Nov 26 2009
Thanksgiving Coffeehouse for Internationals and the “Special Turkey”
Every year, Our small group at Fielder Road Baptist church works with ISI and the BSM at UTA to host an international student thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This year was no exception. Nearly 100 students feasted on turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, potatoes, etc. It was a cornucopia of things to eat. they also were treated to the sounds of Greg Speed who we found had quite a broad repertoire of music for students to listen to while eating and chatting. This year we really worked hard on making the time conducive to relationship building and so it had more of a home/coffee house feel to it. It was a lot of fun.
On a sad note, one of our dear friends from our small group, Earl, passed away a couple of days before the dinner. It was very sudden and unexpected. We had gotten to know him well when he was in our care group and when we gave him rides to and from church. It was a very sad thing. Interestingly, his mother mentioned that one of the things that was so special to him was his church small group and that he was REALLY looking forward to this dinner. He even had a turkey waiting to be cooked for this event in the refrigerator when he passed away. This story really made us realize that we are not only serving the students we serve but also we serve those who serve the students. Thank you Lord for this somber, special reminder.
They were offering rides around the airport and while we couldn’t afford that, it was really fun watching the Flying Fortress run up on the runway and take off and land. The roar of the engine, the gradual climb out, etc… it was just like something out of an old World War II movie. You can imagine 100’s of these taking off all at once.
The best part was seeing the wonder in T-9 & C-6’s eyes as they ran in and out of the aircraft, running through the bomb bay, looking at the gunners stations, etc. It was magical.
One of the cultural fixtures in Texas is football in the fall. Finally, the Yabukis were able to become a part of that cultural rite through flag football. T-9 decided he wanted to play flag football this year. He didn’t feel he was ready for the full blown tackle thing which they play in the local elementary school but we are extremely proud that he took this step. Playing on the YMCA Raiders (gotta love the name Uncle Allen), T-9 was able to play in the trenches on both the offensive and defensive line. While he is one of the smaller players on the team, he became quite adept at slipping his blocker and doing his patented spin move to get to the quarterback. I think he compiled between 5-10 “sacks” of the quarterback. In the second playoff game alone he had had four. On offense, we saw him taking on kids twice his size and winning… what a HEART! Watch out Demarcus Ware! Roy will be coaching basketball in the winter too… sports is coming!!!
Today was a special day for Jonathan, C-6 and myself. We were able to do something a little different and I think we all came away with a smile. Andrea, a member of our church small group, has been a part of the ministry of Mission Arlington for many years, since she was 19. In fact, while she currently runs the mission’s clinic, she has also personally ministered at a particular apartment church the whole time. She has become a regular part of the community of that apartment. Now her and her family and another member of our small group, Leslie, continue to go to the apartment every week to touch the lives of the kids and their families.
My job was to go around taking pictures of everyone especially the families. Many of the families have very few pictures of them and so taking their picture is a very special thing. One little boy was having so much fun, he kept asking me to take his picture over and over again in funny poses. This will further the long term ministry of the apartment church as Andrea will be bringing these pictures for the families to take as a special gift. It made me very proud to see my kids getting into it and “making sacrifices” to do it. Jonathan was playing football with little Joshua (Understand Jonathan hates football… this was a image sacrifice in a big way) C-6 played with the kids though she cried a bit too because they didn’t want to play with her doing the stuff she wanted to do… Of course that is normal and you should have seen her before we went, we wanted so bad to go.
The people from the church were incredible. A couple of teenage girls were doing the manicures and pedicures… It kind of reminded me of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Some of the teenage boys were playing all kinds of stuff with the kids. Seeing some of the guys painting bag “pumpkins” and some of the gals face painting and shaving ice. It was really really special. Anyway, it seemed that everyone came away with a big smile.
many of you and others to pray that God would spare us weather that will take away from the camping experience that we had planned for the weekend together with Grace Fellowship Church of Stephenville. It was amazing God did that and more.
hamburgers out in the open under the trees (all our meals were there). The local Cowboy Church brought its horse drill team and they gave us a show worthy of the Fort Worth Stockyards of horsemanship and pageantry. AFter that, some local cowboys showed us their skill in roping rounding up some calves. This was all done in the “stadium” on George DeVries ranch. Every year George, a Grace Fellowship Church member, provides this special experience on his large and pastoral dairy ranch.
fter the expert display of the cowboy arts, the students got their turn to play cowboy. They rode horses, shot skeet with a shotgun and fished int he fully stocked pond on George’s land. While it rained a bit during this time, the heavy stuff stayed away and the students had a great time. I traveled with the UTA crew and hung out with some Chinese and Colombian friends. For most of them, this was their first camping experience and definitely to shoot, ride and fish this was a first and yet even with the rain, there were smiles all around!
Some seminary that I met when I shared at DTS and SWBTS came along and made themselves available to help in many ways including cooking, setting up and just hanging with the students. They were great. They really intereacted with the students. Two of them spoke Spanish and one of the UTA students from Colombia was so new to the US he jsut beamed when he realized there were some people there 
that spoke his language and cared about him.
stayed away!
After lunch in the small town city park, we toured George’s dairy operation. We saw, among other things, a 15 minutes old calf and cows being milked. I think the students were struck by how much like a factory this was and how much farming today is a business.
love of Christ lived out in the townspeople, the seminary students, etc. It was truly a blessing. In addition… God showed himself in the weather. Early in the morning on Sunday, I checked out the radar plot of the storms to see what to expect, and it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. There were lines of large storms to the north of us and lines of storms to the south of us but through the middle, where we were, there seemed to be a corridor of calm. The plot kind of reminded me of the crossing of the Red Sea. I was touched deeply. God was listening to all your all’s prayers!
