"Dear Ted and Tudi, What an encouraging testimony you gave, Ted (see attached Super Bowl testimony). While I had known about some portions, I certainly benefitted from listening to your entire talk.
It encouraged me to be looking for opportunities to share my faith with the international students at Kettering, as the Lord opens doors and hearts.
Most recently, last Sunday I invited a grad student from Bangladesh to church. Because he is musically gifted and had played the piano in our reception room at a recent Soup and Sandwich lunch, I wondered if he had ever seen/heard an organ being played.
He had not. So I called our organist and he invited the student to come upstairs after the service. Which we did. After some initial explanations, I went back downstairs and while talking with some people, I heard the organ being played. Thinking it was probably our organist, I was pleasantly surprised to see the student sitting at the organ and seriously playing the music. He was “in seventh heaven!”
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I've been volunteering with international students for about eight years, first at UM-Flint but the last few years at Kettering University (used to be General Motors Institute) which celebrated its centennial anniversary last year.
At the pre-Thanksgiving dinner this year we had 25 students from seven different countries. We try to have some activity once a month for a couple hours on a Saturday, just to get them off campus (just a mile from our church) and give them a break with some home-cooked meals. We learn some things about their culture, such as how to use chopsticks, or going over idioms, which we in America speak so regularly. One bright engineer from India who is working in California recently told me he often feels lost when his American colleagues speak with idioms. So he goes to Google so he doesn’t miss some important aspects of his work. Sometimes we just play some board games.
I’ve made and maintain numerous friendships with past students in various parts of the world, as well as the ones who stay here and work with their employment visas.
But one of the great joys for me was studying the Bible with a young professor from China who, after studying for at least 15 months on a weekly basis, on his own request, wanted to be baptized. He has a wife and two young sons back home, and after he returned, we keep in touch by text, pictures, and occasional phone calls.
I also enjoy having a few students at a time at my home from time to time.
I can send a few pictures of guests at Thanksgiving and Christmas just for Tudi and your benefit. (I enjoy seeing the various pictures of your family, grandchildren, and friends.) I’d appreciate you not printing them though.
Over lunch at my place after having heard a Gospel-filled message during the service, a Hindu student told me they believe in one god but he has many “representatives.” I pray God will give me more opportunities to share, step by step, the One True God.
Your WB newsletters have been so encouraging over the years and have given me great ideas on how to follow through on some of the challenges you present.
God’s blessings to you and your family. I love the pictures when I see them on Ted’s WB weekly newsletters.
With love,
Martha"
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