Do you have a Chinese or Indian restaurant in your area? Do you have a gas station with a clerk from another country? Yes? Then you have international people in your community!
Reaching International People
Service to the community is one of the greatest ways to connect to people, bless the atmosphere of the community and bring about positive change in people’s lives. Reaching out to international people as a service to your community is one of the easiest ways to get involved in as a soul winner!
International People can be some of the easiest people to connect to in your city. They are now living in a foreign country, without many friends and are possibly lonely. They could be experiencing culture shock, if they have moved from their country in the last several years, which may result in depression and anxiety.
Many times international people have an intense desire to connect to the culture of the city and nation they are presently living in, but surprisingly few international people are ever invited into a local person’s home and very few locals associate with international people for various reasons. Many times locals will not befriend international people because they fear doing something wrong or doing something that will potentially offend the international person. Another reason why locals don’t get involved with international people is because it isn’t comfortable for them to do so, as a local must be willing to learn new ways of interaction and must work at communicating effectively and clearly with a person from a different culture.
Thus, we have found that international people are the easiest to reach. As an important side note, if a local church seems to be involved already with international people, many times they have few participants actually involved and/or the leader who originally started the outreach program may have moved on or is no longer involved. So don’t be intimidated to step out and help international people even if you see another church in town doing something similar.
Often it is easier for a local to reach the international people than for an international person who has become a naturalized citizen. We have discovered that unfortunately few naturalized citizens sometimes feel intimidated by their own people. An international person likes to connect with a native local because they want to learn about the differences between their culture. International people also seem to be drawn to people who are different than themselves. Also, you don’t need to know this international person’s language! Many times the international person wants to learn the local language and is more than willing to teach you a few helpful phrases and words in their own language! Knowing this should help a local to lose their fear in reaching out to an international person.
Working with the international community allowed my wife to teach many Bible studies to students in Canada, allowed me and my wife to teach Bible studies to international people in the U.S., and allowed us over a four year period to win people from 16 nations in Singapore. We have learned that many times locals have an incorrect perception of international people’s openness to receiving love, concern and kindness. They are open and they do desire friendship with someone who cares about them.
My wife and I have been able to connect to multiple nationalities and make friends with them by showing true concern and interest. Often these friendships have led to Bible studies and resulted in salvation. We have learned that loving international people will eventually open the door for us to tell them about the greatest gift available: the love of Jesus. And this love stays with them for the rest of their lives!
You too can do this! You have nothing to lose and nations to gain!
Locations to Connect to International People:
1) Universities: we connected to international students on university campuses by offering free English tutoring and opening our home as a place for the international clubs to hold events.
2) Restaurants: we found that taking a few minutes to ask a waiter/waitress a question about themselves always resulted in a contact.
3) Libraries/Community Centers: many times these places have a bulletin boards and/or an activities coordinator who will show you community functions for a particular nationality or group, and this allows you the opportunity to get involved by volunteering.
4) International Living Centers/Apartments/Asian Markets/Chinatown, etc.: finding out where a particular group of international people live or congregate or buy groceries (i.e. a particular Apartment complex, a small chinatown, a group of Korean stores or African Food stores) allows you to make points of contact by posting signs/flyers with information about Free Conversational English, Math Tutoring, Free Driving Lessons, or anything else that comes to mind.
I will try to add other bits of helpful information to this blog in the coming weeks and months, so keep checking back. You can also post a comment or question for further information!
