Use Globalization for the Gospel

The four corners of the world are now in your neighborhood.

Although Dubai is an Arabian city on the Persian Gulf, there are still Starbucks everywhere. Within these coffee shops you find a microcosm of the city. Women—fully covered in black abaya robes and head scarfs covering every strand of hair—chatter at one table, while a mixed male and female group of Europeans with bare legs and shoulders sit at the next. Talk about a culture-clash! But no one seems to notice because diversity is all over our city.

If you look closely, you’ll find diversity in your city also. In America, I’ve met an Iranian woman in Target, a Bangladeshi at Whole Foods, and a friendly Egyptian working at LAX. We only have to open our eyes to find diversity in our own hometowns. Globalization has presented all of us with remarkable opportunities to meet people from the four corners of the world and share the good news of Jesus with them. People who know nothing of the God of the Bible are coming to a town near us. It can be our privilege to tell them about him.

There are so many ways to build friendships with internationals, who are likely craving relationship because they have left so many behind. Read More

One of the Japanese exchange students who attend my university and who was my conversation partner for the semester that she studied English in the United States told me that I had helped her to become more comfortable speaking English with someone for whom English was not a second language. Until then she had been more comfortable speaking in English with the Chinese and South Korean exchange students who like her were studying English because they experienced the same difficulties with the language.

Serving as a conversation partner with exchange students who are studying English in the United States is one way of getting to know them better while helping them become more fluent in speaking English. In my case, I was also learning to become more fluent in speaking Japanese, which I am studying at the university.

The same exchange student also told me that the other Asian students were more friendlier to the Asian students like herself than the local population of the town in which the university was located. This was also the experience of other Asian students with whom I am acquainted. They found Americans on the West Coast friendlier toward Asians than Americans in western Kentucky.She appreciated the friendship and acceptance that I had shown towards her.

During the nine years that I was involved with the Journey, a non-denomination church here in western Kentucky, I was involved in ministry to a number of the Asian exchange students attending the university. This included students from Vietnam as well as those from China, Japan, and South Korea. Church members befriended students and hosted them on weekends and holidays. We invited them to parties and other social gatherings in our homes, took them on outings, provided transportation for them in a town and a region with very limited public transportation in comparison to their home countries, and did whatever else we could do to make them feel welcome. A number of students would declare their faith in Jesus Christ in baptism.