Egyptian Student

I recently have begun to have coffee with a new friend, who is a great guy. He is an Egyptian, named "Max," and he has his family here with him. It has been exciting to me how much he actually wants to talk about what he believes, which brings the opportunity to talk about what I believe. It is such a blessing to be able to do what God has called me to do, wholeheartedly.

I know that I don't post all that often, but for those of you who faithfully check my blog, I will be making a trip to Dallas in the second week in July. My parents will host a little get together for my supporters. So be looking for more info on that.

More students

I went last week to the Persian student group on campus, and it was a fun time of games and hanging out. I even got invited to play soccer and poker after the meeting. I wasn't able to do that last week, but I plan on doing it this Thursday. I hope that this will be a good time to develop some good relationships with some fun Persian undergraduate students. I think that my lack of skill at soccer will make a great impression on them. Those of you who play soccer should send me some pointers, so that I won't make a complete fool of myself. Thanks for your prayers.

Conversation with Oliver

On Wednesday afternoon, I was able to hang out with my Turkish friend "Oliver". He and I met for coffee and got to talking about his Winter break and trip to San Francisco for a conference, but my favorite part of the conversation was when we turned to the Bible because I mentioned that my dad got his PhD and teaches Greek. 

Oliver was surprised to find out that part of the Bible was written in Greek; he was also surprised to find out that the Christians' Bible included the Jewish holy books, the Torah and Psalms. My favorite part was talking about how significant Turkey is the in the history of Christianity. I talked about the fact that most of the early churches that we know of were in what is now Turkey, including Ephesus and Antioch. He was surprised to find that out, but I think that he was a little proud of that as well. 

We had a great time talking about some of the places that churches were, and we talked about the letters that Paul wrote to the churches in those cities. It is really neat to get to talk a little about the Bible, and he is curious to see some of the Bible in Greek, so I'm going to take my Greek New Testament with me next time we hang out.

An International Student's Thanksgiving

"Oliver" is one of my Turkish friends at UM. He and several of his friends decided to order a Thanksgiving meal from a local grocery store with all the fixin's including mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie and stuffing, which they had to walk 3 miles to get because the DC buses weren't running on Thanksgiving day. They filled themselves with lots of turkey and then watched some movies because they are not really interested in "American" football. They think that the action stops too often, being used to soccer, rugby, and basketball. They ended up watching movies late into the night, but that did not stop them from getting up at 3 am on Black Friday to go to some sales to get the good deals. They stood out in the cold for several hours in order to shop at Macy's, which struck me as funny. Oliver did get some good deals on some shirts and an MP3 player. 

I thought that you would enjoy hearing what kind of things international students do on foreign holidays when they are thousands of miles from home. Oliver actually also has a "Christmas" tree, which he said he has in order to celebrate New Year's rather than Christmas. He is really enjoying our American holidays to the fullest.

Birthday Celebration

It was my Iranian friend's birthday last Monday, and I was able to take him out to lunch for a little celebration. As you can imagine, birthdays are a little bit tough when you are 10,000 miles from home. People from Iran celebrate birthdays very much like birthdays are celebrated here with cake and candles, a little party, a picture, and often going out to eat. I tried to make him feel welcome and loved by making some of that happen. 

We had a great time, and I even tried to give him a little taste of Texas by taking him to our local Dickey's BBQ. We didn't venture to eat any of the pork, of course, and we had a great time with some store bought cupcakes and a birthday candle. I'll include a picture. 

Afterward, I got to share with him why I was doing this, saying that Jesus tells us to love others like we love ourselves. What a blessing to be able to be involved in this ministry to Muslim students. Thank you for your prayers and support. 

Deeper Interaction

Thursday and Friday, I got to spend some really fun time with a couple of my international student friends. On Thursday, I met with one friend, named "Oliver" and he taught me some of his language, and I learned about him and his family. It is interesting to interact with people from different cultures because the Islam that they practice is so different, and their level of commitment to it also varies. The student that I got to spend time with on Friday, "Sam," told me a lot about his country, and we had a great time just talking. Neither of these friends are fasting for Ramadan, so I'll be able to have coffee with them in the afternoon before Sep. 30. I was really encouraged to get to spend some time with these students and be able to get to know them and learn a little bit of a couple other languages. It really is an adventure to get to know these students. I know that God has some big plans for this ministry, and I hope that I will be able to be used by God in the way that he wants to use me.

Meeting Students

Orientation was a good time and a good opportunity to meet several students, but an even better opportunity to spend some time with international students so that they will know me and recognize me as someone who can help them. I was able to go to lunch with a group of about 20 int'l students and meet many more int'l students at a large Int'l Student Reception reception on Tuesday, help about 100 students verify their documents on Wednesday, and take a group of about 20 int'l students on a rainy tour of DC on Thursday. Here is a picture of me taking a group shot of the students during our tour sent to me courtesy of one of the Chinese students. During that week of orientation, I met 3 Muslim students whom I will spend more time with over the coming weeks and months.

Yesterday, I came up to campus to just see who I could meet after Friday prayers, and I met two students from Saudi Arabia. It is really encouraging to know that many of you are praying for me in this endeavor as I am trying to meet students and build relationships with them. I have a couple of students that are wanting to help me learn a little Arabic and a little Farsi, and I am looking forwarding to getting to know them through that.

This is an exciting time to try to meet Muslims because it is the month of Ramadan for them, which means that they are fasting every day from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. This is a great time for us to pray for them as they are trying to be especially closer to God and seeking spiritual things during this month. It is a great opportunity for the Holy Spirit to plant some seeds in their hearts. You can go to http://www.30-days.net/muslims/ to pray strategically with many other people for the Muslim world.

So, be praying for these 5 students that I have made connections with, and pray that I would be able to grow those relationships and make connections with even more strategic students.