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Have you ever wished that you
could change the world through a mission? Have you struggled with not being able to go abroad to serve the Lord?
Well, actually, your mission can be run right from your own home. By becoming a host family you can reach those that
you would not otherwise reach and touch the hearts of youth from around the globe. Touching one life reaches many others
as the messages you share transform a life and are passed along to families and friends back home. Perhaps
you will consider joining our mission to the peoples of the world through youth exchange?
Helpful Quick Links
Forming relationships
that last a lifetime
In almost all cases, Mutual Friends
families are Christians that attend church regularly and who have expressed the desire to share their home, family life and
heart with students visiting the United States. Many of our partnering
schools are also Christian institutions and, as such, prefer that we locate families whose beliefs are in line with the
school's doctrine. All mutual Friends families have provided character references, passed a background check and
have gone through our interview and host family orientation process.
Host families come in many varieties - they are from all different
backgrounds, some are younger while others are older, some have their own children living at home while others have grown
children or even no children at all, some live in town others live in the suburbs or countryside. All are active, caring
and able to provide the student they host with a safe and loving place.
Host families provide a comfortable room for their student with a desk for school-work. Host families
have internet access in their homes, usually in a den or livingroom. Host families are eager to share their family life
with their students; they usually eat together and include their student in family activities treating him/her as part
of the family.
Host families are responsible
for helping their students adjust to American culture and home expectations. They provide for the day to day care needs
of their students including the provision of meals at home, assistance with transportation and other student needs.
But more than that, host families develop a relationship with the student in their care, melding him or her into the fabric
of their family life. The impact a host family can have is truly awesome.
Host families are our greatest asset - they are on the front-lines of our mission, living in contact with our students.
The pimary job of our agency is to ensure safe and healthy homes for our student visitors and to provide excellent support
our host families in every way helpful to encourage transformative relationships with the students they host.
A Few Words About Host
Family Support
MFSE is dedicated
to providing the best level of support it can to the host families that walk along side of us. This support comes in
several forms: a thorough handbook describing the expectations the agency has of both hosts and students, host parent orientation
and discussion, a descriptive introduction of the student and his/her situation, legal guardianship and responsibility for
the student and his/her liabilities, ease of accessing agency information, host family crisis intervention, being only
a phone call away at any time and much more. Of course, when it comes to support the big questions concern the
hosting fee.
MFSE is different in this
regard as well. We do not have a set fee. We ask our host families to honestly evaluate their individual situations
and request the amount they believe they will truly spend hosting a student. And, we do expect that they will,
in fact, spend whatever they receive on the student and his/her needs. Fees vary depending upon the lifestyle of
the host family, but the average is about $700.00 per month. In our home, here's how we breakdown our fee:
In
any event, some families provide different levels of transportation or go out to eat more often or to nicer restaurants while
others might not go out to eat at all. Consequently the fee each family requests reflects that family's
level of activity and cost of living. And, it is important to note that there are quite a few things that
haven't been factored in to the expenses we enumerated above, such as participation in family membership at the local gym.
For students and their natural parents, we would ask
that you consider your host family to be volunteers none-the-less. Your host family is not hosting you with the expectation
that they will earn extra money - most families probably spend more than they receive. There is no price that can be
put on the love and care the host family provides. No one is expecting payment for helping you correct an English essay
or for conversation with you when you are feeling homesick. Please consider these things before you compare hosting
fees or think to yourself that you are paying too much. Every host family could use the time it takes to fulfill the
duties of hosting to earn far more money, if that was their goal.
In the home, we expect that the student will understand that there is an "economy of love" at work.
Host parents take on the additional cleaning, shopping, cooking, driving, homework help and much more without the goal of
financial remuneration. These things become fun to do when the host parent is able to do them from the heart - to do
them because they love the student they are hosting. Without love, hosting is just plain additional work.
