Missions Fest Edmonton 2001 -- February 2-4
Imagine a mission shopping mall where the whole family can do "one stop shopping" with a variety of organizations, pick and choose from convicting messages, expose children to God’s heart for other cultures, be trained by excellent seminar leaders and select hard-to-find missions books that fit God’s call on your life! Where would you go for something like this? Missions Fest Edmonton 2001.

Ever growing, this 7th annual conference also saw more people attend from outside the Edmonton area. Conferees from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the United States helped swell the weekend numbers to a 23,000 aggregate count.

Challenging addresses by Tony Campolo of Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), Loren Cunningham of Youth with a Mission (YWAM), and Huldah Buntain of Mission of Mercy (India) were only part of this exciting conference focusing on "A Waiting World…A Willing Church?" People’s hearts were touched by the hard-hitting messages by responding to God’s call to serve Him. Friday night over 300 adults went forward in obedience to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

A newly added Saturday night Youth/Young Adult Rally was well attended as Tony Campolo challenged the young people to follow God wholeheartedly in mission service. The two Youth Rallies saw hundreds of young people pack the altar area as some accepted Christ into their lives and others made commitments to world missions.

Record setting numbers of children (ages 2-12), also learned about God’s heart for the world and what they can do right now to make a difference. Children experienced ethnic cultures on their Friday and Saturday "Cruisin’ for Christ" with visits to places such as Turkey, Russia, and Chad. Jill Harris, children’s mobilization specialist for Caleb Project, presented the M & M Kids (missions-minded) Seminar to Grades 1 to 6. Kids had a chance to learn about the unreached peoples of the world: Tribals, Hindus, Unreligious, Muslims and Buddhists.

Friday Field Trips exposed grades 4-12 to a wide variety of creative mission presentations and motivating messages. Over 1,300 students from Christian schools and home schooling groups left with a greater understanding of the lost and the need to reach them with the Gospel.

Strong attendance was seen in 50 seminars offered in nine tracks, including Unreached Peoples, Compassion Ministry, Children’s Missions Education, Missionary Preparation, Life Achievers (55+ age group) and Cults to mention a few. Standing room only was common in seminar rooms.

Mission organizations, Christian colleges, local ministries, and denominational representatives filled the exhibit hall with 140 booths to expose people to a wide variety of opportunities for the Lord. The growing desire and hunger to learn more about God’s love for the nations was indicated by all time high audiotape and book sales.

One of the highlights of the conference was the Sunday night "Sing to the Nations" presentation of eight ethnic choirs sharing their special gifts and musical styles of worship. Loren Cunningham’s concluding message challenged people to surrender their rights and serve God, even to the ends of the earth. The dramatic ending was a mass choir with over 100 plus voices of many countries praising God – a preview of heaven.

The foundation of the success of this conference is the 60 plus sponsoring churches that support, plan and organize this missions extravaganza in addition to numerous other supportive congregations who get their people out for the weekend. Plans are already moving ahead for next year’s event, "Faith Under Fire," dealing with the persecuted church.