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- Jan 2020 - International Student Outreach
Jan 2020 - International Student Outreach
The World in Our Backyard
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The Snapshot
News:
Tomorrow, we will be participating in a Chinese New Year celebration and Gospel outreach to international students. 3 friends from our church will be joining us.
We have reached 97% of our monthly support goal!
Prayer Requests:
Pray that we have wisdom on what we share about our lives to relate to the students.
Pray that we are slow to speak and quick to listen.
Pray for humility and that God would show us how to love the students well.
Pray for Spiritual protection for us and our hosts as we engage with this unbelieving community.
Pray that God will provide the remaining 3% of our support.
The Story
This coming Saturday, we are heading down to Point Loma to share the gospel with the international student community. We are partnering with our friends Dave and Judy, who graciously open up their home once a month month for for a holiday celebration and a time to share the story of Jesus with 30-40 international students from neighboring universities.
Last Time
This will be our second time joining with Dave and Judy in this way. Last November, we brought our friends Clark and Grace from Trinity down with us. We got to feast on a Thanksgiving meal (for several students, it was their first time experiencing Thanksgiving dressing and other traditional dishes), hear about the Pilgrims' thirst for religious freedom, and talk together about how true freedom is only found in following Jesus.
It was fascinating to ask the students what they thought about God as we heaped several days' worth of carbs onto our paper plates and into our mouths.
Some had heard the stories before. Some were intrigued. Many of the students who come are very open to learning new things and have a lot of questions. One Muslim student in particular was hungry to find the truth, to understand exactly what it looked like to surrender your life over to a being other than yourself.
Like many of us, these students' levels of understanding and even interest in Christianity are all over the spectrum. Since many of them come from countries where there are few Christians and are in the U.S. for only a short time, this is an exciting and urgent opportunity for us to love them and share with them the way to know their Creator.
This Time
Like last time, we will be having a Gospel message, dinner, and discussion afterwards as we hang out. And, in celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year, we will all make Chinese dumplings together!
While the students will certainly learn a thing or two about culture in an American home and who Jesus is, it's an opportunity for those of us who are hosting or serving the students to learn as well.
Many of us feel limited by our abilities, experiences, and stages in life. But in reality, everyone is a gift to others. Families, retirees, college students, and young adults all have giftings that are unique to where they are in life, and our effectiveness is not diminished by these things. Rather, it's our job to keep growing and asking God,
How can I serve You today, right where You have me?
Why This Is Exciting
This kind of event is really exciting for a couple of reasons.
First, many if not most of these students come from countries closed to the Gospel or with a very small percentage of Christians. And here they are, in our own backyard, so often searching for the true meaning to life and hungry for a loving community of friends.
Second, this is exciting because it gives us the opportunity to model hospitality and evangelism to the families at Trinity. Christian parents generally want to model the Gospel to their children, or retirees want to make more meaningful memories in their new season of life. Whatever the motivation, these types of outreaches have something for everyone because they're all about forming relationships.
Effective evangelism rises and falls with how humble we are to God's leading in forming relationships with nonbelievers. And so the best way to learn this is to experience it firsthand. You don't know what you don't know about your faith until you try to share it with someone else. Mistakes must happen and be learned from. That's the best way with most things in life.
This time tomorrow, we'll be taking two new families from Orange County down with us. Both families are eager to learn and experience outreach with the students, and our hope is to give them a taste of how that can look--and that they can bring this concept back home!
Please pray over this event, the students, and those who serve. Pray that God's Spirit will be at work!
(Please refer to specific prayer requests at the top of this email.)
How About You?
We try to take some time each day to pray for our ministry partners, and we like knowing we are praying for specific, current things in their lives. , we would love to hear an update on your life and how we can pray for you.