International Student Track Reports
Following Jesus in Making Choices - An African woman's testimony
Anne Mallekoote
After an incredible time of worship in English, Tswana, and Japanese,
led by students from Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnaam, and Kenya,
Jovin, a former international student from Ghana, and current International Student
Ministry staff, stepped to the podium.
Jovin, adorned in traditional Ghanaian dress, including a beautiful headpiece, was there to share her journey of choices. She began with her choice to study in Houston, Texas. She shared that coming to the United States and studying in a new culture was a time of both excitement and anxiety, something the students listening to her could understand. They laughed, nodded, and whispered with sympathy as she shared the challenges and confusions of her early engagements with American culture.
She had come to the United States as Christian and a first significant choice in the United States was the decision to seek fellowship, the International Christian Fellowship. She saw fliers for the fellowship and decided to attend a Bible study. "The Bible study was great", she shared, "except for the game at the beginning." She was used to Bible studies being serious. There was another time and place for laughing and games. One of the things she learned through the Bible study is that God can be worshiped through fun times as well as serious times and games during Bible studies are OK. She said that despite a 20-hour per week job and a full load of courses, it was important for her to seek out Christian community and learn about God with and through other students.
Her decision to seek Christian fellowship influenced another significant choice, the decision to avoid the temptation and pressures of working illegally. School was expensive and her resources were very limited. It would have been easy for her to find a job that extended the hours allowed by her visa and be paid under-the-table. She had to learn to trust God, relying on Proverbs 16:3, "Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established." She committed her work as a student to the Lord. This included, with the International Christian Fellowship's encouragement, trusting God to provide for her when she didn't know how she would get the money for her studies. God provided for these financial needs and she graduated with a degree in hotel management and hospitality.
She didn't know when she chose her degree that God would choose to use her training in hospitality to share His love with international students in Texas. However, she is now on staff with InterVarsity, working with the International Christian Fellowship in Houston, the fellowship that God had used as a source of great blessing and encouragement to her.
She finished her testimony with and exhortation. She joyfully and confidently declared, "You need to choose to trust God always." For Jovin, this was her greatest and most significant choice, the choice that influenced all others. She chose to trust God even when circumstances were difficult. Because of this trust she has experienced the joy of celebrating God's faithfulness.
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