Campus Crusade Prepares to Trigger New Wave of Missionaries
15,000 College Students Converge for Global Campus Missions Launch
Campus Crusade for Christ International's largest-ever global student missions event opens on Saturday in Busan, South Korea, with a vision to start spiritual movements "everywhere."
CM2007 (Campus Mission) will be more than a six-day conference for the 15,000 students attending. With students flying in from 127 countries, the event will serve as "an on-going vision and project to reach every student on each campus ... so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus," said CCC spokesman Tony Arnold.
Preparations have been at fever pitch at the event venue – BEXCO Convention Center – and around Busan where 12 housing areas, Korean box lunches, buses and subways, video clips from around the world, and 10 FM radio frequencies that will transmit simultaneous translations during the conference have been prepared to meet the participating students.
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Host group Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC), CCC's first overseas mission post, has raised over $2.6 million through donations from 159 churches; Christian businesses, including PANKO which contributed $100,000; and 7,000 individuals to cover expenses for the historic event and for students attending from outside Korea.
KCCC had held annual student conferences each summer and this year invited the entire world to attend CM2007.
"We look forward to welcoming the students of the world to Korea, where they will be challenged to consider how God could use them to help bring His message of love to those students who have never heard it," said Dr. Park Sung-Min, national director of Korea Campus Crusade for Christ, in a statement.
Christian movements are only on 2,000 of the world's roughly 8,000 top tier campuses, which means that over 6,000 of the world's most influential universities are not being influenced by the gospel of Jesus Christ. "Millions of students pass through the world's universities without ever hearing the gospel," said a statement on CM2007's website, which is available in seven different languages.
Thus, "the goal this year is to see 365 new movements launched on campuses around the world as the next step in reaching the 6,000 campuses that lack an effective witness for Christ," said Arnold.
CCC leaders from around the world anticipate a major new outpouring at CM2007 and hope to launch a new wave of college students to the world as missionaries.
"I believe we're going to see one of the greatest things in the body of Christ in the next 10 years," commented Keith Bubalo, national director of the U.S. campus ministry WSN (Worldwide Student Network).
Prior to CM2007, teams of students from the United States and other countries have been visiting new campuses sharing their faith. Other students are scheduled to leave the missions conference to be witnesses for Christ in such cities as Delhi, Tokyo and Mexico City.
Main sessions of CM2007 will be available live on www.CM2007.net, June 30-July 5. The primary themes of the conference are Christ Magnified, Connected Movements, and Completing the Mission.
