Monday, August 25, 2008

Missions From Your Living Room

Tyler Kenney has a great post for those of us who live in college towns:

You should consider inviting an international student to live with you. Perhaps you have an extra bedroom in your house, or maybe there’s space in your apartment opening up soon.

Why not purposefully seek to fill it with some of the most respectful, cultured, and eager-to-learn folks around?

This kind of initiative in the heart of one of my roommates caused our apartment-family to grow this past year, adding a pair of delightful Saudi Arabian young men. Now I'm only more convinced of the idea.

Here’s why I’m persuaded:

  • God loves the foreigner (Deuteronomy 10:18) and calls me to love him too (Leviticus 19:34).
  • Trying to pronounce Arabic words fosters my humility.
  • Ahmed and I often have extended conversations about true religion.
  • My news-media-based knowledge of Muslims is supplemented with and corrected by first-hand experience. We are very similar in our desires, our depravity, and our need for a Savior.
  • Mohammed knows how to make kabsa, and he’s generous with it.
  • I can play an active part in reaching the nations from my own living room.
  • It exposes my other friends and family to all the above.

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