| Overseas Students Mission Exhibit at ACMI Will Introduce and Promote International Students Day of Prayer coming up November 17
By Bill Bray, ASSIST News Campus and Missions Correspondent
 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (ANS, June 1, 2017) – Overseas Students Mission and their Operation Esther Prayer Circle plan to exhibit next week at the Association of Christians Ministering among Internationals Conference (ACMI).
Over 1.2 million international students flocked to study in the USA last year, and they present a tremendous missions opportunity to American churches and campus outreaches.
ACMI is the leading annual training event for campus outreaches to visiting students and will be held this year at Regent University in nearby Virginia Beach, June 8-10. It provides the most important opportunity of the year for campus ministries to plan and review the past academic year.
The OSM exhibit will fit into the “Many Parts One Body” theme of the conference, revealing plans for co-operation around the International Students Day of Prayer, November 17.
“I’m encouraged by what’s in store,” says Beau Miller, Executive Director of ACMI, “including the venue and the local ministry model of churches partnering in the cause of ISM as seen through the work of Global Friendship Ventures.
Besides over 30 workshops, special breakout sessions which are being organized for “friendship partners” and host families. There are also special sessions for church-based international student ministries, leadership development and re-entry ministries such as OSM, and specific ministries to ethnic or religious groups such as Chinese, Hindus and Muslims.
Additional sessions on working with International Student Offices on campus and their national association, NAFSA, will help local ministries develop relations with close by universities and colleges in their area.
ASSIST News will be reporting from the event and arranging interviews with the keynote speakers including Dr. J.D. Payne, Dr. Susan Tavassoli and Lisa Chinn.
Dr. Payne is multiplication pastor at the Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama; Dr. Tavassoli works with immigrant communities in the USA and Lisa Chinn served for 14 years as the National Director of International Student Ministry for InterVarsity/USA.
The conference will focus on “partnerships in international student ministry” as modeled by Global Friendship Ventures and their nationally recognized multi-church relationship to Old Dominion University and other schools in the Richmond area.
Conference check-in begins at noon Thursday with exhibits and programs running from 4 p.m. until the close of the conference on Saturday evening.
Photo captions: 1) International students with their country’s flags. 2) Bill Bray.
About the Writer: Bill Bray, 70, is a Christian journalist who specializes in missions and student ministries. He is the author or co-author of 13 missions’ books including, Called to All: How I discovered the power of a yielded life from Thomas Nelson/WestBow Press. He is chairman and president of Overseas Students Mission. He welcomes interaction with our readers and can be contacted at bray.william@gmail.com
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