Making pies for homeless on Thanksgiving

The following happened on Wednesday Nov. 27th.

Ellen (Phil's wife) invited us to make pies for homeless on the day before Thanksgiving.

Personally, it was my first time to make pies and I was very excited!

People started having fun...

   Easy to mess up TBSP (Tablespoon) and TSP (Teaspoon) at first...

 Cute chefs with cute Aprons:)

 Mixing the ingredients of Pecan pie

Put it into the pre-made crust

 Oven time...~~~

 Let's cool the pumpkin down 

 Ready to have the first bite ;)

 Phil couldn't wait..

 Can we win the photo contest????

Hope that the homeless will enjoy their desserts.

It is very fun to serve the poor :)

-- End --

Xiaoxi - A hint from God

This is a summary that Xiaoxi (China) shared with the IFI staff during our Tuesday staff meeting:

I was enrolled in IFI internship program and worked on a data analysis project for two months. Two-month is not a long period, but I learned a lot and got well trained in both technical field and spiritual field.

This internship program is divided into three parts: technical work, spiritual formation and campus ministry. 

For the technical training part, we have a WAM House Character Formation, which mainly talks about the important characters at work, like the motives to achieve success, and influence to friends and colleagues. In the WAM House, they will also invite some successful men in both academic and business area, like dean from college or CEO from a company. They would like to share their amazing experience and give many precious tips to us. 

For the spiritual part, we have participated in some lectures given from IFI volunteers. For now, we are learning prayer listening with Karen Oliver. She guides us how to purify the noise apart from God, and encourages us by providing solutions when sometimes we did not get an answer from God. Another interesting training is the Ministry part. There is a WAM House Service Learning Project. Being an intern, we have a chance to get a vision for serving the poor, the homeless, children and immigrants who need help, just like the discipline from Bible. 

Besides those trainings, we also involve in some arrangement for lunch or dinner with IFI volunteers. They shared their stories and how did they approach to God and became a Christian. So it is very encouraging with lots of fun.

My data analyst project is focusing on the IFI temporary housing volunteer survey. Leila, as my mentor, helped a lot during this process. First we learned exactly how it works through VerticalResponse, which is the main tool we used for the survey investigation. Over 50% volunteers responded to this survey, thus we got a clear picture about the profile of our volunteers and collected lots of useful information and suggestions. Using this information, we got an idea about what is to be improved and how to serve the internationals better in the future.

Here I also want to share one amazing thing happened to me when I look for a job. At the first several months I worked so hard to apply for the job, but I got little response. Then at one Bible study night, I was having dinner at IFI, and there was a guy sitting in front of me. So we start talking. Then to my surprise, he told me that he was working at Alliance Data, which is exactly the one I was waiting for the news from HR. And he agrees to refer me to his manager. At that moment, I looked at him as an angle sent from God. When I look back now, I believe that is a hint from God and He has made the best choice for me.

Now I have to finish my internship at IFI, but I treasure this period I spent with all of the volunteers and interns, and I will apply the knowledge I learned at IFI to my job and life in the future.

International Amity(which means friendship) ;)

In September, I joined International Friendship, this big family as an
analyst intern!
This is my first time working in the United States so I was so excited 
about it~
It is a privilege to serve the Lord with other brothers and sisters : )
I was also amazed by the spiritual training IFI provided. It helped me
 grow a lot.

Some changes (Spiritually):
1. After the prayer meeting with Karen, I bought a One Year Bible and
 decided to have a quiet time every morning and meditate on the Word.

2. I have more understanding of the significance of prayers. I also 
joined a prayer concert in Xenos with my home church leaders to ask
 for people to pray for our home church.

3. I have more boldness to share with other people about Jesus' love.

4. I learned servant leadership. It is about serving people, just like 
how Jesus humbled himself, be humiliated, died on the cross to cover 
humans' sin. When he was in the world, he served lots of people!

5. Be gradually transformed into Christlikeness through training.

Also, I have the chance to hear other interns' stories. It was encouraging 
to me because I recognized that we are the body of Christ. We share the 
joy and the suffering together. It is not only me who face the persecution 
but lots of other Christians are fighting the spiritual battle as well.

Okay, let's have some fun discovering about this intern program

Intern Lunch with an IFI staff

 We are at Cheryl's house.

Participants: Cheryl, Estera, Tyche, Yan, 
Pyung On, and Amity.

We are at Bruce's house.

Participants: Bruce, Alice, Tyche,  Pyung On, 
Alyssa and Amity.

We are at Guy's house.

Participants: Guy, Kathy, Tyche,  Pyung On, Chloe, 

Halley, Estera, Francisco, Lexie and Amity.

We enjoy their stories: how they became Christians, how they got 

involved with IFI, how they met their significant others. Since the interns 

are all girls, we showed special interests on their love stories. ><

WAM HOUSE - Amish County

 The church we stayed for a night. 

 We are visiting LaRed. Dawn is speaking. 

We got a booklet about leadership.

 We are playing Apple-to-apple.

We are sightseeing on Saturday afternoon.

We are at Morning Star Fiber, visiting a firm 

making yarn.

