Did you know IFI has active weekly outreach meetings for the wives and children of international students? The wives and children have special needs for friendship. Wives often feel isolated since they are not permitted to work, their English may not be as good as their spouse, and they often spend more time at home caring for a child(ren).

Each week volunteers, like Sara Gillette, reach out in friendship to international wives and moms. Sara became an IFI volunteer after completing a course called “Perspectives”. She says “Missions is very important to me and during this class I felt the Lord leading me to volunteer with IFI.”  She started volunteering with the International Mom’s Group (IMG), because she wanted to be involved in a Bible study with internationals and IMG allowed her to bring her daughter with her while she volunteered. She hopes her daughter will grow up to understand the importance of sharing the love of Jesus with all nations, and the best way to do this is to model this in her own life. She loves being a part of IMG and currently co-leads the group with another volunteer. 

“IMG has allowed both myself and my four-year-old daughter to make friends from cultural backgrounds different from our own. We have learned about different cultures together and my daughter has asked to learn to speak different languages as she sees her friends talking in different languages.” - Sara Gillette

Sara met an international mom with a daughter around the same age as her daughter. They have had fun going with them to different parks around Columbus, going strawberry picking and visiting the zoo. It was fun for the moms to see their daughters play together; there was no problem for them to be good friends even with a slight language barrier.

They miss their friends who have returned home, but try to make time to do video calls every so often so the girls can "play together" over video.  

God is using IMG to reveal himself to international mom’s and their families. One mom, Jane from China, started coming to meetings a few months before COVID. She did not know anything about the Bible or God and came because she was lonely and wanted to make friends while she was in the US and to help her son be ready to start school. After coming to IMG she became very interested in God and learning about the Bible. She had to return to her home country, but a volunteer was able to give her a Bible in her own language before she left. She shared that she started reading the Bible while in quarantine and now reads it regularly to learn more about it and understand who God is! She currently attends 2 online groups from her home country to learn more about the Bible. She says learning about God and how He wants her to live has made a big impact in her life and both her husband and son have noticed a change in how she lives every day. 

Some of the moms who have returned to their home countries have not wanted to stop coming. So they continue to join us even with a big time difference. One international mom shared that she felt the love and hospitality talked about in the Bible through IMG, and she was so thankful to be a part of this group.

Currently IMG is meeting online each week through Zoom on Fridays, 9-11AM. They spend the first half of their time chatting, sharing prayer requests, and praying. Then they move into a Bible study (loosely based on the Discovery Bible Study method). They take time during our Bible study to discuss unknown English vocabulary words and also discuss the theological meaning of the passage.

Volunteers are needed! 

In the Fall IMG plans to start meeting in person, and they will need more women volunteers of all ages to help in the teaching rotation, with childcare (1-2x/month,) park outings, party planning, and giving parenting guidance to young moms. Contact Sara Gillette at:  .

There is also a need for 2 women to help lead the weekly International Wives Bible Study. Contact Julie Wu for more info at:   .