Author: Al LaCour

What are the statistics? Last year, a record high of 886,000 international students studied on campuses in the United States of America. The largest group, almost one third, come from China. Today there are 274,439 Chinese students on our university campuses. For the broader international student community, we are seeing a yearly increase of more than 8%. That number is doubled for China whose student population in America increases by 16% yearly. God has brought more foreign students to the United States than to any other nation.

Why not make room at your table, in the middle of your holiday traditions, to welcome a far-from-home international student? Your life will be enriched as you practice biblical hospitality. Your entire family will engage inglobal-local missions (without any need for a passport to go on a short term missions trip),  And, you will go back to the future.  Pragmatically, international students cannot “go home” for the holidays.  They miss their families. But, what do I mean that you and your family can go back to the future? First, consider that Christian hospitality contrasts with holiday entertaining. Jesus reminds us that hospitality is not inviting your friends, relatives, or business associates (typical holiday guests).  Jesus says in Luke 14:12: “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.” Biblical hospitality contrasts with entertaining: you offer a place to reflect God’s grace, and expect no repayment.