So Close, Yet So Far From Home

It’s hard to predict where most conversations are headed. Even more so when talking with an international. You never quite know what you’re going to hear, and this time it broke my heart.

It was a story of abandonment, isolation, fear, and anxiety–no one to turn to for help. I was chatting with a few students and scholars as we waited to go to Friday Night on the Farm, and one of them shared this story:

Three visiting professors hadn’t found a place to live yet (this was week three of the term), so they decided to travel on the weekends as to not be a burden to those they were staying with. The trio decided to visit Seattle and somehow navigated the whole trip on public transportation–an impressive feat on its own! Their trip was from Friday to Sunday and was going well until they arrived back in downtown Salem on Sunday. There, they discovered that the commuter bus from Salem to Monmouth only operates on weekdays. I can almost imagine them turning to each other in concern. What are we going to do now?

This realization wouldn’t have been a huge issue if these scholars (a) had a cell phone and (b) someone’s number to call. Unfortunately, the only useful items they had were maps in their hands and shoes on their feet. Not knowing any alternative, the group decided to walk.

Map from Salem Transit Station to WOU

That began their 16-mile journey, the thump-thump of rolling suitcases behind them. Between five and six hours later, they finally made it home (as much home as it can be when you’re sleeping on someone else’s floor, 7,000 miles from your family and everything familiar). I haven’t personally tried walking from Salem to Monmouth, but it would be quite a trek!

I’m still hoping to connect with these scholars in person. In the meantime, I asked the friend who shared this story to please pass along my contact info so something like this won’t happen again. If they ever find themselves stuck without a ride, at least they’ll have one person to turn to.

Can you imagine arriving in a foreign country, where you only know a few words of the language, you don’t know where anything is (or how to get there if you did!), and you even struggle to identify the food on your plate at dinner? Holly and I know what that’s like, and we deeply appreciate the friends who helped us through those first difficult weeks and months. This is a big part of what motivates me in ministry to international students.

What if every international visitor had a local friend? What if that friend was you?

Announcing ISI’s Partnership with GlobalMediaOutreach.com

ISI has partnered with GMO—a ministry dedicated to reaching people for Christ through online evangelism. In 2012, 195 million people were reached with the Gospel on websites and mobile devices through GMO’s ministry. Of those, over 26 million indicated a decision for Jesus! GMO is listed in the ‘Top 10 List’ of the most impactful Christian charities of 2012 by ROIministry.org.

ISI’s partnership with GMO launched on January 31, 2013 through an ISI-branded website (www.GodLovesStudents.com) targeted via Google ads to reach international students throughout Europe and elsewhere. GMO confirms that they have already started seeing some traffic and decisions for Christ through this website! ISI’s team of “online missionaries” will follow-up and disciple international student responses from this site.

“Global Media Outreach is perhaps God’s most effective tool yet to allow every person on planet Earth to hear about and to know Jesus Christ…” – Vonette Bright

If you are interested in knowing more about becoming an ISI online missionary, contact Gordy Decker at gdecker@isionine.org for more details.

Please pray for an ongoing successful partnership and that many students would come to know our Savior through these efforts. For additional information about this strategic initiative, please contact Alex Tovar at atovar@isionline.org.*

* Reproduced from the ISI Weekly Message newsletter, February 8, 2013

Giving and Receiving

We got a lot of Christmas cards this year. It’s probably because we mailed a lot of cards this year. I’m guessing that half of the cards we received were in direct response to the ones we sent out. I know this because we don’t usually get that many Christmas cards!

I have nothing against those who sent us cards because they got one from us. We loved seeing your family photos and little notes. They’re still on top of our piano. It does highlight, though, what this post is all about: the natural human tendency to reciprocate, to give back to those who gave to us. If the desire to give back is that strong in our relatively individualistic American culture, how much more important is it in the lives of people from other more relationship-based cultures? I work with international students, so I see this everyday.

I had been helping a houseful of Chinese undergrads get settled in our town–buy furniture, open bank accounts, find the grocery store, etc. They came on a sightseeing trip and even the first week or two of our Friday night gatherings. And then they stopped coming. I called and texted a few times but with no response. Eventually, the most outspoken student spoke up. He thanked me for helping them in so many ways, but revealed that they weren’t involved anymore because they didn’t know how to pay me back for what I had already done for them. I had freely given but had failed to receive.

As Christians, we’ve often taken the mantra “it’s better to give than to receive” too far. In service of our pride and sense of accomplishment, we’ve failed to allow those we minister to minister to us. That was the case with those Chinese students. With sincere and generous hearts, we go out to feed the five thousand–but only with our own bread and fish.

It all comes down to grace. As followers of Jesus, we want to share the love and grace of Jesus with our friends and neighbors. We’ve experienced it, and we want them to as well. However, in our effort to meet all of their needs, we neglect to allow our friends the opportunity to meet some of ours as well. If we’re not careful, our relationships can become like a panhandler to a passersby. Over time, they feel entitled, and we feel guilty for not giving enough.

