Eric & Melissa McDonald serve with the Navigators. They work with international students, including many from China, at the University of Iowa.
Over the summer many of the international students took the break from classes as an opportunity to travel back to China. But for those who stayed around, fewer classes allowed for more in-depth discipleship. Eric had the opportunity to meet regularly with two men. Both are followers of Christ and were looking for ways to grow stronger in their faith.
Eric also began facilitating a group of men who met every two weeks to read and discuss more in-depth theological books.
This fall 350 new Chinese students arrived on campus. We are excited to meet them as we also welcome back students from last year! We're also co-leading a study for new believers going through the Alpha material. This meets on Sunday nights for 13 weeks. We're hoping to extend this study through the winter and are picking curriculum right now.
Our Global Kingdom Partners, Martin and Judy Kolczyk, work as student mobilizers with SEND International and live in Marengo, IA. Here is part of an update this week from Martin:
Looking back on our visits to other countries and some of the difficulties we faced with language, transportation, customs, etc., we are well aware of how hard it is for international students to be here, in Iowa, without family. So we are starting up a ministry that we did in the past with Friends of Internationals. We want to provide a “family” for each international student while they are here. We want reach out to the over 600 international students from over 80 different countries on the Kirkwood campus.
We also are looking for people willing to adopt a student. Over 80% of foreign students are never invited into an American home or to visit a church. The mission field has come to our doorstep.These students are hungry, both spiritually and physically and are looking for people that care.
Please pray for us as we venture into this new ministry area.
Read more about Martin & Judy's ministry on their blog, On the Road Again.
