A Flood of Opportunities

ISMC Winnipeg experienced tremendous outreach opportunities over the past year. Our programs, including ESL workshops, furniture and household donations, airport pickup, and the hospitality ministry, reached students from many nationalities and backgrounds.

During Easter this year, we launched our first Friends for Dinner, a great friendship and hospitality program that connects international students to Christian families for dinner at Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. This Easter we connected 18 students from Iran, Brazil, China, and Africa to six Canadian families. Among these students, eight were invited to their host families’ church, and continue to attend Sunday service and weekly fellowships.

An Iranian student said,

I am so grateful for this opportunity to connect with a Canadian family that accepts me and opens their home! I became friends with their son who attends my university. He invited me to join the Bible study class on campus. I look for- ward to making new friends and exploring faith with other students.

Another outreach ministry we initiated was airport pick up. In August, 15 students received warm welcomes from our amazing volunteers. We are grateful for a solid and growing volunteer team that loves international students and willingly serves in various capacities.

Equipping our volunteers is an important key for effective ministry work. We recently embarked with our local team on a one-day Meaningful Evangelism seminar by OMF Canada’s Andy Smith. Learning about different methods of evangelism in the 21st century was beneficial to our volunteers because they meet students at our weekly FOCUS Club gatherings. We anticipate further equipping our volunteers with evangelism strategies in a cross-cultural context.

Joseph Seidu
City Director, ISMC Winnipeg

We at International Student Ministries Canada send our greetings! We would like to express our gratitude to you for your faithfulness in partnering with us to bring the gospel message to the international students that are studying in Canada. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

We are excited to share that Canada now has over 500,000 international students studying within our borders. God has ordained that many countries, that are the most resistant to the gospel message, are sending their students to study in Canada and we long for each of these students to have the opportunity to be loved and led (to the way of Christ in Salvation, discipleship and leadership) by the whole body of Christ.

Please consider joining us in our coast to coast labour of love in prayer. In Canada, we are recognizing Saturday November 17, 2018 as our InternationalStudents Day of Prayer on Campuses and Sunday November 18, 2018 as our International Students Day of Prayer in our churches. Would you partner with us once again, to pray for our international students and those who are ministering to them during your congregational prayer times and/or join us in prayer walking our campuses?

If your congregation and/or prayer circles plan to join us in prayer, it would be a great encouragement to us if you would send us a quick note of support.

Please find our event poster and some prayer requests, if you might find those helpful.

Shirley Stephens
National Prayer Director

Happy Thanksgiving from Hong Kong! History has it that the first official, annual Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated on 6 November 1879, though Indigenous peoples in Canada have a history of celebrating the fall harvest that predates the arrival of European settlers. It is indeed a great time to pause and thank God for his bountiful blessings. For us at ISMC, we speak of a harvest of a different kind, one that should last for all eternity: a harvest of souls.

Over the last year we have witnessed a coming together of a dozen North American international student ministries (ISMs) collaborating to form a net(work) across the continent to make a significant catch of souls together. That collaboration is what took us to Hong Kong, where our North American consortium of ISMs also joined hands with our Chinese counterparts to work together to minimize the sad phenomenon of post-harvest losses of souls after students who have come to know the Lord in Canada/USA return home (sometimes as high as 80% lose their faith!)

This thanksgiving, I am grateful for this collaboration and even a declaration of unity in mission that we as leaders from East and West are calling the “Hong Kong Consensus.”

With two former Chinese international students at the Returnee Summit in Hong Kong, who are now co-harvesters/staff with us.

ISMC and I are thankful for your partnership in making and keeping the harvest of souls to the glory of God. When you, in gratitude, make a Thanksgiving offering this season, do remember us. Give thanks to the Lord here.

Glory to God—who orchestrated every step —ISMC has a new website. It offers more flexibility, a better viewing experience, and has much more affordable maintenance and service fees! We are blessed by the incredible help from a former international student who helped in the development process. What a joy to have former international students blessing international students!

Join us in praying that the new ISMC website will bring greater impact, effective outreach, and divine partnerships!