“When someone has been given much, much will be required in return” (Luke 12:48, NLT). You and I extend grace easily and freely, but sometimes to a fault. We can actually inadvertently hinder the grace that our friends–even ones who don’t yet share our faith–want to give back to us. The Bible says that we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Isn’t this reciprocation at work, too?

That’s why I’ve started letting students buy their own lunches and pitch in for rides to the airport. After all, isn’t that what a true friendship looks like? In fact, my favorite way to allow my international friends to give back is by inviting them over to my house to cook a meal. They can use my pots, pans, and kitchen, but they bring the ingredients and do all of the work. My family and I really enjoy these times. The students are able to treat us to some tasty ethnic food, and we can share a couple hours of conversation and memories together.

How might this look in your life? Among your friends? In what ways might you free yourself to receive from others this week?

Confessions of a volunteer

This is part of an e-mail I received from a volunteer who has just caught the vision of international student ministry. I wanted to share it with you today in hopes that you might catch the bug, too.

I am ashamed to say that before I prayed that God would help me focus my efforts on the eternal, I had limited interest in international students – even though I came from an international family & work for a university. Now I see international students as a gold-mine & possibly the biggest church oversight of american college-town history… as the students keep pouring in from the nations in groves, of which so many nations are limiting or closed to the good-news. Students find a freedom in America to critique their beliefs and learn truth without many of the fears they were raised under. These are the worlds most brilliant minds coming to our front porch wanting to know about “Christianity”  – Go God!!

There are nearly a million internationals on U.S. campuses this year. What is God calling you to do to be a part of this strategic ministry?

For such a time as this,

Matt

Hello, Stranger!

“How did you all meet each other?” I was trying to figure out how these friends had met. Holly and I had befriended two of them on our Tulip Festival trip (you can see photos here), and I invited this couple over for dinner last week. Just to make sure everyone was comfortable, I suggested that they invite another Arabic-speaking couple as well. Having not heard anything about additional friends, we naively set the table for four…

I’m glad we had already planned to eat family-style (tacos), because our party of four turned into seven! [Side note: When having international students over for dinner, always have extra food around.] Long story short, we had a great time hanging out, eating, visiting, drinking copious amounts of coffee, and playing a few rounds of highly competitive Uno.

It was during one of those Uno matches that I posed the question: “How did you all meet each other?” We had ruled out the slim possibility that they had known each other in their home country, so how did it happen? How, among the 98 other students from their country at the university, did these five friends get to know each other? One of the ladies volunteered the answer: “I was walking down the street and saw someone else wearing a head covering. That’s how we met.” She, in turn, introduced her brother and sister-in-law to our first invitees. And that’s how the five of them ended up in our living room last week.

Holly and I have always marveled at how easy it is to say “hello” or even strike up a lengthy conversation with a perfect stranger when they’re the only ones who look like you for miles around. It’s amazing how our inhibitions would drop when we saw the only other white person at the farmer’s market or in the subway car. When you’re in a strange land, you stand a head taller than everyone, and you’re as easy to spot as a creamsicle in a freezer full of fudge bars, you’re willing to take some chances!

What about people who don’t share so many commonalities with me? Am I that willing reach out and befriend them, too? I wonder how Jesus felt as he approached Zacchaeus or Peter as he traveled to Cornelius’ house. Who are those near you who God may be calling you to befriend?

What about here?

That’s the question I asked Holly when she proposed the idea of moving abroad. “What was the point,” I thought. “There’s so much work to do here!”

We were involved in a lot of good things, including our church’s worship team and multiple Bible studies each week. No doubt, there were a lot of people here who hadn’t responded positively to Jesus’ invitation to “follow me,” but I was hard-pressed to think of anyone who had never been presented with the choice. Fortunately, God knew my heart. Through a class on the history of Christian missions, He softened my heart for the nations. By Thanksgiving that year, Holly and I had decided to leave our jobs, house, church community, dog, A&W root beer, and many familiar things to move to a small island in East Asia–a place we called “home” for four years.

Now, we find ourselves back in our house in small-town America. Are we just easing back into our comfortable Christian lives?

When I think of the fact that roughly 2 of every 10 international students in the U.S. ever set foot in an American’s home–let alone a Christian one–I’m convinced more than ever that there’s plenty of work to be done here! Even fewer make it into a church or are given a chance to read the Bible. Chances are likely that some of these “least reached” people attend a university near you. I ask the question again: What about here?

Don’t ever give up an opportunity to reach out to your neighbors with the love and message of Jesus, but please don’t neglect Jesus’ final order to His followers to “go into all the world…” As LeVar Burton would say, “…you don’t have to take my word for it.” Read it for yourself in Mark 15:16 and Matthew 28:19-20. This isn’t optional. Jesus didn’t send around a sign-up sheet or ask for volunteers. Ask yourself: What am I doing to share Jesus with those around me? Do I need to go more into the world than I am right now?

***

Here’s a recent article that inspired me to write this post.