Arlington ministry brings the world under one roof
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___ARLINGTON--The sights, sounds and smells of an international bazaar were present recently, but the currency exchange was love.
___Each Wednesday morning from September through May, more than 100 people from
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WOMEN DISPLAY their native dress at a recent internationals' meeting in Arlington (above and at right below).
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34 countries meet at First Baptist Church of Arlington to exercise, learn English, cook and hear God's word. On a recent day, those diverse participants got a chance to show off their heritage and culture.
___Clothing in cotton, muslin and silk; food hot, cold and in between--it was all there and all presented with pride.
___Sarah Dowdy, who has been a part of the ministry to internationals for all the 30 years it has been part of the church's life, can't imagine not having the ministry.
___"It's just so incredible. I tell people all the time, 'If this isn't missions, I don't know what is,'" she said. "We don't push Christianity real hard, but they are exposed to the love of Christ through our volunteers and God's word through our Bible story times."
___Dowdy has a rationale behind not using a hard-sell approach.
___"If I were in Japan and someone were to tell me, 'Let me take you to the Buddhist temple and we'll teach you the Japanese language, Japanese cooking, culture and about Buddhism,' I'd say, 'Good, I would like that.' But if they told me, 'Come with me to the temple, and we'll make you a Buddhist,' I'd say 'No, thank you. I'm not interested.'"
___Though not overt in its evangelism, the ministry does lead people to faith in Christ. "We have some who have become Christians and others with whom we've planted seeds," she said.
___Each week when the men and women from around the world come to the church, they participate in arts and crafts, cooking, exercise classes. Some just sit and talk for a while.
___Later, people are separated into English classes of appropriate skill levels--from those who do not speak a word of English to those who have been coming for years and have become fluent.
___Bible stories and refreshments round out the day.
___"What we're doing is very important," Dowdy said. "The Lord is definitely in it."
___One of the things they learned early, Dowdy said, was that the ministry was too large for one church to handle. Volunteers from eight churches are part of the international ministry staff.
___Mary Hill of South Park Baptist Church in Grand Prairie is one of those volunteers. Hill teaches basic English, even though her background was in insurance, not education or English.
___"They said all you had to be was a living, breathing body that spoke English," she recalled. "My husband wondered how I got the job.
___"These people don't know if I'm saying it just right," she added. "Can you imagine all these people speaking with Texas and Okie accents?"
___Each international is assigned an American friend to develop a relationship with and go to with questions.
___One of the frequent questions is how to prepare American foods, but Dowdy said sometimes the internationals can be persuaded to demonstrate dishes from their homelands.
___"The only problem is they don't measure anything. They cook like your grandmother did. They put in whatever seems right that day, and it can change from day to day."
___But she's found that's OK, as long as one of the constant ingredients is love.
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