2006 DEC 30 Last night, I finally connected with pastor Yuya Kuwahara and his wife Liz (from Misaki Church in Chiba, Japan) at the the evening session at the dome. We had a great time! This morning I had breakfast with them and some of the ISI folks (Leon, Asako, Yu Chen). Most of the folks at Urbana were fasting after breakfast until dinner. I definitely got hungry and was really looking forward to dinner. After our morning Bible study, I spent the rest of the day attending a variety of talks on Business As Ministry (BAM), including micro-finance start-ups, branding, and tentmaking. They were all really interesting and I had no idea this a relatively new movement that was started at Princeton University in 1999. I learned some interesting facts about micro-finance: 1] Half a billion people have participated in micro-finance loans; 2] 95-98 percent have repaid their loans; 3] the repayment rate is dramatically higher than the credit card industry percentages for payback.
After all the BAM sessions I went to another hotel and participated in a two hour Japanese and Korean worship event hosted by JCFN. It was really good! People were really energized to be there, especially so late in the night. I was really encouraged to see Japanese and Korean students worshiping together with such enthusiasm!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
Urbana 06 - Day Three
2006 DEC 29 I slowed down a bit today with the number of activities I was participating in here. I skipped breakfast to catch up on sleep and then went to the morning Bible study at my hotel with the other 1,200 people who are in the "Open for Business" track. I've really been enjoying the Ephesians studies. After the morning session, I met up with Leon and some folks from ISI and San Lorenzo Japanese Christian Church (SanLo) to attend the mid-morning general event at the America's Center (i.e., Edward Jones) dome. We gathered for lunch afterwards and I had the chance to finally see Chase and Yu from SanLo.
After lunch, I dropped by the Urbana bookstore and bought a t-shirt. I am a sucker for conference tees. Then I walked around the exhibitor hall and met with people representing two schools in the Tokyo area. I had a great discussion with Noryuri-san from Tokyo Christian University about the need for business professionals to do Business As Ministry (BAM) in Tokyo. Our discussion was very encouraging to me personally, as I am currently feeling drawn to this ministry. Then I had a nice conversation with Kathi and Scott over at the Christian Academy in Japan booth about their school in the Tokyo suburbs, which provides an International, English-language, education for grades K-12. I was really impressed with how the school is integrating modern technology into the curriculum via Apple Macintosh desktop, laptop, and Xerve computers.
Each day, we get a small newspaper called "URBANA TODAY" with news about the conference, which is produced by journalism students. I was really encouraged by the news that there were 49 people here from Japan! This was especially interesting, since I read there were 42 from the UK and 30 from Mexico.
Check out the latest webcasts or issues of "URBANA TODAY" on the Urbana website.
After lunch, I dropped by the Urbana bookstore and bought a t-shirt. I am a sucker for conference tees. Then I walked around the exhibitor hall and met with people representing two schools in the Tokyo area. I had a great discussion with Noryuri-san from Tokyo Christian University about the need for business professionals to do Business As Ministry (BAM) in Tokyo. Our discussion was very encouraging to me personally, as I am currently feeling drawn to this ministry. Then I had a nice conversation with Kathi and Scott over at the Christian Academy in Japan booth about their school in the Tokyo suburbs, which provides an International, English-language, education for grades K-12. I was really impressed with how the school is integrating modern technology into the curriculum via Apple Macintosh desktop, laptop, and Xerve computers.
Each day, we get a small newspaper called "URBANA TODAY" with news about the conference, which is produced by journalism students. I was really encouraged by the news that there were 49 people here from Japan! This was especially interesting, since I read there were 42 from the UK and 30 from Mexico.
Check out the latest webcasts or issues of "URBANA TODAY" on the Urbana website.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Urbana 06 - Day Two
2006 DEC 28 Today was the first full day at Urbana 06. It was full of awesome presentations and sessions. I am totally EXHAUSTED from both the physical and the mental aspects of the day. I woke up at 7:00a after about six hours sleep and then ended my last session late and was back in my hotel room at 11:00p.
