Teaching English, Sharing Cultures and Worldviews
PHOTO ABOVE: Jesse teaching his in-person IFC (International Friendship Center) class at the Upper House
One of the greatest joys we have in international student ministry is getting to cross cultural and language barriers and make connections with people from parts of the world we may never get to travel to or see! For the past seven years, we've partnered with the IFC to serve and love internationals by helping them with a felt need: to continually improve their English language skills and fluency. In the process of making friends and teaching English, conversations about the deeper aspects of life are inevitable. There have been countless opportunities to share our faith with students and professors from countries where they do not have the freedom or opportunity to hear the Good News.
Jesse teaches 'American Beliefs and Culture' classes weekly both online and in-person. The 'beliefs' component of the class leads to many interesting discussions about worldviews, the predominant religion of each ethnic group, and America's cultural heritage of Judeo-Christian values and principles. We frequently reference the Bible and Jesus' teachings as the foundation of much of America's spiritual heritage and culture, even though our culture has now drifted far from the Word in so many aspects of it. We learn to not only share our cultures with each other, but also to critique even our own culture - quite hard to do given the ethnocentrism which most of us are influenced by even subconsciously. We learn to evaluate our culture to discern what is moral and immoral about our culture, and what is simply neutral. This opens doors to think about one's worldview: is it worth building one's life upon? Does it offer hope, peace, love and salvation, or is it something for which I can keep the good and neutral, throw out the bad, and incorporate elements of my host country's culture and/or predominant religion?