Interface Ministries, Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Each year, men and women come from all over the world, including many from countries where they rarely encounter anyone who knows Jesus. Yet having come this far, they may never make it into an American’s home or meet any of the Christians who live all around them. So we fail to love these neighbors, and we all miss out on a great opportunity to share our lives with one another.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Student Welcome
Every fall our staff welcome new international students with food, friendship, and sometimes even furniture. Because every campus is different, each welcome is different, but no matter where a student is coming from or where they are coming to, we aim to extent the love of Jesus in tangible, approachable ways.
English Language Learning
Our staff and volunteers serve internationals at various levels of language skill, offering classes, coordinating conversation partners with native speakers, and creating innovative programs that deepen conversation around difficult issues that divide persons and groups. Our interest is not just in language skill but in the mutual engagement and understanding that shared language serves.
Discussing the Bible together
Christian scriptures touch on the deepest of our personal concerns, shed light on our pressing questions, and reveal to us who we are and our relationship to our creator. So, we invite interested internationals to read and discuss together with us the Bible, and even to lead others in shared exploration of its truth and wisdom.
Cultural Exchange and Activities
We make Internationals at home with us by exposing and explaining to them the culture they find here. But it is equally important to create opportunities for them to bring to one another, and to us, an understanding and appreciation of their experience and culture. So we invite them into a sharing of family, ethnic, and national tradition and custom. This may take place over shared meals, seasonal celebrations, or excursions.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
iFace staff themselves befriend Internationals, but they also inspire, enlist and equip individual volunteers and congregations to welcome and get to know Internationals together. We live for the day when God is known and worshiped by people from every language and nation, so we open the door and put out the welcome mat so all who come here may experience, discover, question and explore: both life here where they’ve come to study or take refuge, and the good news of God’s love for them. For those who will return to homeland and family, we anticipate and prepare with them for that return, so they can thrive and bring home with them the blessings received while here.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our fundamental strategy is to place gifted, devoted people — iFace staff — wherever Internationals might be served and befriended by Christians. Not working alone, but in partnership with churches and individuals, with universities, colleges, language institutes and other agencies, staff help Internationals to make connections, meet immediate and long-term needs, discover and understand their new environment and community. We honor the differences as well as the shared humanity in those we meet, respect their desires, interests and relationships as we invite them to participate in everything from conversation, activities and special events, Bible study and Christian worship, and our own life in community.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We presently field 28 full and part-time staff, and this past year partnered with 138 churches and 737 volunteers, making initial contact with over 3,000 Internationals, and serving more than 600 who pursued ongoing participation. We are poised to add up to 5 new staff in the coming year.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have established strong and effective ministries at universities and colleges, ministries which have persisted and grown over the lifetime of our organization. We have alumni in more than 150 countries; many, though not all, faithfully following and serving our Lord Jesus. Although we are small, we have made thousands of students welcome and given many their first exposure to the life and convictions of Christians.
Because we welcome creativity and innovation, and we’re committed to sharing what we learn with others, we have served other organizations doing similar work through training and equipping of personnel.
We are currently in transition to new leadership, and face the challenge of raising up not only the next generation of staff in places where we currently work, but extending the work we do to colleges and communities without leadership in ministry among Internationals.
We have the beginnings of ministry among refugees, a population that requires similar and quite different gifts and ministry practices. But the overlap among internationals who come to the US, between those who return to their countries of origin and those who stay here, prompts us to take more seriously the aims and needs of those who stay, and not just the concerns of those bent on returning home.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Interface Ministries, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 10/01/2019
Mrs. Janice Wells
ING
Bob & Lynn Culver
InterFACE Ministries
Bruce & Jan Wells
GE Life Insurance and NC State Faculty
Rob & Cindi Finn
Dekalb County ESL School & ING
Taylor Webb