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At some unique times
and places in history,
God has brought
the "ends of the earth"
to the church's doorstep.
Now is such a time.
Greensboro is such a place.
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ISI Greensboro's Mission:
"To share Christ's unconditional love and His Good News with International Students"
Why unconditional love?
We ourselves have been loved unconditionally - by family and friends. More importantly, we have been loved unconditionally by Jesus Christ, God the Son. His love for us, displayed through the giving of his life on a Roman cross over 2000 years ago, fuels our desire to love others with the same abandon. By the way, Jesus rose from the dead and lives today! According to Jesus' own teaching, if we wish to follow Him, we must love others, expecting nothing in return.
Why international students?
Frankly, we have the audacious desire for our lives to have maximum global impact - so we wish to live in the most globally strategic way that we possibly can.
Each year, over 600,000 internationals come to the United States to study in our colleges and universities. In Greensboro, NC alone there are approximately 1,000 internationals studying from abroad in any given semester. Generally, these students are from the top tiers of the social structure of their countries of origin, and most will return to positions of significant influence and leadership.
While they are here, their greatest need is real friendship. They are struggling with culture shock, but they are interested to learn about authentic American culture. What better opportunity to practice unconditional love, and impact the whole world?
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Just How Global is Greensboro?
During the 2007-08 school year in Greensboro, we have encountered students from 49 countries so far. Those countries account for more than 4.5 billion people. That’s more than 70% of the world’s population outside of the United States - represented right here in our own back yard.
Building friendships with international students gives us the ability to travel the globe without even leaving our city. However, those friendships need to start somewhere. ISI has built a reputation with students and school administrators on several campuses, to enable us to offer several opportunities to the students. These currently include American Adventure Groups that can also lead to long-term individual friendships with American volunteers, and English conversation partners.
In the near future, we hope to offer students two additional opportunities. First, we hope to be able to match them with a professional mentor in their area of study - a local American who works in their field of interest, who can occasionally meet with them to offer advice, perspective and friendship.
Second, we hope to "staff" a live chat link on our Web site through which students can ask questions (anonymously if they prefer) with a live operator over an internet text chat about culture, practical needs, activities, or Christian beliefs.
We need American volunteers for any and all of these services - Americans who are interested in reaching out to the world at our own doorstep. If you would like to explore these opportunities further, please contact us.
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