The morning Bible study in the Open for Business track continued with Ephesians and led into a good Q&A session with the 1,200 people in the track and more small group discussion with my new friends.
Mid morning, I walked over to the Dome (i.e., America Center) for another worship service with the other 22,000+ attendees here at Urbana. After more study of Ephesians in the general session, I met a Leon Harper and some others from ISI for lunch at Quiznos. Talk about total chaos! Imagine 22,000 people converging on a downtown area at one time for lunch. Lines at most restaurants were out the door and down the street! We had a good lunch outside in a park by the City Courthouse. It was a chilly day, but at least the sun was out.
After lunch, I walked back to the America Center and visited the Urbana bookstore and bought two new books: God is at work, Devotional Ventures.
I spent the rest of the day and evening attending Open for Business track sessions, which focused on the foundations of the concept of Business As Ministry (BAM). By the end of the day I was over saturated with information and ready to fall asleep. The highlight of the evening was hearing seven small ventures give their 5 minute pitch during a competition for a chance to win a $40,000 prize for the best business plan. Some of the ideas were so empowering! It will be interesting to see which venture wins on Saturday.
Another great highlight of the day was eating dinner with 5,000 people! More on official conference numbers tomorrow.
The morning Bible study in the Open for Business track continued with Ephesians and led into a good Q&A session with the 1,200 people in the track and more small group discussion with my new friends.
Mid morning, I walked over to the Dome (i.e., America Center) for another worship service with the other 22,000+ attendees here at Urbana. After more study of Ephesians in the general session, I met a Leon Harper and some others from ISI for lunch at Quiznos. Talk about total chaos! Imagine 22,000 people converging on a downtown area at one time for lunch. Lines at most restaurants were out the door and down the street! We had a good lunch outside in a park by the City Courthouse. It was a chilly day, but at least the sun was out.
After lunch, I walked back to the America Center and visited the Urbana bookstore and bought two new books: God is at work, Devotional Ventures.
I spent the rest of the day and evening attending Open for Business track sessions, which focused on the foundations of the concept of Business As Ministry (BAM). By the end of the day I was over saturated with information and ready to fall asleep. The highlight of the evening was hearing seven small ventures give their 5 minute pitch during a competition for a chance to win a $40,000 prize for the best business plan. Some of the ideas were so empowering! It will be interesting to see which venture wins on Saturday.
Another great highlight of the day was eating dinner with 5,000 people! More on official conference numbers tomorrow.
Urbana 06 - Day One
2006 DEC 27 Urbana 06 is in motion in St. Louis, Misouri, which is a first time for this new location. We had a good kickoff session tonight at the Edward Jones dome where the St Louis Rams play American football. There are 22,000+ people/Christians attending from 144 countries! Pretty amazing stuff!
I have a comfortable room at the Adam's Mark Hotel with a nice view of the City Courthouse and Busch stadium. The free DSL is a nice touch!
We were instructed to form small groups (based on people we meet at our hotels) and to get together daily during our time here and pray and talk about the scripture (Ephesians) we are studying as a larger group. So I met to two guys randomly in the elevator and we asked three more people we met randomly at the late night business mixer to join our group. There are also some people here from my church in SF and others from the Bay area in the "Open for Business" track that I met at the mixer.
So far a good first day. :)
I have a comfortable room at the Adam's Mark Hotel with a nice view of the City Courthouse and Busch stadium. The free DSL is a nice touch!
We were instructed to form small groups (based on people we meet at our hotels) and to get together daily during our time here and pray and talk about the scripture (Ephesians) we are studying as a larger group. So I met to two guys randomly in the elevator and we asked three more people we met randomly at the late night business mixer to join our group. There are also some people here from my church in SF and others from the Bay area in the "Open for Business" track that I met at the mixer.
So far a good first day. :)
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