At any given point, somewhere between 40 to 45 different nations are represented in Biola’s student population, according to Ivan Chung, director of International Students Services.
“That’s more nations than we send students to,” he added.
International students can provide a wealth of knowledge and cultural experience, as well as a unique understanding of missions. The perspectives of these international students, representing four of the 45 nations, provide insights that have been shaped by a two-sided view point that most Biola students have not experienced.
Giovani Prayitno
Junior
Business
Indonesia
In most of Giovani Prayitno’s encounters with people when they first learn she is from Indonesia, she must answer the same three questions about her skill in speaking English, her Christian faith and her culture.
“The majority [of Indonesia] is Muslim, so I feel like when [Americans] see Indonesia, they always see there is a need,” she said. “Yes, I’m from Indonesia and you’re from the U.S., but in both there is a need.”
Acknowledging the condition of her country, Prayitno is centering her entire education on what would benefit Indonesian business, looking to enter the business world both as her career and her mission field. However, she stressed that we should not neglect the need among people groups in America, and realize that God has already brought the nations here.
“There needs to be a shift in Biola’s missions perspective,” she said. “You don’t always have to go out. There’s a lot of people coming here, too.”
According to Ivan Chung, the Los Angeles area consists of over a hundred different ethnic enclaves of immigrants from all over the world. Biola’s spectrum of represented nations is a taste of that diversity. In light of Missions Conference, Prayitno, who serves as the International Students Association chair, desires fellow students to be moved to action here in our cities as a result of emotion ushered in by the conference.
“I don’t want them to just pray for other countries for just those three days. I don’t want them to just feel bad for just those three days — but to really think about it,” she said. “Not just think, but to be challenged to experience what they have here.”
Hikaru Kishi
Junior
Elementary Education
Japan
Coming from a country where Christian education and community are severely limited, Hikaru Kishi cherishes opportunities Biola offers as they transform and shape his vision for missions in Japan.
“[In Japan] we don’t have many same-aged people, but here, when we go to chapel there’s so many same-age people all worshipping together,” he said. “Whenever I see that, I feel God is giving me this vision so I can bring this vision to Japan. I want to see this many youth worshipping together in Japan.”
Understanding his home country is a mission field, Kishi too plans to return, but with a broader perspective on his role in the Great Commission.
“When I was there, my focus was on Japan and whenever I heard about missions it was about my own country. So it’s quite different when I come here and attend Missions Conference because the focus is on the world. And not just that — the focus is on the kingdom of God,” Kishi said. “When I hear that, it gives me new perspective and more passion. When I bring the gospel to Japan, I’m not just going back to a country, but to the world. Jesus said go out to the world, that’s where I’m going.”
Kishi’s time at Biola has molded his desire for cultural understanding and a global perspective as a Christian.
“Yes, we’re different, but when I see that I realize these differences are important as we see the kingdom of God,” he said. “Like in coffee, there are different tastes and people who really love coffee can taste the difference and they love the difference.”
Kishi encouraged fellow students to embrace what international students offer in their culturally different perspectives.
“As international students, we come here and we’re so thankful just to be in this country and at the same time, we want to bring something to this country, too,” Kishi said. “We want to contribute.”
Heddwyn Kyambadde
Senior
Cinema and Media Arts
Uganda
Viewing missions from a double-sided perspective, Heddwyn Kyambadde has been able to see both the sending and receiving ends of ministry in his home country of Uganda. From this unique position, he urges those interested in short-term missions to take advantage of the knowledge base available in international students to learn how to best minister to others overseas.
“I think a lot of mission trips fail to try to realize that we have international students on campus who are from these countries. Do something about it,” he said. “It’s not that they’re experts, but you have someone on the ground.”
Kymbadde has seen how twisted motivations can sorely influence the reception of the gospel among his people.
“One of the best questions Biolans should ask themselves is, ‘Why am I doing missions?’ If you understand you’re not going on a vacation, then someone you’re ministering to will understand that,” he said. “If they see you’re there to have fun, they’re going to act unkind. They’ll probably be cynical. They’d probably just take what you have to give them and then be ready for you to leave. It’s not what missions is supposed to be. It’s just sad.”
He also warned of entering the mission field in an air of condescension to those we are trying to love.
“‘I am American and you are Ugandan,’” Kyambadde mimicked. “‘I’m coming to help you because you’re poor and need my help and otherwise you wouldn’t be able to survive.’ That’s not the way Jesus approached his love for people.”
“Jesus sat with them in the mud and he talked to them and addressed them like brothers and sisters,” he said. “I think that’s the way we need to approach it.”
Ian Mayta
Senior
Cinema and Media Arts
Honduras
Ian Mayta is a man of many cultures — raised in Honduras, he studied as a foreign exchange student in Germany before ending up at Biola with a heart for French people and culture. His cross-cultural encounters and the lessons he learned through them have shaped his current perspective on effective missions.
“It is good for us to go and travel and help in short missions trips, but the whole idea is equipping people from that nation or from that specific region and allowing them to do the job,” he said.
Mayta’s home church in Honduras emphasizes the importance of this kind of missions even to the children of the church, creating props for imaginative scenarios of going out to their respective “Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.”
Mayta and his family have been involved with mission groups and organizations who come to minister to the poor in his region. At Biola, he has also been sent on similar trips through the Student Missionary Union.
“We do great work, [but] there comes a point when we come back here,” he said. “So if we are able to provide them encouragement but also tools and love they can continue the work there even though we’re not there. That’s why I think Biola is very important. International students are coming here and they’re learning about God and missions and most will go back to their own countries. With the foundation that they have here they’ll become the next leaders in their countries.”
