As a university student, Sarah Neff’s only direct experience in missions was playing soccer for a few weeks one summer in Guatemala. She loved it, but she says she “had never really seen the global picture of what is going on around the world,” she says.

That changed at the end of 2003 when the international development and Spanish major from Guelph University went to Urbana. Five days of intense Bible study, worship and hearing the stories of missionaries from around the world gave her a broader perspective.

The giant missions convention organized by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) is dubbed “Urbana” because, for most of its history, it has taken place in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. But its roots are in Canadian soil, and this year, Urbana is moving to St. Louis, Missouri.

Sixty years ago, students at the University of Toronto organized the first IVCF missions convention, drawing as many as 2,000 students from Canada and the U.S. One of them was Kenneth Dresser, a young teenager and a new Christian from Windsor whose Inter-School Christian Fellowship leader decided he was missionary material.

“She spoke to Wilber Sutherland [then the general director of IVCF Canada] and said ‘I have a high-school student who needs to go to the conference.’

“This was the beginning of my awareness of foreign missions,” says Dresser, who retired several years ago after 40 years in Papua New Guinea as a medical missionary with his wife, Sylvia, a nurse. Although in 1946 he was too young to make a commitment, the experience helped to shape his future.

Most of his five children have also gone to Urbana, and this year, Dresser hopes one of his grandchildren will attend.

According to Kim Evans, vice-president of advancement for IVCF Canada, there are “countless Urbana alumni who are serving God” today because they made commitments at an Urbana convention, which takes place every three years. “When they go there, God transforms them.”

Urbana is moving to St. Louis because it has outgrown the venue. “We have maxed out at about 22,000,” says Evans. The Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis has a capacity of about 30,000. The goal is 25,000 students; organizers expect to exceed the goal.

As for Sarah Neff, she would not be on the same path were it not for Urbana.

“I would say that Urbana shaped the direction I’m going by giving me a heart for missions and a global picture of what is going on worldwide.”

She has since spent time working in Spain and in Zambia, and is now doing a master’s degree in communications and media at Liberty University in Virginia. She plans to return to Urbana this year, but this time she’ll be working on a documentary for Crossroads Christian Communications.