InterVarsity chapters across the country are led by staff and student leaders who want to see their campuses renewed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. In San Diego the staff and students from nine different InterVarsity campus chapters have asked the big, bold question: “What would happen if we work together to reach the over 190,000 students throughout the city of San Diego?”
They will have their answer by December 1, World AIDS Day. From September 11 to December 1, 2006, InterVarsity chapters, in partnership with World Vision’s Acting on AIDS student movement and La Jolla Presbyterian Church, will conduct a nine-campus tour of an interactive AIDS exhibit to educate students about the AIDS pandemic and its impact on children.
The 1,600 square-foot exhibit will be set up for a week at a time on each of the nine campuses in the San Diego area and will be free and open to all students who want to experience it. A team of InterVarsity staff and student leaders will be trained to staff the exhibit and help students process their experience. The intent is that this exhibit will introduce entire campuses to InterVarsity students and staff in their midst by demonstrating their passion for orphans and vulnerable children.
The goal of the exhibit is to raise student awareness on the issues surrounding the AIDS crisis and to motivate students to take specific action steps. One of those steps is to sign up for the Urbana 06 program, i>Mission Through the Lens of AIDS, this December 27-31 in St. Louis. Another is to encourage students in San Diego and across the nation to observe World AIDS Day on their campuses on December 1, through an event called Lives are at Stake, which is sponsored by World Vision’s Acting on AIDS program.
Acting on AIDS is a grassroots movement started by Christian college students that focuses on increasing awareness and promotes a response against HIV and AIDS. Campuses participating in i>Lives are at Stake will use wooden or metal stakes to display pictures of orphans and vulnerable children across campus. Students, faculty, and staff are then encouraged to pick up a picture, read the story of the child, hang it around their neck, and pray for that child throughout the remainder of the day. The goal of this event is to create a visual connection with the real individuals affected by HIV and AIDS, as well as provide participants with the opportunity to turn the issue back to God and ask him how to respond.
i>Missions Through the Lens of AIDS is just one of the programs being offered at the Urbana 06 convention this December. Urbana 06, which will be InterVarsity’s 21st student missions convention, is expecting to host 25,000 people who will come to explore opportunities to serve in missions in a variety of fields, including health care, education, business, community development, pastoral ministry, and linguistics. For more information and to register visit www.urbana.org.
