Tips for Reaching International Students from India

Subashini, an international student from India, was born a Hindu, accepted Jesus as Savior in 1997, and serves with the ISMC Ottawa team while continuing her studies. Vinu’s advice on how to engage students from a Hindu background is particularly relevant in light of recent reports that indicate Canada now has more students from India than China.

Talk about families
Students from India have close family ties and many will email and connect with parents nearly every day. Starting your conversation by asking about parents, siblings, and childhood is helpful. Be prepared to talk about your family—who they are and what they do. Family and vacation photos lead to good conversations.

Culture and food
Indians love to explore other cultures and food. A traditional Canadian meal in your home is not only a great way to share culture and traditions, it can easily lead to a conversation about faith. Students from India miss the delicious dishes prepared by their moms, so your tasty Indian food creates memorable experiences.

Caution: never ask about their culture of caste, unless they choose to talk about it. Students from lower castes find this offensive, and may be suspicious about what you are up to.

Build authentic friendships
Most students from India are eager to have sincere Canadian friends who treat them with respect and love. If you want to talk about the gospel, ask if they would like to hear about Jesus. Usually, they don’t mind listening.

Sharing your personal walk with God is helpful, because few Hindus have a personal relationship with their god. Don’t say anything offensive or put down their beliefs. Asking polite questions and listening to opinions are part of a healthy debate on any topic.

Offer hospitality (especially during the holiday seasons)
The holiday seasons are hard on many international students because they can’t afford to return home to be with family. Hosting students and surrounding them with good food and company is a great way to share Christ’s love and alleviate loneliness and homesickness.

Prayer
Yes, prayer is the key before any conversation with a student from India.

Please pray and consider a donation to the Student Leadership Fund to empower students like Subashini to reach students from India.

We first got involved with ISMC more than ten years ago in Burnaby, providing hospitality and praying for the ministry.

Some years ago, when Karen and I tried to sell our home, there were only few visits and no offers. While we waited, ISMC staff member Bert Kamphuis asked if we had room for a student from Korea. “Could this be a way out of our turmoil?” I asked myself. We had three vacant rooms, and since welcoming that Korean student, the rooms are always full. This is how we began our journey as a homestay family!

Hosting international students has blessed us with new friendships, rich cultural experiences, and the opportunity to share our faith! We introduce students to *FOCUS Club and Christian community events. Some join us for Sunday service and as we journey with them, they become part of our family, often calling us their Canadian mom and dad!

This year, we started a weekly ESL class and use Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Bible stories as teaching platforms. Our group grew quickly as we continued to trust God for guidance and provision. Our prayer? To see all our students come to Christ.

God sends these international students to Canada. Providing a safe and comfortable home is the perfect way to share Christ’s love; when God opens hearts, they can become, not only members of our family, but members of Christ’s family.

These students can impact the next generation and access to people groups back home that we can’t. If we disciple them with Christ-like leadership, they will be equipped to share the gospel in their language, free of culture barriers! What a strategic open door to reach nations for Jesus!

Please pray for us and for students to open their hearts to our Lord.

Herbert and Karen Dhum
Volunteers, ISMC Burnaby

*FOCUS stands for Friends of Overseas College and University Students. It’s an international students club led by ISMC staff and volunteers.

Please pray for the ministry in Vancouver, and consider a donation to the Vancouver Team to reach students through hospitality.

International student Sherry Mao recently received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Brandon University. Her thesis exhibition, A Stranger in a Strange Land, expressed her journey as an international student in Canada. An excerpt:

When I came to Canada from Nanjing, China, in 2014 to study fine art, I had to start a new life in a different world. Everything was new—weather, food, and a diverse culture. It was my first time of being so far from family and friends; I had left my cocoon to become a stranger in a strange land. Unsure about my identity and who I wanted to be, I struggled with homesickness, anxiety, and the language barrier. Sometimes, feeling so lost, I wanted to give up.
I tried to find myself in this puzzle of life by travelling to different places, meeting different people, experiencing things I had never tried, listening to nature’s heartbeat.

Sherry’s description—a combination of confusion, frustration, and isolation—is typical of what many international students experience in Canada. But, As in Sherry’s story, those negatives need not last.

By God’s grace, Norah, Brandon ISMC staff, invited Sherry to join the *FOCUS Club. This regular gathering for international students has given Sherry opportunity to meet new people, learn Canadian culture, and explore her newfound faith in Christ. Sherry writes: “I was greatly encouraged by Norah and other wonderful friends who journeyed with me, helping me adapt to my new culture, sharing Jesus’ love in practical ways.”

Sherry attends church activities and volunteers as an ESL kids instructor to teach English with art and crafts. “One of my ambitions,” she says, “is to use my gifts and abilities to inspire the next generation, and lead them to know Christ.”

*FOCUS stands for Friends of Overseas College and University Students. It’s an international students club led by ISMC staff and volunteers.

Please pray for the ministry in Brandon, and consider a donation to the Brandon Team to reach students like Sherry.

“And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come” Matthew 24:14, NLT

About 6,000 ethnolinguistic groups have no human access to the gospel, or have an inadequate number of Christ-followers (less than 2%) to form viable church planting movements. One of my mentors, Paul Borthwick, relates a marvelous experience at a church that was serious about reaching the unreached people groups. The church adopted a people group from south China; posters around the premises invited prayer for the Miao.

Paul met a young Asian man who pointed to a Pray for the Miao sign. An international student starting post-graduate studies, the young man found himself in this church, a first-time-ever experience, “because there was food”.

Paul explained the poster and the church’s mission strategy. “But,” blurted the young man, “This is amazing!”

“What’s amazing?” asked Paul.

“I am Miao!” he said. “These are my people.”

What an opportunity God has given today’s North American church to finish the task by reaching young people from the least-reached people groups (or those who have strategic access to them) studying in Canada. In the last week of October as our entire National Leadership Team took the Kairos global missions course in Regina, I was cut to the heart regarding finishables and pursuables.

ISMC National Team and the Board of Directors met for our annual Leadership Retreat in Regina.

There is no end to the pursuables—planting more churches, getting more people to grow in their Christ-likeness, buying bigger auditoriums, hiring pastors, and publishing more Christian literature. Yes, these are good and should be pursued until Jesus returns. The catch: Jesus isn’t returning until what is finishable is finished, until every one of the 6,000 unreached people groups has been reached with Christ’s glorious gospel.

As far back as the 1970s, revered missiologist Ralph Winter shockingly showed that 90% of missionaries worked among already-reached people groups, leaving only 10% to reach atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims. Today’s financial and human resource allocations remain similar! This summer, the 16 students who came to faith in Jesus Christ through ISMC were from these unreached groups!

Pause for a moment and ask yourself: is most of my time, energy, and money going into pursuables or finishables as far as the Great Commission is concerned?

No doubt, “the good news about the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so all nations will hear it”, and certainly sure, John’s revelation will happen—“a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb”.

The question: what will your contribution be?

Student Leadership Fund

ISMC is at the leading edge of what God is doing in global missions. He has sharpened our focus to better prepare, partner with, and send now-reached internationals to impact the world’s least-reached people groups. This Christmas, as we remember God’s gift of Jesus Christ, consider offering your gift. It will be used to spread the good news of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection to an unreached people group. ISMC seeks to build a $10,000 incubator program so least-reached people group student leaders from across Canada can be equipped to finish the task.