It was at the end of an evening plenary session at New Wineskins Global Mission Conference in 2013 that a healing and peace came over me that was totally unexpected.

As Christians, we are all called to be mission-minded, seeing ourselves as everyday missionaries wherever we happen to live and at whatever life stage we happen to be.

This was my third Urbana, but my first Urbana where I wasn’t a student anymore, now I was an exhibitor.

The recently launched Anglican International Student Ministry Network (AISMN) held its first conference to connect Anglicans seeking to reach the 1.6 million international students currently in North America.

“The low temperature on the East coast will be colder than the high temperature on Mars this weekend,” Nate shared while driving with our fellows to run some errands before our departure to Thailand the next day.

Rev. John Chol Daau is an Anglican priest, journalist, and teacher. John spent his early years in the rural and indigenous culture of the Jieng people of Baping in South Sudan.

The thing I love most about New Wineskins is the relationships. The New Wineskins Triennial Conference is often described as a “great family reunion” and the same is true for our yearly board meetings. I look forward to them all year long and always learn so much from my fellow board members. It is great to get out of my normal routine and see what the Lord is doing across all cultures and contexts.

It was a blazing hot day, our second clinic day in the village of Ntooma. The Gospel tent was buzzing with activity as our Ugandan evangelism and prayer teams were ministering to the clinic patients. Dr. Chris Keenan, the team dentist, led a ninety-year-old man over to our area. Chris explained that the man had a terminal tumor in his throat and that even back in the US there was nothing that could be done medically to save him. Chris, himself a strong Christian, knew that the best we could do was offer him the Gospel and prayer ministry. Chris also told me that the aged man had been candidly told the seriousness of his condition.

Last April I attended the New Wineskins for Global Mission Conference in Ridgecrest, NC. As I was passing through the lobby one day, I happened to see a small group of photographs on a table. Among the photos was one entitled, "God is Calling Artists To...", listing ways in which an artist can serve God. This one photograph by artist Beverley Roehr touched my heart and led me over the next ten months to paint a series of paintings on the journeys of refugees.

Applause broke out the Sunday morning when it was announced that Ajay* had become a Christian. Ajay is just one of over one million foreign students that study in the U.S., and one of over 50 students who visited St. Matthew’s Parish, Ft. Motte, SC as part of our International Student Weekends. He opened his heart to Jesus after our church family opened their hearts, lives, homes, and church doors to him. BUT, what were students from China, India, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Brazil, Japan, and Russia doing in the “mythical village” of Ft. Motte? How did a church in the middle of a cotton field launch a ministry that is having a global impact?

When I was eleven, my dad picked me to go with him to church where a missionary would be sharing about her experiences serving in Africa. I remember being mesmerized by the photos and the stories she shared. After just an hour of being exposed to the world of foreign missions, I said to my dad on the way home, “I want to be a missionary when I grow up!”