Church planting in the pandemic

International Relations

By Tony Hudson

When asked what she remembers about that peculiar evening in 2016, she can’t help but bring up one word over and over: “Awkward,” she says.

If “awkward” is the first word that comes to mind when Sheryl Wise and her husband Mark think back to that night, it’s not the last word. “Natural”—that might be the last, best word. “I’m not a real outgoing person,” Mark says. “So, meeting brand new people is not my specialty. But somehow, it just seemed…natural.”

Squeezing through a crowded banquet hall, trying to start conversations with strange but important people from countries Mark and Sheryl had barely ever heard of—that night was one of the most unforgettable, awkwardly natural, wonderful nights.

The Southerners and Saudis

If the names of the schools sound prestigious, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and the Maneuver Captain’s Career Course, it’s because they are. High-ranking military officers from all over the world attend for advanced, months-long training, located at Ft. Benning just outside Columbus, Georgia. Locals like to think the military put them in their community for a reason. Ron Collins smiles and says, “It’s because Southern hospitality is known all around the world.”

Ron and his wife Carole started International Friendship Ministries (IFM) almost 25 years ago when they learned the military was looking for a few good volunteers well-versed in the language of Southern hospitality. “The students were coming to these schools with negative attitudes about Americans. All they knew about us is what they saw on CNN and soap operas,” Ron says. “Ft. Benning wanted their students to meet Americans. So, we started recruiting Christian families to host them.”

As usual, Ron and Carole found that success in recruiting is all about who you know.

Mark and Sheryl Wise didn’t know Ron and Carole Collins. Not at first. Friends from a Bible study