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It was a bit of a last minute decision, but Emily and I decided to attend the Cedarville University Missions Conference during our time home in Ohio.
For years we had been on the “student-side” of the Missions Conference, and now for the first time we’d have the privilege of actually being the missionaries! I even had the honor of being invited to give the opening prayer for the evening conference.
One of our deciding factors for attending the conference was that our directors Paul and Lisa Voss were going to be attending. Emily and I semi-frequently see Paul as he attends board meetings and graduations, but we rarely see Lisa – so this was a special chance for us to spend some time with both of them while state-side.
Weeks earlier Paul and I worked on redesigning and updating our missions display, and this would be the first time I’d get to see what it looked like with my own eyes. The missionary booths at CU are bordering the walls of the chapel hallway and we wanted ours to be eye catching and engaging. It was encouraging to see it accomplishing that goal and we had many people mention how nice it looked and asked how they could adopt some of our ideas for their own booths.
One of the added benefits to returning to Cedarville was reconnecting with all (or as many as we could fit in) of the relationships we have there. Not the least of which is Delora, our adopted Grandmother and the landlord that Jesse and I lived with for 3 years.
While we didn’t get to see everyone, we did get to catch-up with some amazing alumni missionaries, as well as close friends like Pastor Rohm and Jeff Beste. We plan on finding everyone else to spend time with next year.
Cedarville is more than a second home for us, it’s where both our relationship and our missions involvement began. The conference was fantastic and we wish we could have stayed for all of it, we plan on it for next year.
The moment that will always stay in my mind is when all of us missionaries were invited up on stage and the entire student body rose to ovation in honor of all those who have devoted themselves to the Mission of God. Our evening speaker Dr. Murray entreated the students to commit themselves to praying for missionaries and asking the Lord to send out workers in the harvest field. We join that challenge and pray, “Lord send us more missionaries.”