Last summer, for example, Millersville University asked MIH to provide a month-long intensive English course for 25 MBA students from Foro Europeo University in Spain. There wasn’t room for the students to stay at MIH, but they came to the little old schoolhouse, which has been transformed into the MIH learning center. Sheri Brooks, MIH’s director of academic programs, arranged for the classes. And there was room for the university president and the head of the business school to lodge at MIH. Huber said that Millersville University has also signaled that it wants to increasingly diversify its student body. Currently they have about 160 international students. As they intensify recruitment efforts abroad, the university has invited MIH to consider giving a 2- to 4-week orientation to U.S. culture and academic English to all incoming international students.

“Having a place like MIH nearby makes the university a more attractive option for international students,” Huber said. “Some of our residents come here and stay on in America,” he explained. “But most return to their home countries. We believe that as they are immersed in English and participate in this multicultural community, they are uniquely prepared to serve fruitfully in international business and other work environments."

Huber told of a young man from the Middle East who returned to MIH after a school break in his home country. He confided, “I didn’t realize how much my thinking has changed. I told my friends, ‘Not all Christians want to kill us. They don’t all hate us,’ but they didn’t believe me.” In the house late one night, a heated argument broke out between two guys from different countries. As Huber counseled with the young men who had almost come to blows, one said, “I couldn’t back down and still be a man.” Huber said, “He believed that his honor had to be defended at all costs, but after I explained that I believe a ‘real man’ can choose to maintain control even when insulted, he came back and thanked me for helping him understand a new way to look at manhood. “Students in this stage of life are open, searching, and learning. They are away from the normal family and community pressures. In a safe environment like MIH, formerly forbidden subjects emerge. As residents live '24/7' in the rich diversity that is MIH, a special kind of person emerges.” “We’re all very different, but it feels like a family,” said Kazuo Okita from Japan over a Chinese meal celebrating the Chinese New Year at MIH. “In Japan, and all over the world, people’s main goal in life is to get rich. But there’s a different atmosphere here. People care about what God thinks. That’s new for me.”

In addition to the friendship and camaraderie built around the dining room table, MIH residents receive assistance with practical skills about how to get a drivers’ license, do banking, read the fine print on a “free” CD offer, deal with a traffic ticket, or create a resumé. As director of residence services, Dan Gehman tries to keep the beds filled, and hosts quarterly house meetings to deal with community issues. He envisions capacity at MIH growing to more than 100, and as many as 400 students going through the intensive English language and cross-cultural sensitivity training programs Brooks is developing. Students learn of MIH from its website, mihusa.org, or by word of mouth.

The MIH setting lends itself to faith-filled conversations. Huber said that once when he bowed his head to pray over lunch, a new Chinese student asked, “Who are you presenting that food to?” When Huber explained that he was thanking God for the food, the student replied, “I want to understand the West, and I know that I need to understand Christianity if I’m going to understand the West.” “The Chinese are always amazed by the volunteerism and charitable giving they witness in our society,” Huber said. “They say that in China everyone is driven either by a profit motive or by a stick. They find MIH to be fascinatingly different.”

MIH is a ministry of Eastern Mennonite Missions, begun in 1987 after the closing of a children’s home and a youth village on the same site. MIH welcomes assistance from volunteers to assist with remodeling and also with tutoring or hosting of international students. “It certainly would be ironic for American Christians to circle the globe with the gospel and to simultaneously ignore students from the whole world on our doorstep,” commented Richard Showalter, president of Eastern Mennonite Missions. “We’re grateful for the way God is leading in the development of people and programs centered at MIH.”

– Jewel Showalter