The home countries of the internationals that Jim and Doris Bounds have hosted in their home that they can remember:
Afghanistan, Angola, Barbados, Canada, China, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Germany, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Mexico, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zaire!!!
It began in 1970 … Jim and Doris Bounds, natives of Mississippi but living most of their adult lives in the St. Louis, MO suburb of Ferguson and its First Baptist Church, have made a lifestyle of intentionally welcoming international into their home. They with others recognized a great need, represented by the desperate needs of the wives of international (mostly graduate) students. They could not speak English, typically didn’t know how to drive, how to shop for groceries, meet their new American neighbors, or exercise the basic functions of a new life in the USA. They were rather helpless in their new world. Motivated by the love of Jesus and of internationals, Friendship International (supported by the Baptist Student Union and the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association) was born in the early 1970’s. Friendship International would meet weekly, sometimes with 200 or more in attendance. So many internationals were coming that the fire marshal’s requirements created a need to form a second FI group, one continuing in the original location of Hanley Road Baptist and another at Third Baptist Church in St. Louis. Doris and Jim, an engineer by profession, for nearly 40 years would provide many services that included meeting incoming internationals at the bus station and at the airport, lovingly serving and helping them in any way that they could. (Jim cites one heartbreaking incident of which he learned that occurred years ago, fueling his motivation: an international student arrived and was taken to a room rented for his first night in St. Louis. Not being seen for a day or two, he was discovered in his room…dead. He apparently did not know how to light the heater, turned on the gas without lighting it, thus taking his life. Jim has never gotten over this.) Of the internationals who came to the Bounds home (sometimes in groups), all of them ate meals there and half or more of the countries represented stayed with them overnight, often for several nights. The Bounds would not “preach” to their guests, but the question they were frequently asked was, “Why are you doing this?” Thus came their opportunity for a direct witness for Jesus. Many of their guests, over time, came to a saving faith in Christ. The Bounds are role models to us in so many ways, such as the recognition that most international students are never invited into an American home. Doris and Jim Bounds, as of this writing, are 83 and 86 years of age respectively, have been married 62 years. They to this day have much joy and fulfillment in their love for and service to Jesus, to internationals, to family and friends, to church, and to each other.
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