Minister connects students at her home.

“It was good!”

Fabiola Jara - The IFI Columbus team’s master-mover -  nods emphatically and clasps her hands thoughtfully as she looks back to that beautiful day.

“It was very good!” she says, referring to her first coordinated event as the coordinator for IFI’s developing Hispanic Friendship Team. Faby had been tasked with developing an official team to reach and address the needs of spanish-speaking students, connecting with them beyond her level of service. Faby took the task and ran with it, inviting dozens of students to a BBQ hosted at her home!

“It was the weekend after our Welcome Party, so I only had a few days to prepare. It was a great turn out, nonetheless.”

With tables and chairs littering the grass, and balloons littering the tables, Faby and her small team of IFI staff and volunteers waited for students to arrive. They didn’t wait long. At 7:00 PM, over 30 students gathered in her backyard to meet, greet, and eat!

“I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough meat. So we gave out small servings. It turned out that we had a good amount left over,” Faby says with a shrug and a smile.

Almost all of the students in attendance had initially met Faby at the IFI Welcome Party or through her work as an outreach minister (helping students move, taking them on trips, and providing transportation to and from the airport). Some students even invited other students that Faby had the pleasure to meet for the first time. Faby was also pleasantly surprised at the amount of diversity among the students, as nearly every Hispanic country was represented. One student who had studied in the States for years even commented: “I didn’t know there were so many Latin-American students at OSU.”

Still, what blessed Faby the most was not the sight of smiling faces, nor the smell of delicious food. It was the sounds.

“You were able to hear Spanish all over the place, and appreciate the distinct accents. Everyone was introducing, talking, sharing, and laughing. No one had to second guess during their conversations, and this was actually the first time I gave instructions in Spanish to a large group of people since I joined IFI.”

The sounds continued to be the focal point of the event as the group prepared a dance floor on the grass. Music from various Latin countries echoed off the roof of the house and the panels of the fence as Faby and her new friends danced until dawn (or at least 1:00 AM).

Faby could also see connections forming. Many students who had been in the States for several years befriended newer students who shared their field of study. One student from Peru created a WhatsApp group for the Hispanic students that day, encouraging everyone in attendance to invite more. The connections seemed easy, mainly because everyone knew the right words.

“We all just felt free to honor our heart-language,” Faby says with a soft, but joyful smile.

And with that heart-language at the center, she could feel a sense of community developing among the students, and within herself. Long after the dancing ended, most of the students stayed to talk and continue enjoying each other’s company. When it was time to go home, many students even volunteered to help clean up. They also expressed how much fun they had and thanked Faby for bringing them together. One student asked if Faby would host another event soon, so that she could invite her mother who is coming to visit her in the States. 

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb...And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10 NLT)

Faby definitely has more events and trips planned, looking forward to the opportunity to meet more students and see in whom God is leading her to invest.

“The point of all of this is to introduce these students to Jesus. May the Lord use this and other events to inspire more spiritual, meaningful conversations in the future.”