Yesterday was a good day with our international students though Lisa and I found ourselves split between two ministry sites for the second time in two weeks. Fourth of July is one time where we can share our culture with our international friends and they seem to enjoy it a lot.

UTA July 4 Party

(pictures) Lisa with T-8 & C-5 is represented ISI as we worked in cooperation with the Cornerstone from Grace Community church to host a July 4 party at the farm of Steve Headland. There were a fair number of students and volunteers from both Grace and our Sunday School class at Fielder Road Baptist church. Lisa shared that all had a great time as they rode horses, swam and just enjoyed the country hospitality. Lisa metioned that Steve and family live in a barn and they were able to use the barn as a place to host the students well into the night. She also shared that there was a 360 degree view of fireworks as the local cities showed off their patriotism. Tim and Charis had a great time too and were greatly blessed.

TCU July 4 Party

(pictures) At the same time as the UTA July 4 Party was the TCU ISI July 4 party. Our good friend Babs who lives across the street from TCU hosted the party and a fair number of students and friends attended including Roy & J-11. Steve Mitsuhashi slaved at the grill as students from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, China, Taiwan, Korea, Afganistan, Japan, El Salvador, etc. enjoyed hot dogs and hamburgers and classic July 4 food. A friend of ours from Iraq brought a wonderful kurdish rice dish and it tasted so good. After hanging out and eating we enjoyed the fireworks from the Colonial Country club and the botanical gardens nearby. The oohs and aahs were everywhere.

I had a great conversation with a computer science major from Central America. We talked about all kinds of things from machine vision, to neural nets, artificial intelligence, what makes art art, to the metaphysical definition of a “person” from the perspective of catholics and protestant. We talked some about the Trinity and so many other things. He is a Catholic but he obviously enjoys reading the Bible and he attends our weekly bible study hosted by some local seminary students who are a part of our team.

I also talked with a Chinese student who apparently just recently became a Christian (we need to verify this) as we drove back and forth from the party. She had so many questions and was trying so hard to learn as much as she could about living as a Christian and Christian things. Jonathan was even able to share some stuff with her. It was really cool to see him opening up about different things. Her questions ran the gamut of is there one truth that the Bible teaches to what books we read, etc. It was really fun to be around a person so hungry to relate and learn.