Thousands of Christian youth who finished 2012 at the Urbana Student Missions Conference are starting the New Year with commitments to serve God as missionaries.

Urbana Director Tom Lin said more than 4,000 of the 16,000 students who attended the five-day conference in St. Louis committed to more than two years of missionary service in their lives.

They accepted the challenge to both proclaim the Gospel and to demonstrate Christian love through service to those in need.

Lin said planning will start soon for the next Urbana Student Missions Conference in 2015.