Urbana 06 Track
Slum Communities of the Developing World
The world has moved to the city; the mega-cities of the globe are bursting at the seams as people flock to them to find work. More than one billion people live in make-shift housing and another billion are on the way.
This track has been designed for Urbana attendees interested in urban transformation in the Two-Thirds World. Urban church planting, economic development, waste management, child labor, prostitution, housing, and other critical areas will be addressed within this track.
This is a residential track which all Urbana attendees are invited to join; acceptance will be given on a first-come basis.
Track Director Scott Bessenecker has been sending students on mission trips for more than 20 years. Believing God was raising up a fresh wave of monks and nuns from the Evangelical ranks, he started the Global Urban Trek, a short term ministry to the poorest of the poor with the express purpose of calling students to life-long service to desperately poor people. Scott edited the book, Quest for Hope in the Slum Community, and has written one of Urbana’s books of the day, The New Friars. He lives in Madison Wisconsin with his wife, Janine and three kids and claims to possess the largest international cigarette collection owned by an evangelical non-smoker.
Videos about Slums and the Track!
12/18: Slum Communities Track One Week Away!
12/17: Greetings from the Middle East!
12/6: Outdoor Church in a Bangkok Slum
12/6: Meet Kevin Walton
12/6: Church in a Slum
12/5: Housing in the Slum Communities Track
11/20: How Does a Slum Come into Existence?
11/2: Welcome to the Slum Communities Track
TRACK SEMINARS
Urbanization 101 - Dave Palmer
For the first time in the history of humanity on earth there are more people living in cities than in rural settings. The missionary to the slum community is in greater demand than ever before, yet so few missionaries are being sent to the urban poor. What are the sociological, missiological and theological implications of this shift to the cities? What are the challenges to bringing God’s kingdom to the slum community? Come to be introduced to the opportunities and needs of our urban world.
Sex-Trafficking, Child Prostitution, and the Growing International Trade in Human Flesh - Chris Heuertz
What does God think of the sex industry and just how prevalent is this trade? Is the church doing anything in this area? This seminar will look at people and ministries having a positive impact among prostitutes in our world’s megacities.
Children on the Streets: The Life of a Kid Living Off the Streets - Sarah Kim
What is it like as a 14 year old to live on the streets of Lima Peru, Kolkata, India or Freetown, Sierra Leone? Some estimate there are 100 million children who live their lives attempting to avoid abusive adults by living in communities of kids, surviving together in our world’s cities. Drugs, violence, prostitution and caring for each other are the realities for many of them. Come to hear stories of life on the streets from the perspective of those who work day in and day out amongst our world’s abandoned street children.
Shantytowns: Informal Housing and the Church Among Squatters - Kevin Walton
How can the church offer lasting hope and transformation to the one billion people living in squatter communities on land they do not own? Explore the issues, challenges, and joys involved in being a part of a faith community among the poor committed to forming a sustainable indigenous movement of contextualized holistic house churches that are transforming people and their communities.
Aiding the Urban Poor From the Halls of Power - Jean-Luc Krieg
While grassroots development and incarnational church planting are crucial to transforming urban slums, it is as important that policy makers and government officials, business representatives and professionals, city planners and lobbyists use their influence to improve the conditions of slum dwellers. This seminar will practically explore what it means to seek the Shalom of a city from the halls of power. It is designed to inspire people with career paths in business, law, advocacy, journalism, government, multi-lateral institutions, etc. to use their influence and power toward creating initiatives and systems that bless the poor.
Security? Doing Missions Under Threat of Violence - Corrie Long, Nate Bacon
What do you do if God is calling you into a life-threatening environment? Can you raise kids in a violent slum or under conditions of war? Is it even responsible to attempt mission in places of violence? Come to hear from missionaries who have lived under siege and found ways to follow Christ behind the battle lines.
Incarnational Mission: Poverty we Know About; It's Poor People We Don't Know - John Hayes, Tim Lockie
Poverty is a subject of many classes and books, but how many of us make it a point to intertwine our lives with the poor. Come to explore what it might mean for you to relocate into an urban slum in the developing world or a high poverty neighborhood in the West.
