Autumn Hanline, IFI's Director of Innovation Ministry Consultant, shares Biblical basis for why IFI staff alone are not sufficient to meet the needs of friendship among international students. Join us in this important call and find yourself drawing near to God in the process!
Kayla was in what she calls a season of wilderness when a volunteer named Pat invited her to an IFI student community night. "I remember for the first time in a few years feeling at home," she says, "at a table with people that are very different than me. So I kept showing up."
Kayla became an IFI volunteer, later joined staff, and now serves as a campus minister in Cincinnati, where she and her daughters take students grocery shopping the first Sunday of every month. "I thought I signed up to be a blessing," she says, "but I feel like I have been blessed a hundredfold in return."
"I thought I signed up to be a blessing, but I feel like I have been blessed a hundredfold in return."
Her story is the clearest answer I know to the question of why volunteers matter. One volunteer's invitation gave Kayla a place to belong, and now she offers the same welcome to students a long way from home.
A gap only friendship can fill
More than 1.1 million international students are studying in the U.S. Many come from countries where the Church is restricted or absent, and their years here may be the only season of their lives with access to Christian community. Most will leave within a few years, many without ever being invited into an American home.
As one student from Peru told us, "Being far from my family is not easy, but having people like them in my life brings great comfort to my heart." IFI staff can't be that presence for a million students, and we were never meant to. When Moses tried to carry the whole nation of Israel by himself, his father-in-law told him to find capable, trustworthy people and share the work (Exodus 18). Friendship at this scale happens the same way through capable, trustworthy IFI volunteers meeting with students one dinner table, one car ride, one living room at a time.
Drawing near
Every Friday night for more than ten years, Lisa and Rodger have volunteered to open their basement to about 50 international students for a meal and Bible study. They don't lead the study. They welcome students in, then quietly disappear into the kitchen.
It would be easy to call that help. I think Scripture calls it something more. When Israel built the tabernacle, Moses called "everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work." Those whose hearts were stirred did two things: offer what they had willingly and draw near to the Lord. The people who gave their skill weren't only finishing a building project. They were coming close to God through the work.
That's what is happening in Lisa and Rodger's basement on Friday nights. They aren't filling a slot on a sign-up sheet. They are offering themselves, and drawing near to God as they do it.
What one yes can become
Last year, 1,132 volunteers served alongside IFI staff to welcome 5,790 international students from 121 countries on 60 campuses. Many started with one small yes.
In Gainesville, Florida, a family hosted a student from South Asia. Asked to host again this fall, they said they were still focused on that student. He goes to church with them, and they keep having spiritual conversations. "We think of him as our adopted son," they wrote. This year, the student took them out for Mother's Day and Father's Day.
"We think of him as our adopted son."
When God asked, "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah answered, "Here am I. Send me," before he knew what it would cost. Most volunteers say yes the same way. They agree to one dinner or one airport pickup, and God does far more with it than they planned.
Will you join us?
Our question isn't "Will you help us?" It's "Will you join us?" Our Dayton team puts it simply: be you, with an international student.
If you cook, invite a student to dinner. If you drive, offer a ride. When you host a student for a holiday meal, you take this ministry somewhere no staff member can go: your home. You don't need another language or a seminary degree, only a willingness to say, "Here am I."
Over the next three years, IFI is praying for 1,000 new volunteers. Start with one yes. Visit ifiwelcome.org to connect with the IFI location nearest you, or ask how your church can get started with the Global Welcome Toolkit.
The world's future leaders are already here, on campuses in our own cities. The question is, who will welcome them?
