Southwestern celebrates Christmas, international community with Taste of the Nations

Almost 300 students, faculty, and family of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary gathered Nov. 19, to celebrate the upcoming Christmas holidays and the international community during the Taste of the Nations: Christmas Edition, and on a scale that had not been seen since before 2020.

Chandler Snyder, vice president for institutional relations, said he was glad the event had returned to the campus, but this time with “a Christmas flare,” as the event had traditionally been held near the beginning of the semester.

“This event, led by our international student service teams, in partnership with our international student organizations, is a wonderful event on the campus that reflects the globally engaged value that we hope to constantly hold on to at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,” Snyder said at the opening of the event.

Close to 300 American and international members of the Southwestern community participated in the Taste of the Nations: Christmas Edition.

Snyder also took time to pray for the international students specifically, as many are learning in second and even third languages, praying that the Lord would “encourage their hearts, give their minds rest each evening, let them reflect on what you’re teaching them and how they can contextualize it for the places that you’re calling them to go.”

Stephanie Litton, director of International Student Services, said many students on campus still remember the international event that was held annually prior to the Covid pandemic, and was often the largest student event on campus with hundreds of the Southwestern community attending. In the fall of 2023, the Taste of the Nations event was brought back on a smaller scale in conjunction with Global Missions Week. But this year, Litton said they decided to make the international event a celebration of Christmas as well, and the interest from the international community, including some of the faculty wives, quickly led to the event having more participants than was first expected.

“The purpose of the event is to showcase our international cultures on campus,” Litton said. “… At Southwestern, we highlight taking the Gospel to the nations. Well, fun fact, the nations are here, so let’s teach our American students about what those cultures mean. Because if you’re really going to go be a missionary one day, you need to know what you’re walking into.”

Between nine and 12 countries were represented by host tables, where students shared traditional food from their home countries.

Litton said the event is an opportunity to practice the seminary’s core value of being globally engaged, while also showing love for and unity with the international students, which makes up about 40 percent of the entire student population. To see the approximately 40 children, from a variety of countries and speaking various languages, playing together especially encouraged Litton.

“It is truly the case that the world has come to the doorsteps of the Southwestern campus,” President David S. Dockery shared after the event.

President David S. Dockery reads the Christmas story to children in attendance.

Many of the campus’ international student fellowships, including those from China, Brazil, India, South Korea, Germany, and Spanish-speaking countries in the Koinonia Hispanic Student Fellowship, participated in the event, each hosting a table to share food from their country and show items that represent that country. Other students also prepared food from their countries, including those from Indonesia, Russia, and Romania.

“I ran out of food, so that’s maybe a good indicator that people actually did enjoy Russian food,” said Natasha Pittman, who moved from Russia about 20 years ago. Pittman was a master in Islamic studies student starting in 2011 while her husband was also a student, but later their family moved away only to return three years ago.

“I think it’s good that it’s revived,” Pittman said of the Taste of the Nations event, saying it was a sweet time to be back at Southwestern and involved in the international community once again. “… Just to see the community and the variety of nations that are represented, but also that it’s just such an amazing part of us being from so many countries, but at the same time one in spirit, because we are all sisters and brothers in Christ here. So that was kind of a neat thing to see—the differences in culture, but unity because we are here [at Southwestern].”

Many of the international groups ran out of food as the number of attendees overflowed from where the event was held in the Riley Center.

“We could never have dreamed we would have that many people come,” Litton said, adding they hope to make it an annual Christmas event. “We’ve only had good feedback. Everybody seemed to love it.”

Children made ornaments to decorate the tree and also held a pretend snowball fight.

During the evening, Dockery read the Christmas story from Luke 2 to the children in attendance, reminding them that Christmas is celebrated not just because Jesus came as a baby, but because He came to forgive people of their sins.

“Isn’t that wonderful news?” Dockery asked the children, as he shared the simple truth of the Gospel with them through the nativity story. “We wish you all a very merry Christmas.”

Attendees were also able to bring or make ornaments to put on a Christmas tree, play a Christmas-themed game of bingo, and the children enjoyed a pretend snowball fight.