Aug
23
2008
yboogie
One of the things that are most difficult but also often most rewarding about what we do is the last minute calls from students for help. These can come any time and any place. Today, I received such a call for a ride to the bank and to go shopping and it was a lot of fun and we had some good discussion.
A couple of Indians students needed to deposit all the cash they brought from home and had no way to going there. I got the call at around 11 and so I picked three students up around 11:30. We went to Tom Thumb Grocery store which also had a Wells Fargo bank. While the student was depositing the money, I introduced the others to “Starbucks Frappuccino’s.” While we sat and imbibed we had wonderful conversation about what we believed, etc. One was a Thomist Catholic believer, another held to a humanist ideology and the third was Hindu. It was a lot of fun learning about each other.
Afterward, we went to Academy Sport to get some shoes and clothes and other things and then I took them home. It was a couple of unexpected hours of my time… but hopefully time that will result in a long term friendship and the opportunity to share Christ’s love in other ways.
In other news… Ron is working hard on the final preparations for the the Used Item sale in the morning and I know others are preparing dilligently for the Big howdy Party. I have run into several people at markets and other places and they have told me they were shopping for the materials they need for the party. I have a real feeling God is going to do something special. Please Please Please Pray for tomorrow! For all our campuses… UTA, TCU, UTD, SMU, UNT, etc. (etc is not an acronym right?)
Tags: Bank, Big Howdy, Last Minute, shopping
Aug
22
2008
yboogie
Thanks all of you who are praying specially for this week. It has made a difference. Good relationship is happening. Today, I had the privelege of taking a Thai couple, James & Jin who I picked up from the airport late Friday night to lunch & then shopping. They were feeling very homesick and so I took them to a Thai restaurant and then we went to the Asian market. It was a lot of fun. They are a very sweet young couple. He is here on a fellowship to get a PhD in linguistics. It was a lot of fun – I really felt like we bonded in a special way and it truly is an honor to serve them and I hope we can continue to build our friendship, perhaps helping with English and adjusting to live in America.
Our friend G. from Italy came over with a cooking team of 4 other international students from places as varied as Iran, Japan, China & Korea to make a large amount of Northern Italian heaven to be served at the Big Howdy party on Saturday. Gnocci is a special Italian dumpling dish in this case made with Potatoes. Our home smelled of Tomato sauce, different spices and the sound of G. kneading the dough to make from scratch the dumplings for 40 people. It was an incredible exercise and the students learned a lot from each other and about each other. It was a blast. (Wait till those of your at the party try it.) Check out more Big Howdy pics…
One final thought… (as Bob Costas is wont to say) As I was reading about the Olympics today, one of the quotes was from an athlete from the Carribean who happened to study at TCU for college. Two other Olympians in track and field from Jamaca both studied at George Mason. It struck me… there are many athletes at the Olympics who were international students in the United States at one time or another or at the least they trained here. There are also a lot of kids of internationals too. One of the campuses I serve on, TCU has a world renowned track program with many internationals (7 current or former Horned Frogs (TCU) representing 5 different countries are at the Olympics) and the whole Tennis program is international. In addition, several US Olympians with their international friends practice at UTA. SMU, where one of our DFW minstry teams works has 15 athletes representing 11 different countries (including Nastia… from the USA.. oh well… but her dad is Russian and Shawn Johnson’s coach was an international student before staying here to start a gym) AND a torchbearer. Wow! That is really cool and reminded me of the types of students we serve.
Tags: Big Howdy, Cooking, gnocci, Olympics, shopping
A couple of Indians students needed to deposit all the cash they brought from home and had no way to going there. I got the call at around 11 and so I picked three students up around 11:30. We went to Tom Thumb Grocery store which also had a Wells Fargo bank. While the student was depositing the money, I introduced the others to “Starbucks Frappuccino’s.” While we sat and imbibed we had wonderful conversation about what we believed, etc. One was a Thomist Catholic believer, another held to a humanist ideology and the third was Hindu. It was a lot of fun learning about each other.
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