhibitors
who offer both short- and long-term missions project options, and all
seminaries or missions training schools at Urbana 03 have accredited
programs in missions, intercultural studies, or urban studies. In short,
Urbana 03 exhibitors represent reliable, well-established organizations
that are actively involved in bringing God’s Kingdom.
Students’ experiences
of exhibits
- “I had one exhibitor look at me and tell me point blank, ‘My
agency cannot serve you. But I can connect you with someone else who
can give you an opportunity where you would want to go, where you feel
God has called you to serve.’”
 “I just talked with Hospitals for Hope, and I talked
with a guy who started the organization… He definitely fired the
passion in my heart to work in medical and health care and do missions
at the same time.”- “We met this most amazing woman… She’s from
our small town within San Diego and she was inviting us to her office
to come visit her and learn more about missions… Her main passion
is India, and I really feel that that’s been tugging on my heart
lately.”
MSearch
MSearch is our searchable online database
of missions agencies and schools that will be present at Urbana 03. To
use MSearch, you’ll need
to create a My Next Steps account. If you already have an account, log
in.
Urbana 03 Missionaries
- Meet Russ. Born a fourth
generation Mormon, Russ and his entire family accepted Christ when
he was young. Russ developed a heart to reach
Mormons with the good news that God’s grace and belief in Jesus
as God’s only son is enough for them to reach heaven. Russ now
directs an organization in Utah offering short-term missions opportunities
outreaching to Mormons.
- Loren called Urbana Exhibits in April. His organization
had exhibited at Urbana in the past and wanted a spot for Urbana 03,
but
he couldn’t negotiate the online application. We spent 20 minutes
helping him understand the exhibitor’s part of urbana.org, and
he was very grateful. Then he said, “This is my last Urbana. My
first was Urbana 1948.” Loren was a student at the first Urbana
before spending 40 years as a missionary in Guatemala. Loren was willing
to go someplace new—both Guatemala and the Internet—in order
to spread God’s love to people. You could meet Loren at the booth
of his son’s agency at Urbana 03.
- In some countries, deaths from
AIDS will soon reduce the median age to 14. Catherine works
with an agency building and repairing homes
for street children and their families. Most recently, she has been
working with teams to build abandoned baby centers for orphans of AIDS
victims.
During breaks in construction, she tells Bible stories to local children.
Catherine will be enthusiastically joining us at Urbana 03.
- Michael has spent four years living and working on the Anastasis, the largest
non-governmental hospital ship in the world. He has traveled
on the Anastasis to South Africa, Gambia, Benin, Sierra Leone, and
a number of other countries building medical clinics and teaching community
health. If medical missions is your interest, you could find Michael
at the convention.
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