Shallowford Sponsors Christmas International House Dinner

Atlanta Ministry for International Students (AMIS) (http://www.amis-inc.org/) sponsors a Christmas International House (CIH) Program. This is a program started by Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, who is a Presbyterian Minister at Peachtree Presbyterian and was the Moderator of the 214th General Assembly.

The CIH program provides volunteer housing for hundreds of international students throughout the country who would otherwise have no place to stay during the holidays when college dorms are closed.

During their two week stay in Altanta, students are lead on a number of cultural and recreational activities by volunteers and then return to the homes of their host families each evening. In past years, many SPC members have hosted students and have become great supporters and friends of this program. To name a few, Susan Ginn has hosted students for over 15 years, Martha Rosselot has not only hosted students in years past, but was host to two students from Taiwan and Japan this year. Richard and Alice Smith, Jay and Joan Scott, Nick and Mary Villaume and others are among those who have opened their homes to the program.

Every year, SPC's WWM Committee sponsors a dinner for the students participating in the program. This year, the dinner was held on December 27th in Heritage Hall and was attended by approximate 40 students, 7 members of SPC and 3 volunteers from the CIH program.

Each year, we start with a tour of the church. This year, the tour was interesting because, unlike past years, there were NO Christian students in the group. So, for me, explaining our order of worship, beliefs adn sanctuary was a bit of a chore, but they were very receptive and, I think, they understood me.

Chef Dooley Shabazz served a wonderful meal in Heritage Hall and each table was manned by one of our church or committee members. The students really enjoyed the food and came back for seconds and even thirds. Great job Dooley!

After the dinner, we watched a video about the Living Waters Ministry and took several questions from students and I believe it was a succesful and fun way to spread the word about our ministries.

The evening ended with the students baording their bus back to St. James Methodist where they were picked up by their host families.

Suzanne Ginn and I waited with a few students who were being picked up at the church and enjoyed sharing with them during that time.

Thanks to all of you who made this possible and I encourage each of you to get involved in this wonderful ministry.

In addition to hosting students during the holiday, you can become involved with the AMIS program where you are simply asked to make contact with a student here in Atlanta and invite them to dinner or lunch or other events. Mary and I have done this is past years and made some great friends.

If you are interested in becoming involved with mission at Shallowford, please contact me and attend one of our upcoming WWM committee meetings. All are welcome and you do not have to be a committee member to attend. Although, we will try to recruit you.