For the last three years, InterVarsity students at the University of Wisconsin—Whitewater have been serving international students who come to their campus. They have volunteered as conversational partners, attended international potlucks, and most recently helped launch a peer mentor program for new international students.
The idea for the program began with student Megan Gander, who took the chapter’s interest in internationals and began thinking of practical ways to show Christ-like love to them.
Brief Description:
InterVarsity students find practical ways to serve internationals on campus.
On college campuses across the country approximately 100 InterVarsity staff are focused on a specialized ministry to strangers. They apply the admonition of Jesus — “when I was a stranger you took me in” — to the growing international student population.
The World Comes to the U.S. campus
The number of international students on U.S. college campuses grew by almost eight percent last year, totaling 671,616. The “Open Doors” report issued by the Institute of International Education in mid-November declared that the number of students from outside the U.S. attending U.S.
Brief Description:
International Student Ministry helps welcome students to America, and sometimes into God's family
Normally, Dunn Meadow serves as a low-key backyard for Indiana University students throwing Frisbees or finishing up class assignments.
Brief Description:
Normally, Dunn Meadow serves as a low-key backyard for Indiana University students throwing Frisbees or finishing up class assignments. But on a Saturday night in early September, Dunn Meadow shook with the sounds of Nigerian, Taiwanese and other world music, 200 enthusiastic students grooving to new beats and glow sticks lighting up the night sky.
InterVarsity staff who work with international students get to try exotic foods. They develop friendships with students from almost every continent. And they just may be counseling the future leader of a foreign country.
InterVarsity staff who work with international students get to try exotic foods. They develop friendships with students from almost every continent. And sometimes they are talking with the future leaders of countries that restrict Christian ministry.
What image does the word “missionary” conjure up for you? Do you think of someone from Great Britain or the U.S. heading to remote islands, central Asia, or African jungles? Let me tell you about Jared, a young student from Kenya coming to study at an American university, a student involved with our International Student Fellowship.
_When he came to Western Michigan University, Jared brought along his relationship with Jesus. Jared and I have recently been talking about him leading evangelistic Bible discussions with his friends.
Brief Description:
A student from Kenya is a missionary on the Western Michigan University campus
One of our California State University campuses has the most diverse international student ministry groups that I have ever seen. Getting together with this unexpected concentration of Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and African students was a truly cross-cultural experience.
This ministry has gone through significant staff and structural changes in its 25-year history, and I believe this is a season of renewed student leadership development.
Brief Description:
Students from all over the world come to the U.S. to study and meet new friends
Study abroad, once thought exotic, now seems almost commonplace. Students and scholars are crossing oceans in every direction to broaden their educational experience. According to the Institute of International Education, over 2.5 million students annually pursue higher education outside their home countries; last year, 623,805 of those students came to the United States.
Brief Description:
InterVarsity's International Student Ministry proclaims the gospel throughout the world without leaving the local campus.
Each August hundreds of new international students arrive in Iowa City to attend the University of Iowa. There is always a scramble for housing, furniture, and other necessities for their new life in the United States. InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF) has been active for years, assisting the university in the process of welcoming and orienting these adventurous students from all over the world.
Brief Description:
A new school year begins on a recently flooded campus
When Joy, an international student from the Far East, made the decision to believe in Jesus Christ, she expressed concern about her inability to pray in English. In Revelation 7:9, John paints a vision of heaven with colorful lines. He sees standing before him, “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language.” Ethnically diverse peoples and different languages bring richness to our Christian faith that would be otherwise missing.
Last summer, Joy’s sister began speaking to her about Jesus.
Brief Description:
When Joy returned to Knox College in the fall, she approached some students in InterVarsity wanting to know more about Jesus Christ
As a transfer student from South India, all I had in hand was a piece of paper with my credits. I knew that these must be somehow ratified by the university before I would be allowed to take classes. Spending time alone in my dorm room with a map in hand, I did not have very much to go by.
Brief Description:
They can put a human face on a cold university and play a key role in a student's success
