One of the more interesting parts of my job in the international students ministry is the meetings that I have the privilege of being a part of. The last two weeks I took part in several very important meetings. Among the things we met about were:
Charting the course of a new ministry initiative for ISI in developing a new discipleship and outreach ministry strategy
Meeting to help look at sites for our ISI national conference in June of 2012 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
taking students furniture
Sharing at a national conference of South Asian (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) Christians about the possibilities for them doing ministry with international students
Picnic meeting with our family and our friendship partner students and their friends and families from China
Meeting with students to share the Bridge illustration.
Meeting to share at a seminary class about helping with ministry with international students
Meeting with our friends from Central Asia to discover what the Bible says
Meeting with a staff friend in New York over the phone to encourage each other in ministry
Meeting with a church friend about the possibility of working together on a special project
Meeting with some seminary students who have decided to focus on serving Indians at UTA and doing some pioneer work there
Meeting to prayer walk with a couple of people
Meeting with a man who wants to volunteer and share about our ministry for a mobilization effort called Perspectives
Meeting to talk and plan for Friday nights with several individuals
Meeting with another couple to talk about how to help with international students
Meeting with a national speaker, who wrote the book Death of a Guru on Hindu ministry
Okay, I think you get the message. Honestly, each of these things were energizing and invigorating… It reminds me that God is at work right now. Continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more people for the harvest. Also pray that he will take these that He has risen up already that He will empower them to share with the 18,000he 18,000 English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se za?ne z 1! Vrstica 0 ne obstaja!
WP-Bible plugin international students in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area the love and message of Christ.
The original purpose of the Friday group going to two different locations was to alleviate pressure in the homes that we meet in. There were just too many people for our homes. We are praising the Lord because while the late group is growing and developing a regular following and a level of stability, the early group is still bursting at the seams with as many as 50 people still coming. God is working in different ways in each group and he is able to touch different types of people in different ways because of the different natures of the groups. Praise the Lord. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up more workers (and maybe more and bigger houses to host) Pray also that the students will still feel like while we meet at different locations, we are still “one group” following one Lord.
(Check out our pictures and videos) There are times when it is difficult to get started on this blog. Sometimes the times make our minds busy. Other times, there isn’t really all that much to say. It’s been more than a week since Lisa, C-6, T-8 & I got back from the ISI Tejas Retreat for Texas international students. Those of you on the prayer team, you all might remember this as the retreat we have been having you all pray for – its planning, its implementation, spiritual warfare surrounding it – for the last few months. Now it is over and the difficulty is that there is so much to share, I don’t know where to begin. It was an amazing exercise of spiritual warfare and there is so much we learned from its execution.
Let me begin some of the elements of spiritual warfare that happened (mostly physical things PTL):
One week prior, on the official due date, were were about 40 people short of the required 125 (we ended up with over 133)
It was not until the last week that had a verified music leader and then our international student guitar player got sick the night before we had to leave (the music leader, the son of one of our ISI partners did a great job and showed a real heart for the students)
Only five seminary student who help with the logistical elements of the camp were signed up by the due day well short of the usual 10 needed. (we ended up with a few more and other key leaders who helped out with this… almost had too many American volunteers)
We had some major relational and personnel blow ups among our staff right before camp. (Only slightly affected the camp)
I sent out a prayer e-mail alert to pray against spiritual warfare… (We had already sent out a request for prayer earlier in the week but it seemed like we needed more prayer coverage… we also knew, based on past experience, that trips where many things go wrong are often the one where God most often shows himself in a special way.)
We still didn’t have a line dance instructor for the line dance activity by early in the week. (We were able to find someone who so loved line dancing from the Tyler area that she just kept dancing and dancing clear until dinner during the free time… the students loved her)
UTA Campus Director (and camp small group director who had a big role on Friday) Ron was getting ready to load up for camp 2 hours before we were supposed to leave for camp and he bumped the vehicle he was supposed to use to cart 10 international students to camp in, into his garage door, knocking it off its tracks (Looking really bad), making it stuck in the open position. He could not leave until it was fixed (a garage guy was able to fix it within the necessary time and Ron beat me to campus.
