15 Fun & Frugal Ways to Spend Time with Your International Friends
Have you felt stuck in your ministry to international students due to the lack of resources and/or ideas? Our friend and IFI staff member in Muskingum, Katie Pozzuoli, shared this fun article with us to help our trusty volunteer community. Continue reading for some inspiration! At Muskingum University, the bread and butter of our ministry […]
Helping International Students Navigate Halloween
Every October, international students encounter one of the most visually striking and sometimes confusing cultural celebrations in the States: Halloween. Pumpkins appear on doorsteps, skeletons hang in windows, and people of all ages dress up as everything from superheroes to zombies. For many students, this season raises a lot of questions: “Why do Americans celebrate […]
Equipped by Faith
You may have heard the saying, “God doesn’t call the equipped— he equips the called.” What does this mean? It means that no matter how equipped someone might feel, God calls his people, ordinary as they may be, to faithfully serve and lead in extraordinary ways– just as He did with Paul*, an IFI volunteer […]
Quality Over Quantity
It all started when Henri and his wife Marguerite heard about IFI through connections at their congregation in Columbus. “This couple was picking up people from around the world,” Henri said. “We got interested because we thought what a good thing for our kids to be exposed to the nations like that!” They signed up […]
From 1 Student to 50: God’s Faithfulness in Lancaster
It can be scary to establish an IFI location from scratch. “Where does one even begin?” That’s what Kasey Smith, now IFI Lancaster Ministry Leader, was asking himself once he moved from Guatemala to Pennsylvania in January of 2023. Launching the location was little more than a dream– a hopeful prayer for a community that […]
Helping as She’d Been Helped
In 2024, Trazzy, originally from Kenya, moved from her university in Turkey to attend Purdue. As she tried settling in, she was quickly faced with challenges. “As an international student, it takes time to find your place,” Trazzy explained. “Housing was an issue and I also struggled with the individualism.” Researching options, Trazzy remembered she’d […]
Campus Moms to the Rescue!
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Beyond the Bike Trail
When Luke, an enthusiastic IFI volunteer from Columbus, proposed a bike trip to three international students in the summer of 2023—Shane, Brandon, and Aaron*—it seemed like the perfect opportunity for adventure. “The plan was simple,” Luke said. “We’d ride from London to Loveland, Ohio, and back, covering about 150 miles over two days.” Each of […]
How to Teach International Students to Drive
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A Love Like No Other
In 2022, Jade* moved from Asia to the States for her master’s degree. She’d always been curious to travel and see the world, so when she got the opportunity to study in the US, she was thrilled. But there was sorrow in the joy, as it meant leaving her family and everything she ever knew […]