Flag Ceremony
The International Students Ministries Canada – ISMC – is a religious non-profit organization that helps international students. Its motto is “helping international students through the Jesus Christ”, meaning the organization hopes to, as they themselves say, “enrich the holistic well-being of international students” by helping them in their goals in life. ISMC was founded in 1963 in the United States.
On October 21st, the organization, along with the Devon Park Baptist Church, on the north side of Fredericton, organized an event for the community. The event, simply named Flag Ceremony, aimed to make Canadians aware of their neighbours – not only people, but also countries. The occasion was the annual “missions conference”, a few days of seminar focused on how Christians can show God’s love to the world. The theme is “Neighbours and the Nations”.
To make the event more joyful and diverse, the church counted with the help of volunteers from many countries around the world.
The preparations for the occasion started very early in the morning, with the volunteers being picked up in their homes at 8:30AM. At the church, fruits – such as pineapple, grapes, melon an watermelon –, strawberry yogurts, bagels, flavoured cream cheese and chocolate muffins were served as breakfast. The volunteers had the chance to not only get the food, but also talk and get to know one another. They also had to sign an agreement where they allowed their identities to be shared on media.
When the service begun, the volunteers, still at the back of the church, received the flags of the countries they would represent. They all lined in groups and, when the time came, they started their parade.
Canada went first. It was a man and his son, carrying the New Brunswick flag. On the other side of the hall, another man carried the Quebec flag. After them, the other people walked, two by two, swinging the flags up to the stage where everyone formed a single line.
One by one, the volunteers greeted the public in their respective native languages and only then they would translate to English. They would say their names, where they came from, the flag of the country they were carrying, why they were in Canada and how much they loved their new country.
There were volunteers from Canada, United States of America, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Belize, Mauritius, South Africa, England, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, China, Poland and a few other nations. There were also flags from countries that had no volunteers showing up. These flags were all hanged along the hallways of the church.
Not long after the presentations, a video was shown, featuring immigrant families and international students from the University of New Brunswick and from Saint Thomas University telling how difficult it can be to arrive in a new country without knowing anyone. Topics such as loneliness and pressure were talked about by the foreigners that agreed to be interviewed.
Songs were sang by everyone attending the service and then the local pastor talked about how communication is important through two lives experiences he had. In one, he told how his parents made their basement into a school for people with mental and physical disabilities. As a teenager, he did not get used to that environment and left his house, accusing his dad of physical abuse. A year later, people found out he was a liar and he then got close to the church once again, going back home. The issue during this one year of his adolescence was the proper communication he did not have with his father, who is also a pastor.
The second story he talked about was how, after helping a man close to his home with his car stuck in the snow, the pastor realized how he and his wife did not know their neighbours. The both of us started taking walks around the neighbourhood, leaving cookies at people’s doors and helping those who needed.
He then proceeded to say how is important for Canadians to know their neighbours – their immigrant neighbours and the countries they lived in, and how to better communicate with them. The sermon was followed by more songs and the service ended at 12PM, with the local community thanking the volunteers for showing up at the church.
ISMC seeks to help and befriend international students and teach them about Jesus’ examples. Even if some students have no interest in religion, ISMC still offers help and friendship for them.
The goal of the service at Devon Park Baptist Church was exactly this one – to show immigrants in Canada how a loving community Fredericton can be. And also offer the localsthe opportunity to see the great diversity and beautiful cultures that surround them; to see faces and hear voices from wonderful countries and cultures.