 We are at Coblentz Chocolates. 
(I am not sure whether it is this name..)

We got some free chocolates :)

Intern Evaluation

 We are doing some fun team building activities 
suggested by Phil.

 We are at Bibibop Asian Grill. 
It was our first time to try :)

MasterLife 3

Let's remember this cute little picture and prepare 
ourselves for spiritual battle by putting on 
the armor of God~

IFI Christmas Card Making Party

Be prepared for Christmas *.*So excited about making 
lots of different creative cards:)

Thanks Kathy for organizing this!

More posts coming............

By the way, my name is Amity. In less than a month, I will graduate 
with my Bachelor degree in Mathematics and then start my one year 
internship with IFI. I will travel around the United States 
with my family. Hooray~~~

Two months of IFI Internship experience - Xiaoxi from China :)

This is a note from Xiaoxi (China) who will finish the IFI Internship at the end of November 2013.

IFI Booth at OSU Student Involvement Fair, August 2013

In the first month of this semester, there is a welcome event on campus. IFI being one of Christianity organization joined in this event, introduced the normal activity every year to internationals and invited them writing any comments on the white board. It was a lot of fun!

IFI Pumpkin Carving Contest, October 2013

As was hosted every year, there was a Pumpkin Carve activity in one of the Friday bible study evening before Halloween eve. Isaac and Sam’s  work won the first prize—a special cake! Every students enjoyed in their creation.

IFI Trip to Hocking Hills, October 2013

About a hundred students and most of the interns went to the Hawkins Hill when the autumn came. It was a good opportunity to respect how amazing the nature is , as well as a good exercise to climbing.

IFI Staff & Interns Dinner, Wood Table brought from the Philippines 

On Nov.7 all the interns got a chance to have dinner with Guy and Kathy in their house. We had a special taco dinner and homemade apple pie as dessert. Guy and Kathy shared their experience in Philippine and showed us the ancient furniture they brought from Philippine.

My Happiest Summer In Columbus~!!

I think I had had the most meaningful time in Columbus this summer since I decided to follow Jesus. Everything that I got at IFI was so amazing to me, and I felt how Jesus loves me. 

1. Love one another & Practice hospitality.

How do I do it?
I think Jesus showed and taught me his "Perfect love" through IFI and Columbus christian families.
It is so awesome that I met and observed them who were willing to give their love and share their lives for international students as Jesus did.
I got a new vision from this time.
Someday, when I have my own family, I would also like to open my house and offer hospitality to whoever is in need.
I think it is not easy to practice... maybe I cannot do it myself, but I believe only my Lord makes me work. so I'm just trying to pray for it.

In Gene's house

I just remember one day when we were in darkness
because of power failure...
but it was a memorable event to us.
We could get more delicious grilled curry!!

In Michael's house
I saw his picture which was taken
when he was younger
He looked like one of the Hollywood movie stars!!

when playing game In Phil's house
I forgot to take more pictures...
so good food, funny times
and warm Phil's family!! miss Gabby♥


  

Michael's Bible Study
Almost all Asian people were Chinese except me,
         but it was really good chance to learn Chinese culture.  

I had delicious dinner on every Friday!!
These were leftover.
We could choose whatever we wanted.

2. Wam House & Masterlife & Cross-Cultural Servanthood, etc...

 I had never had this kind of time such as analyzing and thinking of myself deeply. It was so helpful time for me.
I also learned how to deny myself, how to take up the cross, and how to follow Jesus as a christian leader belonged to this world.
I saw the big picture of what is the life to keep company with God and how to apply it to my life through these studies.

My Top 5 strengths

so good guidebook

On the way to field trip 
- Photo by Tuyata - 

Phil's church summer VBS 

All decorations and ideas were so professional.

when I entered inside, 

 I thought "Do I have to pay any admission fee?".

I felt how the church members love their children.

They were willing to share their gifts 

for conversion of the children through the VBS camp. 

3. Learning Mutiple Cultures 

 It was so nice to be with international friends and study diverse cultural things.
I got enjoyable experiences that I had never had such as many kind of parties ,festival, state fair, eating unique food, etc.
But the most important thing that I learned is we are one in God.
Even though we were grown up in different culture environments and have different languages, my friends who I met in Columbus showed me how to understand differences and help each other.

   At The Columbus Zoo

                                         

with roommates

Independent Day's parade

COLUMBUS STATE FAIR

4. Work at office 

It was happy to learn how to cooperate and help each other at work with God's People.

Whenever I was lazy and depressed,

Jesus made me remind one of my favorite verses, 

"whatever you do, 

 work at it with all your heart, 

 as working for the Lord, not for men."   -Colossians 3:23-

with Christina in our office room
Thank you for helping me always, Christina!!
- Photo by Christina -

                                           while making "Thank You" poster

with our intern's car



One of Pyung On's Projects
Making film, "Life In Columbus" 

Pyung On really worked hard wherever she went!!

so emotional Christina!!

at Times Square in NYC

She was a good actress.

With my mentor, Pyung On
Thank God for sending her to me!!


                                                   

                                                       

Thank God ♡

Thank IFI for giving me this great chance and unforgettable memories.