Author: Jennifer Neutel

An estimated 381,000 international students will come to Canada for schooling this month, based on numbers from Global Affairs for last year and recent rates of increase. The majority will study at universities across the country, but a significant percentage is also on college and high school campuses. Earlier this year, the Immigration Minister made it easier for international students educated here to become citizens, arguing that an influx of ambitious and bright multilingual immigrants will boost Canada’s economy.

Gloria Peters-Matthies was reading an article in her church’s denominational magazine on the Syrian refugee crisis when she felt a call from God. A line in the article mentioning that some churches were sponsoring refugee families “completely jumped out at me,” she says.

“It felt like God was saying, ‘I want you to get involved.’”