The apostle's vision of heaven, with saints 'from every nation, tribe, people and language' is brought vividly to life by the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES).
This summer its' World Assembly drew delegates from 115 national student movements, and from most of the other 35 countries where work has started. As the names of one country after another came up on the screen in the opening meeting, it was hard to keep back the tears. The last countries to appear were those who would formally join the Fellowship that week: Russia, Rwanda, Indonesia, Belize, Lesotho and St. Lucia. They rolled up the screen to spontaneous applause.
The movement in Ukraine joined four years ago. Since then Ukrainian graduates have helped pioneer student ministry in Central Asia and this year there were delegates from all but one of the Central Asian republics. In 1971 the Assembly was held in a medium-sized conference hall in Austria; this year there were 600 participants in one of the largest conference centres in Holland, the host country. The Assembly's last venue was in Korea, and before that Kenya. IFES is a truly global movement.
