Tag: student

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Watershed Moments

As with many spouses of T.U. scholars, she had adopted a Western nickname (perhaps less daunting to the American tongue). Gayle and her graduate-student husband, ‘Dean’, had been in Tulsa nearly two years. The story of their faith journey corresponded with a marginal difference to that of another married couple, the Zhirs*. The Zhirs happened to both share a common first name. My wife, a twinkle in her eye, nicknamed them ‘Zhirs Squared’.

ISM enjoyed serving alongside host families – Christ-followers endeavoring to mirror the faith. Such households, with their knack of welcoming strangers in their midst, lived and breathed hospitality.

Dean and Gayle were an engaging couple eager to sharpen their “second language” skills. They instantly warmed to the ‘English Corner’ community.

Along the way Dean was notified that a significant academic opportunity in a distant location had been offered him. The couple’s departure from Tulsa was imminent. They would move in a matter of days.

Wednesday evening’s English Corner rolled around and the usual stream of internationals and American host friends arrived at our common meeting area, the campus dining hall. Alerted to Gayle and her husband’s news of soon moving away, one volunteer exclaimed, “Oh, Gayle, we are going to miss you so much!” At this, the young lady – overcome by the sincere gesture – excused herself and moved to a quiet area to gather her emotions. Tears flowed.

Some moments later she was joined by her host friend who had followed her from a respectable distance. In the moments that followed, Gayle, sensing a consoling presence which she discerned to be the love of God, expressed her desire to embrace the faith that so marked her friend’s lives. Shortly afterward her husband Dean followed suit. Christ proved himself true through their years following. Savior, companion and Lord.

Among the beautiful features of nearing, then crossing salvation’s threshold to God’s kingdom is the uniqueness of each person in their own pilgrimage.  The circuitous route of the Zhirs (befriended by a different volunteer family altogether) would unfold  across its own distinctive set of landscapes.

©2024 Jerry Lout

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Have A Chair

Smiling, the student welcomed me into his apartment. He had come a week or so earlier to start his first semester of studies in this new land.

“I am sorry”, he began – self-conscious and embarrassed – “I do not have a comfortable chair for you”.

Nodding my thanks as he gestured to the straight-backed chair, I took in the sparse surroundings. My goodness, I thought, even though this is a fine campus apartment, it’s virtually unfurnished. Only a couple sticks of furniture rested on the pristine carpeting spread throughout.

That surprise ‘aha moment’ was followed by more of the same as I made my rounds to welcome newly arrived students over the coming days. It left me both astonished and bewildered.  What could be done to alter this scenario? The question persisted.

How does a newcomer on a tight budget – a young person virtually unknown by anyone inside the host country – tackle the task of furniture shopping in this place? The hurdles grew in number

  • No vehicle of their own (much less a driver’s license)
  • No friend with a pickup
  • Unaware of the uniquely American tradition called a ‘garage sale’
  • The list grows

 There is a God in heaven. So goes the quote.

Drawing on what imagination capital we could muster, our ragtag team landed on a purely experimental game plan and pinned a name to it. From then til now ICO’s annual Furniture Fest has kept gathering wind in her sails.

What’s more (in the perky language of an ancient TV game show), The Price is Right.

©2024 Jerry Lout

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September Assault

Entering the quaint cottage off 15th and Memorial that Tuesday of early Fall, I assumed the small gathering would feature ‘the usual’. But calendars across the land had silently announced the dawn of another day. September 11, 2001, would never be remembered as an ordinary day.

Inside the cottage I was met with hurried motions of unusually somber hosts, urging me to join them before a television screen. Scenes of billowing smoke boiling from upper floors of one of New York’s twin towers left our small prayer group sitting bewildered. Our attention was held captive. We sat transfixed, silent.

Then, in disbelief, our modest gathering witnessed in real time an action so horrific that it could not in those fleeting seconds be adequately taken in.

While TV reporters – as confused as any of their viewers – fired off excited guesses, we beheld the unthinkable. The approach of airliner number two. Then a great burst of flame. More smoke. More pandemonium. America was under attack.

The cottage, cozy residence of senior-age friends Merland and Ann Severson,  served for years as venue for Tuesday morning gatherings. The informal meeting featured friendly chitchat, followed by thanksgivings, updates and prayer for the international student ministry.

While we, in this abrupt moment carried scant details on the chaos unfolding in New York, our little band of believers carried a knowing conviction of something very concrete, at a deep, profound level. If there were ever a time for the Lord’s praying people to engage, the time is here.

