While Lisa and I were focused on the Thanksgiving Party for UTA international students with our church two others of our ministry teams hosted other “new” thanksgiving parties… Here’s what happened…

Jeff Anthony, our ISI City Mobilizer and “blessing man”, helped kick off the first thanksgiving dinner for Collin College (formerly Collin County Community College), a new ministry focus for us. Here is his report…

It was fantastic! God definitely answered our prayers and pulled everything together for His glory. We had over 100 people and I think more than 60 students. Countries represented were: Pakistan, Vietnam, China, India, Kenya, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Iran, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Bolivia, Taiwan, Fiji, and Belgium.

A lady from Iran who works in the int’l student office and brought her three daughters (soph at CC and two HS seniors) went on and on about how wonderful everything was and how  much she and the students appreciated it. She called me the blessing man (I’ve been called lots of things over the years, but this was a first!) and said I would be blessed because of all that we did to make the students feel loved. We had lots of students from Pakistan and they really had a good time. I re-connected with several students I had met at the BSM retreat in Oct. and two of them lead different int’l student organizations on campus.

McKinney Memorial Bible Church offered to host thankgiving dinner parties for international students at several different american volunteer homes as they provided the food. As key TCU ministry team and McKinney member Babs shares,

All went well with the American Thanksgiving Dinner Saturday night.  We had about 40 students and all went to an American home. They seemed to be in groups in which they knew people and felt comfortable.  The feedback which I have received from students and JP and Cassie has been very positive; everyone had a good time!  The families really enjoyed having the students, so all in all, I think it was a very positive experience for all!  Praise the Lord!  Thanks to all who were involved from planning, to recruiting students and sending them to the right place, to driving and eating with them, and getting them back home!  Thank you so much!

In addition soon-to-be TCU intern Cassie adds,

There were… students there from China mostly and Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, and some others.  We split up into groups.  JP (Cassie’s fiance) and I took 4 Chinese students to a house and we got to stay with them.  Everyone involved seem to have a great time.  Plus, the time waiting at the [TCU Frog] fountain was just good talking to a lot of students I had not met before.

Finally, Bennie & Patti, key TCU team members, had more than 30 people, mostly international students, over their house on Thanksgiving day as they do every year. It sounded like, as usual, students had a rich and warm time. Bennie was telling me that he went down to TCU to pick up some students and twice as many as were expected were there… They are incredible people…