At the same time, outside of the Big Howdy and some of the special work Vinay is doing at UTD, we were having limited impact with this community. We felt that God wanted us to build bridges with this special and important community – to show them how much He loves them.
Aradhna is a Hindi word which translates to “Worship”. This band was formed by children of Americans, followers of Jesus who grew up in Nepal and India whose heart languages were those of these special lands. Under the watchful eyes of India’s best, they mastered the sitar, tabla, tambura, key instruments of Indian culture in addition to more western instruments like bass, violin and guitar. They became students of “bhajan” the worship music of India and they formed Aradhna. They play concerts for groups of followers of Jesus (but also they have played in Hindu temples as a testimony) both in India and around the world.
So less than a year ago, our team in cooperation with several other groups like BSM, churches, etc. felt challenged to bring this group to the North Texas area for a series of concerts as a gift to out South Asian friends. Assignments were passed out, (Ron was chosen as point with the rest of us coordinating the rest of the work on the different campuses and doing the things needed to make all this happen) prayer teams were mobilized, research was done and we set off doing something we had never done before. We chose Northake College, UTA & UTD, the campuses with the largest populations of S. Asians.
This last weekend was a culmination of all that work and what a special weekend it was. (
It was really touching to see. In one Indian Hindu student who has been meeting regularly with some followers of Jesus lately to learn more, you could really see the joy in meeting the band and hearing what they had to say. It was almost like students were being exposed for the first time to the idea that it was okay to be an Indian and still be a follower of Jesus.
One interesting side story was the response of the Nepalese speaking students. They were so touched that they were not bunched in as Indians but had songs in their own language as part of the program. Chris, the lead sitar player, grew up in Nepal and is fluent in Nepali and spoke directly to many of them. Many of the students were Nepali and Anugraha, a student friend and Nepali Christ follower was able to strengthen relationships that could help him as he seeks to start a Nepali church. 
One special story is of two separate groups of Burmese refugees who lived in Nepal for nine years but recently immigrated into the DFW area. We saw several of them at all three concerts as they truly connected with the music and specifically with Chris. Interestingly, Chris’ 2nd grade teacher from Nepal now lives near Dallas and was at the UTA concert and she told me that Chris’ mother has a ministry to these same types of refugees.
A special byproduct of these concerts was that it put before the Christian community the great opportunity to share the love of Jesus with S. Asians and to be able to do it together was a special undertaking. Many followers of Jesus who love S. India were there and most of them did not realize how many others also had the same heart. To see them interact with each other and with students was a thing to behold. Much like when God encouraged Elijah in his isolation that he was not alone in his faithfulness in Israel, so it seemed the spirits of all were lifted. Trust was being built, in each other but also in God. I really believe something very special will come out of the relationships made. This was no small or insignificant divine purpose for these concerts.
I am waiting on hearing the exact number of attenders though the qualitative results were enough to make us smile and for God to be glorified. I believe there were at least 450 total attenders at the three concerts. (approx. 150- UTD, 180- UTA, 120 – Northlake) Students from as far away as Tyler and Wichita Fall came to see the concerts. The other special thing was how God provided the funds for this. This was an area of tremendous risk and faith building for us and God provided!
Each concert touched had a unique feel. Northlake was outdoors and was the first major events by more than one faith organization there in a while and so really was a kick off of working together. UTA was a continuation of the work already done through the Big Howdy, etc. And UTD, UTD was special because the students did most of the work and you could see God working in developing them as leaders. In addition the band played at three services at 121 community church, exposing the whole church to S. Asian culture. In addition they went over to SMU on Monday to play another concert under Chi Alpha.
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was a wonderful opportunity to talk about Texas history and the type of man that Sam Houston was. (He was an incredible general)
We were able to go to Galveston by early afternoon and our plan was to go to the beach. None of our kids ever swam in the ocean before. We passed the really crowded beaches around the Galveston Strand and drove a little further up the island to Galveston Island State Park. It was wonderful there. The water was not too rough and was very warm (thanks gulf), the sand was very fine and soft, the beach only gradually sloped into the sea. Honestly, it was a better “beginner” beach than anything that we grew up with in the LA area. The kids had a blast! They swam, they built sand castles, they ran, they dodged waves. One especially fun activity was digging up live sea shells and then watching them dig themselves back into the sand when the water came up. It was great… the wonder in their eyes… I was never a beach guy… sand gets everywhere. 
But this day was especially nice. After a filling meal at Olive Garden (the incredible sea food restaurants in Galveston were incredibly full this night…), we drove up near NASA to spend the night (and lots of showering off the sand) with everyone extremely tired but very happy to be together.
After visiting 
After a long day of exploring the outer reaches, we went below the sea as aquanauts as we had dinner at 
The next day, after a dose of late morning TV cartoon, we piled into the car and headed home. I remember on the last evening as the children slept, I was reflecting on how nice it was to be able to get away from computer, phone, and all the stresses of the typical week and just spend time together. It really was a huge blessing in so many ways. In some ways, it is during these vacations that we see the progress that our kids make: physically as well as as a person. It was fun seeing how much they have grown but also how much they (and we) need to grow.
Every year we (ISI and many different ministries, churches and organizations) welcome new international students to UTA. The whole month of August is devoted to this activity. This is true at TCU and all our other DFW campuses as well. It is a very special time when we get to meet some new friends. We welcome them in many ways! (see 
Organizer) as a sample of what was happening on all our metroplex campuses (including UTA, UTD, TCU, SMU, UNT, Northlake, UD, Collin, Navarro, & Northwood):
200+ volunteers who provided food, did airport pickups, transported students to Wal-Mart, lifted and delivered furniture to students apartments, and many other acts of love and kindness.
Thank you for praying and giving!
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