The newly found music leader, Casey got into his car in Houston with his young son, preparing to leave for camp, his car wouldn’t start. When he tried to jump it with his wife’s car, her car wouldn’t start. (After 40 minutes of looking he finally found someone in the neighborhood to jump his car so he could go to Sears to get a new battery for both cars and he made it with time to spare)
One of cars transporting students from Texas A&M University got a flat tire on the way. (It was fixed with the help of other students)
Our sound system, data projector, video camera, and just about every other “tech” thing was having more problems that I can ever remember them having. (And I’m supposed to be one of the ISI tech guys…:-)
Here is the biggest thing. It was pouring down rain on Friday night as we were driving up for this Retreat that features mostly outdoor activities with a 30 & 40% respectively chance of rain for Saturday and Sunday. (Ron boldly told the group that he prayed for it not to rain and that he believed God was going to stop the rain… It stopped right after that very gathering. As we were in our cars leaving the retreat center, the droplets started falling again as if God wanted to remind us of his mastery over the elements… Wow! What a testimony! God is good!)
So how did it turn out? I felt totally out of control… which with God is not a bad thing. He showed His control every step of the way. It was amazing. In addition to the above.
The speaker, Chris Plekenpol, did a bang up job teaching from Joseph. I think he connected with the students at a heart level and his background as an Iraqi war veteran lent credibility and build his testimony of God’s grace as he showed himself to be a wise, fun and humble guy despite.
The discussion and camaraderie around the small groups were exemplary, likely the best quality we’ve ever had. It was such a diverse group of leaders too. Developing this part of the retreat was the focus of our planning team and I believe we hit it right on with international students leading other students and volunteers. (the majority of students were not believers so it was awesome to see the spiritual discussion going on so strongly.) (see the resultant video when the groups had work together to tell a story using pictures)
The students had a great time doing the activities (not hard given all the choices) without anyone getting hurt.
The kids conference, led by one of the seminary couples, went without a hitch. First rate! My kids were with 5 others and were treated to stuff usually saved for VBS.
Everything was done safely…
From our response cards we learned the following…
9 students indicated, “ I decided during this weekend to trust Jesus as my only hope and way to God… to follow him only as my God”
27 students indicated, “this weekend I decided to learn more about who Jesus is and how I can know him personally.”
9 students indicated, “This weekend I decided I want to meet with someone who can answer my questions about the things we learned and discussed.”
7 students indicated, “This weekend I decided I want to join a Bible study on my campus.“
35 students indicated, “Please email me about ISI meetings on my campus and future trips and events like this.”
25 students indicated, “Please contact me about opportunities to make a Christian student friend on my campus“
Some students indicated, “This weekend I decided…”
continue with ISI/ICF to glorify God
fight more for life to be thankful and have faith
have faith in Jesus when we are in hard time
to apply Joseph’s life in mine
to enjoy with my small group
to face my fears with faith
to get close to God
to keep going strong with God
to pray more and be more patient
to recommit my life to Christ (already a Christian)
to reflect on the things I do and don’t do if I am confident that God is with me
to talk to my Bible study teachers to answer the questions I formed this weekend
to try to put myself in the shoes of others
All in all, it was a great trip and most of all… we could really see God present and how important the prayers of you are in what we do!
One of the things ISI City directors get to do is visit the local seminaries to share with students about international ministry and ISI. It is actually a lot of fun. I usually get to visit both Dallas Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was able to make these visits this week.
The purpose of these visits is really two fold. First, we look for students who are interested in helping out with the ministry, potential volunteers who are generally motivated to serve and have some skills that they want to try out. Further, almost all the intro to mission students are required by their professors to develop a relationship with an international person to pass the class. This usually gets them even more interested if they weren’t enough already.
We usually introduce them to opportunities to be friendship partners, english partners, camp/retreat helpers, Friday/Saturday ICF/Bible Study, volunteers etc. It’s a win/win situation for everyone. I’ve heard stories where students have mantained the relationship they made with an international student through this program years later, even after the seminary student is long gone from seminary. Wow!
