Nov 19 2011
Three Opportunities to Serve God through Giving – Winter 2011
This is our favorite time of the year! The music, the lights, and the sense of celebration always lift our spirits. And people like hanging out with each other, talking and sharing, and also reflecting back on the year behind and the one ahead. It is a great time to connect with friends we love.
We know that during this time we all think about serving others and the Lord through giving in different ways. ISI in the DFW area is in a special time right now. God is doing amazing stuff and we feel that God has put us smack dab in the middle of it. In the last year God has started two huge new ministry opportunities that allow us to touch the world more effectively for Christ through internationals students. We invite you to consider being a part of one of these giving opportunities and projects.
Three opportunities to give where God is working (click on the following to learn more):
- We need your regular help to allow us to be a catalyst for to serving international students! – Backing up God’s Call
- Do you ever get goose-bumps when God works so clearly and immediately? We do! – UTD Ministry House Project
- Special people God is using in special ways with South Asians – ISI Midwest Aradhna Concert Tour
1.We need your regular help to allow us to be a catalyst for serving international students! – Backing Up God’s Call
As you have seen in the last year through our newsletter and blog, God has been doing amazing things in and through our family & ministry. Many of you have been partners with our family & ministry and have been praying and tracking what has been going on for years. You know that this is an unprecedented time. God has brought many international friends to our weekly Friday gathering. So much so that we have had to divide up in to two groups. Many of these students have asked and so we have been able to start many Discovery Bible Study groups and Passing Truths On (PTO) disciplemaker making groups to help students meet and walk more closely with Jesus.
Our team is at ground zero where God is teaching us revolutionary ways to touch international students through new strategies and concepts that have the potential of many students being cultivated as leaders who will perhaps become multiplying ministry planters back home – taking what they learn here and applying it. The rumblings of God’s movement through students are beginning to be felt. As we saw in our Asia trip, our dear student friends are starting groups in their home country to disciple other who can start groups to disciple others. Imagine the impact if this continues.
So many wonderful things, yet, at the same time, we all know that times are tough for individuals and organizations which depend upon donations, and we are no exception. As you know we have been faithful in the work of the ministry – praying and reaching out, and mobilizing volunteers to do the same. But we cannot continue without help from people who care, who love seeing God at work, and who love partnering with God in what he is doing—people like YOU! You make it possible for us to be the catalysts for movements of God, empowering people like you to touch students’ lives.
We have been receiving anywhere from $200 to $800 less than our monthly budget many months this year. Just doing the math you can see that we have had a considerable shortfall and our formerly considerable reserves are depleted. Won’t you help us to make this up by sending a tax deductible gift through our ministry fund (you can give online here) to help us make up the shortfall throughout the year? These gifts are Roy’s sole source of income and we have been living and doing ministry in deficit. We believe in God’s call for us and in His promise of provision and so it is vitally important that you all, who believe in what we do, join us and perhaps be the means of His provision. We also need additional monthly donors who will stand in the gap and make up for our lost monthly givers. So again prayerfully see if you are called by God to use this link to make a gift which will continue to keep us on the front lines!
Go back to the beginning of this article
2. Do you ever get goose-bumps when God works so clearly and immediately? We do! – UTD Ministry House Project
At the Dallas-Ft.Worth ISI annual planning retreat, the Lord led us to focus on the critical need for 20-something year old interns to reach out to the international students at UT-Dallas. We had to face the fact some 20-something
year old international students like being around 20-something year old Americans and the trend is towards a larger number of 20-somethings coming! In planning HOW to recruit such interns, we were led by the Lord to pray for a home within walking distance of the UT-Dallas campus where the interns could live (paying only utilities). These interns would be students also—strong Christians—who could devote 15 hours per week to outreach to internationals. They would probably be Dallas Theological Seminary students or UT-Dallas grad students. BUT THE IDEA OF A HOUSE THAT NEAR CAMPUS SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE!
But the God who led us to pray for the impossible specializes in doing the impossible! JUST ONE WEEK LATER, the UT-Dallas ISI Campus Director was contacted by an old church friend who wanted to see if ISI could use his house near campus. His renters has trashed it, and he was prompted by the Lord to see if the Lord wanted to use it for ministry. He did not want to sell the house, but could see how its proximity to the UT-Dallas campus could benefit our ministry there!
We prayed, and the Lord made clear this was from him! GOOSE-BUMPS! We have a multi-year agreement with the owner to use the house, and we are responsible for fixing it up and maintaining it while the interns live there and minister through it.
We need your help with the costs of fixing it up—estimated at $4,850! We have guys from two churches who will do the labor along with local ISI staff, but we need your help with the cost of paint and materials to get the house back in shape for living in and for ministry.
Doesn’t it sound like the Lord to use disastrous renters, a Christian home owner, a local ministry in need, church guys with fix-up skills, ISI staff, and YOU to partner to make ministry happen?! The Lord led us to ask him for the impossible; we listened-obeyed and he worked mightily; and now we need you to be a part of the team. Will you join us in seeing God at work through his people?! Please click on this link and see how you can give towards this project.
