Once a month we organize a field trip somewhere fun for our international students! The purpose is to let our guard down and enjoy each other’s company. We unfortunately had to cancel our first field trip of the semester because of a bad storm, but thankfully our second was a major success! On 10/24, we took over 31 students to Princeton University for sightseeing, with a whole charter bus paid for by one of our local churches!
The trip was organized in partnership with a local Chinese Church near Princeton, which has hosted day trips for Mandarin-speaking students for many years. They hosted a program of Princeton history, worship music, testimonies, and free lunch before our campus tour. Knowing about half our group was English-speaking, they presented everything in English! The presentations connected Princeton’s Christian history with the purpose of education and life, ultimately pointing to Christ. Praise God, we also had a local Christian leader give us a free tour of Princeton, which ended with some free Boba Tea!
Overall, it was an incredible time, and students really loved it. Please pray specifically for two students who joined the trip and have been coming to our evangelistic Friday dinners. One relatively new student, “Rashel” (a pseudonym), comes from a very closed Muslim country where churches are strictly forbidden and even attending a Christian service overseas could get her in trouble. The other, “Anthony” (also a pseudonym), has been joining our dinners and activities for over a year. Pictured here, I am photo-bombing his selfie (hehe)! He comes from a Hindu background and represents the many students who love our ministry but have not yet surrendered to Christ. Our team has dozens of friendships like these! We regularly communicate the gospel, and our prayer is that more and more students would fall to their knees and surrender to Christ. Please pray for Rashel, Anthony, and all the regulars who keep joining our activities!
Every once in a while, though, we develop friendships with students who rarely join our activities, perhaps due to scheduling conflicts or lack of interest. There are ways to keep pursuing them! Earlier this semester, I mentioned that a significant number of Italians joined our picnic and first evangelistic dinner. Although they haven’t returned for our Friday dinners or field trips, I promised to take them out for a taste of authentic Italian food from home. We enjoyed appetizers and personal Neapolitan pizzas, and they were so thankful! I hope this is another seed of trust that will eventually lead them to join an evangelistic dinner or open the door for me to share the gospel personally. Italians tend to be very skeptical of evangelicals, often seeing us the way we see cults. Reaching them requires a different approach than reaching Indian or Chinese students, but I am thankful the Lord continues to open doors.
Finally I wanted to show some selfies from our campus prayer walk on November 1. We went out for sushi after! It was a blessed time! Thank you all for your partnership in the gospel! We are so grateful for you.
P.S. There is still time to sign up to host international students on Thanksgiving Day! Check out all the details and the signup form on our blog here.
All photos from Princeton trip:
All videos from Princeton trip:
