household goods and furniture as they settle into their new place of residence and bring them back at the end of the school year.
• Embrace international students as a part of your life. Be a genuine friend. Remember that they want to experience life in America! Invite them for meals and help them shop. Ask them to participate in special family events, trips, birthday parties and weddings, church activities, ex- cursions such as ball games, bowl- ing, amusement parks, and holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Explain the meaning of these special holidays.
Welcome Refugees and Immigrants
• Host a refugee family. There are organizations looking for individuals, families, and churches to invest in the lives of these newcomers.
• Give them pointers about shop- ping. Explain the different types of stores, the post office, and the library. Explain how coupons work. Give them pointers about finding sales and how to buy used items through ads or at garage sales. Explain other differences they’ll en- counter, such as pounds and kilos.
• Spend time in conversation with them. Ask about their country and allow them to talk about their ideas, needs, and fears over coffee or tea. Include them on excursions to ball games, amusement parks, and mu- sical venues.
• Assist them in applications for jobs and in how to do an interview.
• Find grocery stores that specialize in ethnic food and help with trans- portation if needed. Ask them to help you prepare food from their country.
India, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Vietnam, Mexico, and Turkey. China contin- ues to send the most students—29 percent. While studying in the United States, the majority
of international students—as high as 75 percent— are never invited into an American home. More than 80 percent are never invited to an American church, nor do they have any meaningful contact with genu- ine Christians during an average stay of four years. This information should pierce the heart of the
believer! The church should reach out; no interna- tional student who wants to have an American friend should be lacking. You may not realize this, but many internation- al students come from places that are restrictive or prohibitive to the Good News of Christ Jesus. Many of them are interested in and receptive to the gospel while studying in the United States. Because of this, we have a profound opportunity to influence future political and business leaders. We cannot allow programmatic busyness or the
fear of different customs, cultures, or languages keep us from building relationships. If you will just reach out, you’ll discover a multitude of ways to build friendships, meet needs, and discover what it means to live out your Christian faith as a witness. As we are faithful to love and share the Good
News and as immigrants, refugees, and international students come to know Christ, they too will share the gospel where we’ve not been able to go—literally becoming a gateway for spreading the gospel into their homelands. For years, the International Mission Board, as well as other Great Commission Christian groups, has encouraged embracing UPGs (Unreached Peo- ple Groups) and UUPGs (Unengaged, Unreached People Groups), developing an engagement strategy, and then getting on an airplane to reach them in their homeland. That’s still an important and valid strategy, but there’s more! Someone needs to go the airport and welcome the planes filled with people groups that God is sending to our homeland! The people group God is calling you to engage might not just live in their homeland, they could be students at
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20