Sparking a Slum Movement: Beyond Community Development - Craig Greenfield
It is much easier to impose a well-thought-through program onto people in need than to get them to vocalize their real needs and propose a solution. There is also a giant failure rate for programs dreamed up by people outside a difficult situation who have the resources to run their programs without the help or consent of the people they are helping. This seminar will examine transformation from the perspective of those who are skilled at bringing a community together with their own ingenuity and resources to bring about kingdom transformation.
Ministry Among the Garbage: A Firsthand Account
Father Ben Beltran is a Catholic priest who has lived and served for more than 30 years among dumpsite scavengers in Manila, Philippines. In his years of service and worship among garbage dumps he has discovered truths about himself, about God, about the poor and about the need to steward our environment. Currently he is building the “greenest” church in the world in a garbage dump, complete with solar power and dry composting toilets. Learn about Father Ben’s journey, his love for God’s creation, and his life of service among some of the most desperately poor on earth.
Mission and Monasticism: Is this ancient form of mission is reemerging? - Scott Bessenecker
For the first fifteen centuries of the Christian faith, most missionaries were monks and nuns who had pledged to serve the church through a missionary order. The Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Nestorians of the east and then ancient Celtic orders were essentially missionary bands made up predominantly of young people who had taken vows in order to bring the gospel to the least and the lost. What can we learn from these ancient “mission agencies” and are slum communities of the developing world a good mission environment to reengage this model?
SEMINAR LEADERS
David Palmer was born and raised in California. He has served on InterVarsity staff in Los Angeles, and as an international missionary for seven years with Servant Partners. David has lived and ministered among the poor in slums in a nation in the 10/40 window. He currently works as a missionary trainer for Servant Partners.
Chris Heuertz, Executive Director of Word Made Flesh Ministries, knew that his life needed to count for the poor after spending several months in Calcutta with Mother Teresa in 1993. After this life changing experience, he moved quickly and deliberately so that his life would be marked by service to the poorest of the poor and to Jesus. Since 1992, Chris and his wife, Phileena, have traveled through nearly 60 countries working with the poorest of the poor, gypsies, children with AIDS, prostituted women and girls, recovering drug addicts, street children, unreached people, and refugees. Chris and Phileena reside in Omaha, Nebraska, serving in an administrative capacity in addition to teaching, writing, speaking, and pastoring the Word Made Flesh community.
Kevin Walton and his wife Cynthia have been church planting among the urban poor in Bangkok for 16 years and prior to that served two years in a refugee camp in Thailand. Kevin’s present roles include being the leader of the Servant Partner team in Bangkok, Vice-President of the Thai Peace Foundation, and founder of the Peace Community House Church Network. He is a missionary serving under the Baptist General Conference and a graduate of Bethel College and Bethel Seminary.
Rev. Jean-Luc Krieg was born and raised in Ivory Coast, West Africa, and of Swiss-German descent, was Latin America and Caribbean Field Director for Geneva Global Inc., a Pennsylvania-based philanthropy investment firm. Krieg is an ordained American Baptist Churches pastor and holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Palmer Theological Seminary and an MBA in International Economic Development from Eastern University, both located outside Philadelphia, United States. Currently, Jean-Luc is team leader of Servant Partners Mexico and executive director of Urban Transformation International, a recently formed Mexico-City based NGO. Jean-Luc is married to Shabrae Jackson Krieg.
For the past 6 years Craig Greenfield, the International Coordinator of Servants to Asia's Urban Poor, has lived amongst the poor in some of the worst slums in Asia, pioneering a ministry reaching more than 1000 AIDS orphans and leading a movement of radical followers of Jesus in the slums. His book "Urban Halo" will be published in April 2007. Craig is a storyteller and teacher, drawing on his experiences in the slums to bring new insights and creative approaches to see the world's slums transformed by Christ.
You can learn more about Urbana 06 and register here.
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