Lee and Jennifer Leadbetter

Reformed University Fellowship International at UT
Website: www.rufinternational.org

Ministry Update

At the University of Tennessee there are over 1000 international students (mostly graduate) and visiting scholars (plus their families) from 100 nations, and these students, who represent the best in their respective fields, will return to be leaders in their native lands! We have a strategic opportunity and a biblical calling to welcome and engage the foreigners living among us, with both the hospitality of Christ and the truth of his gospel. Now in the early summer of 2009, we have just concluded our 3rd semester of ministry, and are enjoying the Lord’s blessing upon it!

We have a couple of weekly Bible studies that I (and a female volunteer) teach. I am also leading a weekly “Advanced Study Group” with four Chinese atheists on Tim Keller’s book The Reason For God. Yet, the venue that has become our “meat and potatoes” ministry event (quite literally sometimes) is a weekly Sunday evening “Dinner & Discussion” in a local home. This is both a hospitality event and an opportunity for internationals to explore the Christian faith in a small group discussion setting. We’ve been incredibly encouraged by their level of spiritual curiosity, and by the Spirit’s apparent working in a number of their lives…three conversions and baptisms this semester!

In addition to our various studies and discussions, we plan monthly “gathering” events for our international friends to relax a bit, forge friendships, and enjoy a taste of community they desire but often go without while they are in the U.S. We have gone whitewater rafting and enjoyed a day on the lake, hosted game and movie nights, embraced the Fall in East Tennessee with a UT football party and Fall Festival, introduced and celebrated Christmas with our rich holiday traditions, and welcomed the end of the school year with a swim party! The heartbeat of this ministry is relationships- so we spend a lot of time meeting individually with students, and we are blessed to have a group of volunteers who also invite students to become part of their lives in different ways.