New Experience #26 - International Dinner & Discussion
Greensboro is home to a plethora of cultures. We have refugees, international students, foreign restaurants, and more than one Asian market. There is a Starbucks a few miles from my house where you can hear at least 3 languages at any given time. I can have my own international experience without even leaving my city!!
This past Friday night, November 6th, was just such an experience. ISI, International Students Inc., a ministry to international students in Greensboro, hosts regular dinners and discussions for international students and those of us who love them. The students are invited to an American home to have regular American food - not hamburgers and pizza, which unfortunately is what many of them see as American. After dinner, there is a discussion about some topic and students are able to participate as much, or as little, as they would like.
Colea and I met at the specified meeting area at UNCG and introduced ourselves to 3 male students - Luca from Italy, Max and Mohamed from France. A few minutes later, a large group of Asian students arrived, most of whom are from Japan and are studying English at UNCG as part of the Disney internship program. We headed over to the home where we would have dinner with 3 of the girls from Japan riding with us - Yuna, Yoshiko, and Sunmei.
Dinner was a bit like Thanksgiving with turkey and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. We talked with the students about what American foods they liked. And also were reminded that people from other countries speak at least 2, and often 4-5, other languages whereas we Americans rely on everyone else to speak English. That made me a bit sad. I had a great conversation with a girl from China, Ree, who is studying for her Masters at UNCG. And when I turned around, Colea was in the middle of a group of about 6 Asian girls all enjoying conversation.
There were at least 50 international students at the dinner, so we broke up into smaller groups for the discussion time - about 12-15 people. The topic for discussion was “What is truth and what are our sources for truth?” We talked about how we know things like the fact that ice is cold, that stars are made of gases, or that there is a God. Some of the sources for truth that were most popular were trusted adults, research, personal experience, and holy books such as the Bible and Quran. It was really interesting to hear one Muslim girl from India express her faith in the words of the Quran and share some passages with us in Arabic. And I was able to share my own belief in Christ and why I would not react to fear with news of my impending death.
It was such a fun night and I got to travel all over the world (Italy, France, Japan, Nigeria, Hungary, Poland, India, Iran) without ever leaving Greensboro.
4 more new experiences to go…
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