"All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth." (Colossians 1:6)

Just three short years ago, 300 gathered for the Campus Conference in San Antonio, Texas. That mustard seed grew to 1,500 participants in Baton Rouge this last summer. Our campus ministries are growing quickly, and the fires of revival are spreading. We are excited to announce that the 2009 Int'l Campus Conference will be held in 17 cities in 16 different countries! The theme of the conference this year is 'The Whole World Will Know'! While a few of these cities had campus events last year, most of these cities are hosting international campus conferences for the very first time. In the United States both east and west coast sites will be having the conference August 6th-9th. Although many sites around the world will be conducting the conference during the same dates of the U.S sites for simulcast purposes it is not necessarily practical for all these sites. The important thing is to know that in 2009, 17+ conferences will be happen focusing on campus ministry. 

The most pleasant surprises in Kiev were the lessons I learned from having an international conference outside of the US. Five positive advantages illuminated the value of holding the International Leadership Conferences in new lands.

As the event drew near, my expectations for the International Leadership Conference in Kiev, Ukraine were lowering due to the reduced number of registrants from the U.S-about 250. Many, including myself, questioned the call to have an ILC on soil other than the U.S. where a majority of our leadership and missions support resides.

For me that all changed.

“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor.” –Gal 2:10.

The brothers and sisters on the HOPE worldwide and Benevolence Committee have been tirelessly serving for the past year to build stronger bridges and two-way communication between the churches and HOPE worldwide. The Committee has surveyed the churches for feedback about HOPE worldwide; it has created a church resource page on the HOPE worldwide website to help disciples and churches (https://www.hopeww.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=650&srcid=191 ); it has commissioned a wonderful theological essay on why Christians should help the poor by Robert Carrillo, Evangelist, San Diego Church of Christ; and it has given many great suggestions to HOPE worldwide about how to work together more effectively with the churches and disciples.