GlocalNet

Dennis Jeffares and I were talking the other day - Dennis is in charge of Glocal Ventures - our work in Vietnam. We have done many things there and we were talking about them and their impact.  He made the statement, and I agreed, there was nothing more significant we had done than to open our homes to the exchange students.  We have now had close to 70 come from primarily Hanoi, but other parts as well. 

I remember when the first students came how apprehensive I was about it.  But God moved and worked in powerful ways in that year that they were with us.  The next year Nikki and I welcomed Ti - our exchange student - into our home. 

Ti changed us probably more than we changed him.  That year 10 kids came and invaded our youth department.  They didn’t have to come to church - but did.  It was a wild ride - but an incredibly fun ride.  I remember the Sunday I was teasing Ti from the pulpit and asked him what new word he’d learned that week - he’d learned a word from someone else and it wasn’t the word I’d taught him - my son was trying to prevent a disaster I didn’t realize was in the making, while I kept encouraging him to share the word - well - if you were there - you remember!  He thought he was moving to a “minister’s” home - which to him meant government minister -  when he found out it was a pastor’s home, he got the TV show 7th Heaven and watched it all to find out what living in a pastor’s home was like!  The stories go on - I remember him going to celebrate Christmas at my home in East Texas with us - and people asking him was he OK, were those nasty “communists” mean to him?  The cultural things coming from both directions were incredible. 

Each year, for more than a decade, I’ve had the joy of greeting 5 to 12 students each year from Hanoi.  I love to see what happens to them.  Now when we arrive in Hanoi with the youth trip in the summer, we are swarmed by kids who have lived with so many of the families of NorthWood - many of them now volunteer and their parents work with Glocal Ventures.  They are the children of doctors, businessmen, engineers, government leaders, you name it. 

Do something adventurous - bring one of these students into your home, Northwood, it will change your family, simplify your faith,  and open you up to the world in a way that you get, no other way.  The early church valued hospitality in a huge way.  They met in homes; they shared all they had - with anyone.  For those who followed Christ there was extreme sharing.  In American culture as Faith Popcorn has written, we cocoon - live crammed next to people but hide out in our houses isolated from people.  Open your home to someone you could learn from, build a close relationship with, exchange world views, and talk about things that matter.  Nothing will grow your faith like this. 

Contact the church office, 817-431-2088, if you are interested. Here are the schools involved: 

Keller:
Fossil Ridge:  1 space left
Timber Ridge:  4
Southlake:
Carroll H.S.:  5 spaces left
Birdville:
Richland H.S.:  3
Birdville H.S.: 1
Haltom H.S.:  5
Northwest ISD:
Northwest H.S.:  1
Byron Nelson:  Unlimited for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade
Grapevine/Colleyville:  Is full
Argyle H.S.:  3 spaces left
Hurst, Euless, Bedford:  Full
We still have 3 boys that we need to place at Fort Worth Christian:
2 for their Jr. year
1 for his senior year