Go back to the beginning of this article
3. Special people God is using in special ways! – ISI Midwest Aradhna Concert Tour
Two years ago some 500 Asian Indian and Nepali international students in the Dallas-Ft.Worth area attended four concerts by the Christian worship team Aradhna. The members of Aradhna are former missionary kids in India/Nepal who learned the language, love the culture, and use their musical gifts to worship the Lord by writing and playing music in the cultural traditions and styles of India and Nepal. Go to www.aradhnamusic.com and click on sample tracks. You can also read the words of the music. You can see that they honor God with their words but also by their professional and yet soulful sound.
The South Asian Indian and Nepali international students love this music. But more importantly, the guys playing it are doing so in the power of the Lord. We had prayer teams on their knees, and what happened in the concerts was powerful spiritually! The Lord inhabits the praise of his people, and these were worship concerts attended and loved by hundreds of non-believing and secular students who witnessed God at work!
Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. ~ Psalm 108:2-3Psalm 108:2-3
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
2 I will start playing my harps
before the sun rises.
3 I will praise you, Lord,
for everyone to hear;
I will sing hymns to you
in every nation.
WP-Bible plugin
Aradhna has responded to our invitation and made room in their tour schedule for another visit to the Dallas-Ft.Worth area campuses (as well as campuses in Wichita KS and Colorado Springs, CO where ISI is ministering). Again, we need your partnership to make this special ministry by very special people happen! Aradhna only asks for their travel expenses, concert expenses, and a small honorarium, but for five concerts in our city that amounts to $4,500. Could you help us make this a reality? We have staff and volunteers ready to follow-up Indian and Nepali students who attend. This could be the start of many significant relationships. Please use this link to help with this outreach project.
Go back to the beginning of this article
In closing…
This is shaping up to be a wonderful year of seeing the Lord at work! We just took more than 100 international students to tour NASA and had incredible conversations about spiritual issues while there and on the way back. Something about space and the vastness of the universe which turns our thoughts to the idea of a Creator! Follow-up from a fun event like this is so easy and natural!
Blessings on you and your extended family for the celebration of Christ’s birth! And let us know how we can pray for you as you interact with family and friends this holiday season. Sometimes it isn’t very easy!
Roy & Lisa and the Kids
Flight from Dfw cancelled. Going to sna now will arrive in shanghai a day late. We will stay unexpectedly with my folks. Pray for us to be able to go to shanghai as planned.
The TCU Superbowl/Lunar New Year party was a rousing success with probably 30-40 people watching the Superbowl on three large screens at the Moores’ house while we ate from Chinese hot pot. It was especially fun because we also brought some of our UTA student friends and they really connected with their Horned Frog bretheren. A good time was had by all and it built credibility with the students and I think we identified a coupleof people of peace… Oh and we met someone who came from the same small Chinese city that Charis was born.
We were able to take 4 (plus a brother) of my 7 Upward baskeball players to the TCU basketball game. For several, this is their first experience and their eyes were very large. It really built community and trust with the kids. Upwards is a spiritual, outreach oriented basketball league. God is working in the lives of these kids and the team in general teaching them many valuable lessons. There are some very significant personal things happening with these guys and I see my purpose in the team. (even though we haven’t won yet… but that is not the point)
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.
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!
One of the special things about being a father of two boys is that we get to do some fun “guy” stuff. My guys are not sports guys, but they both have a great interest in chivalry, games and other things like that. This last weekend the three of us shared something very special.
Finally he moves on to full knighthood, the full attaining to manhood, when I feel like he is ready, probably around when he is 18.
The rest of the day, I really saw a noticable change in both boys. It was really fun and I was really proud of them. It was a special time. We then proceeded to celebrate J-13′s birthday with a trip to the aquarium. The kids took tons of pictures. 
This Saturday was very special. We had our regular Spring Big Howdy Party. ISI’s Ron, BSM’s Gary, Breakthrough’s Christian, Cornerstone’s Steve (and many others) did a tremendous job this year with quite a few innovations that I thought really worked. Over 350 people, mostly international students came to the Bluebonnett Ball room in the UTA University Center. There was plenty of food. We got the contact information from most of the students. I really believe that these welcome parties are very important in making Christ’s name sweeter. It was truly incredible with people talking afterward till late. You can often judge the relationships built at an event by how many pictures of groups are taken at the end, and at this one there were many! You can see the 
While Lisa and I were focused on the Thanksgiving Party for UTA international students with our church two others of our ministry teams hosted other “new” thanksgiving parties… Here’s what happened…
A lady from Iran who works in the int’l student office and brought her three daughters (soph at CC and two HS seniors) went on and on about how wonderful everything was and how much she and the students appreciated it. She called me the blessing man (I’ve been called lots of things over the years, but this was a first!) and said I would be blessed because of all that we did to make the students feel loved. We had lots of students from Pakistan and they really had a good time. I re-connected with several students I had met at the BSM retreat in Oct. and two of them lead different int’l student organizations on campus.
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