©2024 Jerry Lout

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Icebreaker

“So, how are you managing now that jet lag has run its course?

“In your early moments of being in the U.S., what was it like? Any surprises? Challenges?”

Serving up such questions, I discovered, helped ease the landing for new student arrivals, especially those who had never traveled outside their homeland.

Thoughtful queries delicately placed became bridge-building tools in nurturing further relationship. They also yielded an intriguing range of responses. One visit with a young scholar from the Indian subcontinent retains its near-the-top spot of my unforgettable list.

“Dheeraj*, how was your arrival to the U.S? Anything stand out?” His response was instant, and his shy laughter signaled I was in for a story. Offering an assuring smile, I gestured he had the floor.

“Well, the flight had been long. I was getting hungry when we landed at LAX, Los Angeles.

“After passing through Customs and Immigration, I found a sandwich shop along the corridor. There was plenty of time ahead of my connecting flight leaving for Tulsa.”

Dheeraj paused and offered a light chuckle before continuing. By now I was hooked on the unfolding narrative. Clearly something was up!

“Of course, I had never visited an American eating place. At the counter, I made my purchase – a sandwich, along with a soft drink. I was so mindful that I was a first-time visitor, a stranger to this place. Soon I became very worried that my presence here was not received well. I feared that as an outsider I was not at all ‘welcome’”.

Dheeraj gave another self-conscious and, to my relief, good-natured chuckle. Which led moments later to a stream of laughter erupting from us both.

©2023 Jerry Lout

 

 

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Behind The Scenes

“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous”. Einstein’s quip leaves me wondering whether the renowned Physicist had some family of returning missionaries in mind.

With us no longer living and serving overseas, Ann and I found the Twilight Zone our new address. We talked, we dreamed some rather feeble dreams, we pondered. . . And prayed.  “Guidance”, Loren Cunningham wisely noted, “is first of all a relationship with the Guide”.

A question surfaced in my thoughts over and over as I again strolled the lovely Tulsa campus, What if I requested and was given approval by the University to register as an international student volunteer organization? What then about a ministry ‘covering’?

Elim Fellowship of Lima, NY had through all our Africa years served as our sponsoring organization. Deep friendships and spiritual camaraderie had been forged between us and fellow Elim team members through our many ups and downs of Christian service.

I am not a brilliant man, but I’ve been given the sense to suspect it is almost always a bad idea to strike out in the Lord’s work as a lone ranger.

Enter an Einstein coincidence.

To my utter surprise word came that our mission agency (Elim) had just elected to create a new department. Its central focus being to extend Christian friendship and service to college students – but not just any college students. Elim Fellowship was right now poised to launch its first-ever international-student-ministry department. Christening the arm as All Nations USA. A seasoned servant-leader, David Spencer, would be tending the helm at the NY office.

The timely development of such an unlikely script indicated, it seemed, the handwriting of divine providence. Signed, Anonymous.

©2023 Jerry Lout

 

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Conundrum

During unsettling times, from the terrifying to the mild, a prevailing hope in many is to catch sight of some proverbial North Star.

For centuries and for throngs of people in numberless settings a wildly diverse company of pilgrims called Jesus followers, have centered and then re-centered their trust in this one person. The carpenter’s son. The Messiah. The Good Shepherd. . . (It seems interesting that a noteworthy feature of any credible shepherd is that he leads).

So, What now, Lord? The days going forward found me itching for resolution. With my mentor (Jim) now off the scene what am I to make of this teasing draw toward international student ministry. Am I to press forward along the intriguing but ill-defined road? Or, shall my wife and I – as advised by one pastor – suspend missions work altogether since we are not now overseas, “Take up pastoring”?

Day by day I kept being drawn to the student community. Apart from whether or not a ‘call from above’ was in the works, a couple factors loomed large.

Do I have what it takes? (Obviously, I was skating toward the ‘Lord, help my unbelief!’ zone)

Undertaking Christian service among a diverse company of university scholars from around the world (“the brightest and best” goes the phrase) would mean something far different than what I had known.

The other factor playing on my mind was the question, to whom or what would I hitch my faith wagon to? Until this point, New York’s Elim Fellowship had been serving as our overseeing body.

In the end, several answers to the puzzlements had already started making their way my direction. The surprising turn of events would mean the end of my two-fold conundrum:

  • With what group might God have in mind for us to work alongside?
  • Any chance my limited knowledge and experience could pass muster?

©2023 Jerry Lout