International Furniture Give-Away
for New Indiana University International Students, Scholars,
and Families of all national and religious backgrounds
@ Sherwood Oaks Christian Church
2700 E. Rogers Rd (see map)
Bloomington, IN
18th International Furniture Give-Away (FGA) successfully completed August 14-20, 2022!
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A big thanks to awesome volunteers from multiple organizations, many donors, and our host, SOCC that made this possible serving students with furniture, household goods, food and information. Special thanks to Chick-fil-A, Gables Bagels, Jimmy Johns, and Pizza X for their donations serving students and volunteers.
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God blessed us with another beautiful week for serving. 392 new IU International students served plus 75- 100 more when truck loads of additional items were taken to Fountain Park for wait-list students to choose from. Students came from from 33 countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Finland, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea South, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Tanzania
We had 361 volunteers over 528 slots for a ratio of about 1.5 slots/person. The number of volunteers was just shy of pre-covid 2019 where we had 374 volunteers.
It was good to see the gym cleared out Wednesday night and Saturday having all the furniture cleared out and a trash bin that was not nearly as full as previous years. I imagine those will be new standards for us in the future. The furniture repair team was very helpful and of course the diligent effort of the summer pickup teams had a major effect on this.
Save the Date: 13-19 August 2023 for the 19th Annual Furniture Give-Away (FGA).
To continue ministering to the International students we served this week and others, check out the Volunteer Interest form. Please pray for the students, volunteers and community impacted by our efforts!
This event has an eternal impact on God’s Kingdom, and we are so grateful for your support. Here is a sampling of some of the comments we received from the students:
- “I can’t thank you enough for everything you do! You make me feel like I have family in the US. Each and every interaction with everyone was so warm and welcoming. And there aren’t enough words that can describe that.”
- “Amazing work they are doing. I mean I have never seen such a selfless community. We are very grateful. It would have been really hard for us to manage under this new environment, and these people swooped in like a genie. I know no matter how much I thank them it won’t suffice! Love you guys!!”
- “The FGA Volunteers were simply amazing and I wish you all much success and many good wishes! May God bless you all!”
- “The volunteers are a group of hard-working, loving, and kind people who are working to make our life easier here. Thank you very much and may God bless you with health and happiness.”