Christmas Party for International Students

We host a Christmas party for International students every December. Yes, its early December, but with the end of classes in mid-December and then exams before the semester break, the only time is early December. We celebrate Thanksgiving and the next Monday we are planning the Christmas party.

We open the party to anyone and do some publicity to see who might be interested to come, but most often those who come are friends and acquaintances of the Christian students involved with us. They bring International students they meet in their classes, or those who are in their labs and Advisee groups, or even friends of friends.

About 27 came Saturday night, which makes for a nice size party. I hadn't met about 17 of them before, so it was fun to meet new students, many of whom were from China. They said they only had been in the US about 3 or 4 months and this will be their first Christmas -- ever!  They were curious about American traditions and understanding what Christmas is about.

What a privilege to be the first people to tell them about the birth of Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas, God's gift to us.

The Americans who came shared family traditions from their childhood. Many were common among us, but some were very unique and interesting to hear about. We sang a couple Christmas songs (Silent Night, Walking in a Winter Wonderland), and then one of the men took seven minutes to tell about Christ's birth and why he came to earth. He did a great job!

I think for many people, though, one of the most interesting times of the evening was when one of the women graduate students shared her personal story about how she came to faith in Christ in the midst of life-threatening tragedy while in college. She was open and warm and honest and tied the entire evening together. Everyone clapped when she finished. I'm not sure, but I think this was the first time ever that she had told her story in a group like this.

The party had lots of food, a Christmas present game and hours of good conversation. And two graduate student friends of ours from China came later on in the evening. It was especially fun to see them again.

Dianne had the opportunity to talk with two students about Christmas and their understanding of the gospel message. Everyone stayed late -- we left about 11:40 pm before most people.

A fun game that had everyone laughing. A gift was wrapped multiple times (11, I think) and someone had to put on a Christmas stocking cap, a frog blow-up swim toy around their waist and thick, heavy snow gloves to open it. They could unwrap as fast as they could while the circle around them tossed dice. Whenever anyone rolled a six or nine, they then put on the cap, frog and gloves and the unwrapping continued. After many stops and starts and switching of cap, frog and gloves, someone finally managed to unwrap the gift all the way -- which was theirs to keep. Everyone laughed a lot!

Fun conversation. The woman in green was the one who shared her personal story of how she came to faith in Christ.

This is 18 of about 27 who came. Wonder where Dianne was?

Flying Racoons: Something You Don't See Everyday

In my previous post I cut/pasted a few sentences from my Facebook wall a year ago. That stared my remembering that weird week back then. Everyday something very singularly odd happened, like the extremely different assortment of people I encountered in every aisle at the Meijer's supermarket.

One day that week I was driving from home to campus. It's a route I've taken hundreds of times on a two lane, sorta country road. This time there was a car ahead of me and nothing seemed unusual. But then the car slowed down and stopped in the middle of the road. As I slowed and pulled up behind it, the driver turned on the car's flashers and then got out of the car. I really was curious to see what the driver, a woman, was going to do as I sat there.

She walks around to the front of her car and bends over. I couldn't see to the front of her car, but suddenly she stands upright and steps into view holding two, large, dead, smushed, road kill racoons, one in each hand by the tails. These were not little ones as they dangled on either side of her. She takes a big 360 degree spin so the raccoons are flying high above her and she lets go of them, flinging the now soaring raccoons into the roadside ditch.

Without looking at me, she walks back to her car, gets in, turns off the flashers and starts to drive ahead again, resuming her trip. I sit there a moment stunned and then start laughing. And I start driving again to campus.

I appreciate her removing the two nasty, dead raccoons from the road. I'm sure I would have had to drive around them if she hadn't taken care of the road kill. But it sure was funny. And makes for an interesting blog post, don't you think. (At least I do!)

Ann Arbor is a crazy place to live. All sorts of people from everywhere in the world come here. Always interesting, some days, like this day, especially so.

Meijer's: A Cultural Experience

Last week I was in our local supermarket, Meijer's, buying groceries for our Thanksgiving Day dinner. We had eight graduate students with us for Thanksgiving: two from Austria, two from Taiwan, one from Singapore, and three Americans (California, Idaho, and Montana). For some, this was their first American Thanksgiving -- they had only seen it in movies or heard about it from friends. After our meal, we talked about how the Lord has blessed us throughout the past year, including during difficult times in our lives.

Often when I'm in Meijer's, I see many people from around the world. Because of the University, there are people from more than 110 nations and many of them shop Meijers. Last week was no different. Every aisle can be a "cultural experience" with people speaking different languages and wearing unusual clothing. My trip to Meijer's this week reminded of a posting I wrote a year ago in my Facebook page. I went back and cut/paste it here.

Recently I was at the supermarket. I passed two Asian women jabbering in Chinese. Around the corner were two Arab women in full burkas. Next aisle were two biker-babes with full sleeve tattoos and lots of fringe on their leather bustiers. Next were two Amish women dressed in flower print pastel dresses with poofy sleeves wearing bonnets and Adidas tennis shoes. Made me marvel. Where do I live? Ann Arbor, of course!

This is true! I know it sounds implausible, but it all happened the way I wrote. At times I marvel when people ask Dianne and me if we've ever thought about being "foreign missionaries." We always say, "we are, we moved to Ann Arbor!" Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and reflected on the many blessings in your life!