The second purpose is to expose these students to international student ministry in general. They will be the future pastors, missionaries, and seminary/bible school professors who will be the gate keepers of churches and the like that our ISI missionaries all over the country/world will be interacting with. If they had a good experience here, (most do) they will likely be more open to working with us to reach the over 600,000r 600,000 English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se za?ne z 1! Vrstica 0 ne obstaja!
WP-Bible plugin international student all over the US that ISI seeks to reach through church volunteers (and their own work too). There have been several testimonies from staff where this has been the case and its exciting that we can “lead block” for our other colleagues around the world. It’s kind of cool being in Dallas/Fort Worth. With the flagship Southern Baptist and Evangelical/Bible church seminaries in the area, we have the opportunity to make a different in reaching student all over the country.
Future pastors and missionaries… future gatekeepers for international ministry… that is the target as every semester Roy shares with Dallas Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological seminary students about international students and gives them the opportunity to volunteer to help out with the ministry.
This semester 50-60 American seminary students signed up to be friday night helpers, friendship partners, retreat volunteers and english partners. The result, students being touched and hopefully future pastors and missionaries who see the strategic nature of international student ministry who integrate this sort of ministry in their churches.
I ran into two guys at DTS this time around who volunteered three years ago and they are still in contact with a couple of Saudi students they befriended and still meet with them on a regular basis. One other DTS student is going to be our spring retreat speaker. A SWBTS student is going to meet with us to integrate our adopt a people strategy into Texas Southern Baptist Churches. God uses these short term “missionaries” in a big way.
You can help by ordering from Amazon.com through this link. A percentage of your purchase goes to the ministry of the Yabukis' through ISI.
Who are the Yabukis
When Lisa and Roy were married, they shared a common commitment to serving God crossculturally through their family. They currently both serve international students through ISI and live in Arlington, Texas with their three children.
One of the more interesting parts of my job in the international students ministry is the meetings that I have the privilege of being a part of. The last two weeks I took part in several very important meetings. Among the things we met about were:
Meeting to share at a seminary class about helping with ministry with international students
Okay, I think you get the message. Honestly, each of these things were energizing and invigorating… It reminds me that God is at work right now. Continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more people for the harvest. Also pray that he will take these that He has risen up already that He will empower them to share with the 18,000he 18,000
The original purpose of the Friday group going to two different locations was to alleviate pressure in the homes that we meet in. There were just too many people for our homes. We are praising the Lord because while the late group is growing and developing a regular following and a level of stability, the early group is still bursting at the seams with as many as 50 people still coming. God is working in different ways in each group and he is able to touch different types of people in different ways because of the different natures of the groups. Praise the Lord. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up more workers (and maybe more and bigger houses to host) Pray also that the students will still feel like while we meet at different locations, we are still “one group” following one Lord.
It was not until the last week that had a verified music leader and then our international student guitar player got sick the night before we had to leave (the music leader, the son of one of our ISI partners did a great job and showed a real heart for the students)
We still didn’t have a line dance instructor for the line dance activity by early in the week. (We were able to find someone who so loved line dancing from the Tyler area that she just kept dancing and dancing clear until dinner during the free time… the students loved her)
start. When he tried to jump it with his wife’s car, her car wouldn’t start. (After 40 minutes of looking he finally found someone in the neighborhood to jump his car so he could go to Sears to get a new battery for both cars and he made it with time to spare)
So how did it turn out? I felt totally out of control… which with God is not a bad thing. He showed His control every step of the way. It was amazing. In addition to the above.
The discussion and camaraderie around the small groups were exemplary, likely the best quality we’ve ever had. It was such a diverse group of leaders too. Developing this part of the retreat was the focus of our planning team and I believe we hit it right on with international students leading other students and volunteers. (the majority of students were not believers so it was awesome to see the spiritual discussion going on so strongly.) (see the 
Everything was done safely…
to apply Joseph’s life in mine
The second purpose is to expose these students to international student ministry in general. They will be the future pastors, missionaries, and seminary/bible school professors who will be the gate keepers of churches and the like that our ISI missionaries all over the country/world will be interacting with. If they had a good experience here, (most do) they will likely be more open to working with us to reach the ove
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