When we moved to the area, we quickly joined a Bible study with a couple named George and Sharon who serve in a campus ministry called Intervarsity. George's role brings him in contact with many international students, especially students seeking advanced degrees, and the love he and Sharon show these students (not to mention the love they've shown us) inspires both of us. Through them, we've had the opportunity to meet these students over special Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.
George also serves on the board of an organization called Helping International Students, or HIS. HIS began almost exactly 40 years ago, when a professor and his wife came back from a teaching assignment in Nigeria troubled by what they learned. While traveling, Bob and Mary Taussig met with many Nigerian men and women who received advanced degrees from American universities. These people related their lonely and isolated their experiences in the US; almost none of them had any meaningful contact with Americans for the entirety of their stay here.
Dr. Taussig and his wife were not the sort of people to be upset about something and do nothing about it. They made it a point to reach out to international students and invite them to their home, forging friendships and opportunities for the gospel to be shared that otherwise would never had existed. Soon, they were meeting more students than they could form strong friendships, and so they reached out to local churches asking for volunteers to meet with international friends. Thus began HIS.
I do not exaggerate when I say Dr. Taussig and his wife changed the world, and their vision continues to positively impact the whole world to this day. God has presented us with a wonderful opportunity: He is literally bringing the nations to us, a relatively small town in the Midwest. People living in countries that try to suppress the spreading of the Gospel message can suddenly talk freely, often at times of great vulnerability and openness to change.
The men and women coming from these countries come from well-connected families, and because of their aptitudes they often serve in high government positions. They go on to influence public policy in their own countries. Some of them, because of the friendships forged in this country, come home committed followers of Christ, and the love of Christ influences how they make decisions both in policy and with their interactions with family and friends. Even those who do not carry with them a relationship with Christ come back with a love and respect for people in the United States; their perspective and feelings towards the West are radically changed, and thus the friendship of simple men and women of faith bridges animosity and hatred between cultures.
The people who befriend these international students are changed too. There is no shortage of fear and suspicion targeted towards immigrants and non-citizens. Tragically, fear often channels itself into hatred, and that hatred breaks any possibility for friendship. You cannot, however, spend time with these people and listen to their stories without realizing that God loves them dearly. Prejudices and bigotry run deep in our society, often in ways unrealized and unobserved. Through these friendships, God has worked to fashion both sides of these friendships more and more into the image of His Son.
Regardless of what you may have been told, the way to protect our way of life, the way to deal with the uncertainty of world affairs, is not to shut others out. Here is a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you believe people different from you cannot be trusted, you will treat them in unloving ways and they will treat you likewise. Christ came to earth and died to show us a better way, loving when He was despised, and through His ongoing work through those who believe in Him, He continues to work to redeem the world unto Himself.
My heart has been broken recently, seeing the fear and hatred I've seen put up on social media sites. I cannot imagine what it must be like to the target of such rhetoric. I am a Christian, I believe there is one God who revealed Himself through the person of Jesus Christ, and that anyone who believes otherwise is mistaken. The vast majority of those who are mistaken, however, are living their lives as best they know how, and I desire that they one day would experience a relationship with Christ as well. Some of these people whom Jesus loves will go on social media. Many of them believe that Christians hate them, and they are going to find plenty of supporting evidence, even from some well meaning Christians.
Freedom of speech is important, you have the write to post anything on your social media accounts that you want. Never forget, however, that as we live in a more interconnected world, your actions have consequences farther reaching than you might expect. As followers of Christ, it should be our desire to love our neighbors for his sake and avoid doing anything that might cause another to stumble.
