Inviting Students into a Bigger Story

After years of overseas mission service with Resonate Global Mission, Melissa Bos is now serving as Calvin Theological Seminary’s missionary in residence—a role that allows her to bring lived experience into daily conversation with future church leaders. Her presence at the seminary, she said, aims to be a tangible expression of Resonate’s approach to mission: relational, invitational, and deeply rooted in listening and hospitality.

Bos and her husband began their missionary journey in Bangladesh before later serving in Oman. Across those contexts, she said, she learned what it means to build genuine cross-cultural and interfaith relationships—often slowly, always humbly.

“We were really privileged to live with uncertainty for much of our lives overseas,” she reflected. “And I’m grateful for the ways Resonate supported us in remembering that we have something to learn. We were guests. God was there before we came—and God remained after we left.”

Bos described Resonate’s approach as rooted in partnership and respect.

“What I’ve always appreciated is the commitment to work alongside people who often know better than we do what their community needs,” she said. “In Bangladesh, we partnered with a Christian college. In Oman, we partnered with the Al Amana Centre. In both places we had to ask, ‘How will this be perceived? How can we do this side by side?’ That posture of being learners—that has shaped me.”

Bos added that while her current role looks different from her work overseas, she sees it as a natural extension of the same calling.

“Think Global Lunches”: Learning at the Table

One significant initiative that Bos has implemented at the seminary has been “Think Global Lunches.” Rather than hosting lectures or formal presentations, she said, she wants to intentionally create space for conversation.

“I try to keep the format the same each time,” Bos explained. “There’s always some sort of interesting food that people maybe haven’t had before. That’s part of the learning.”

At a recent lunch, she said, she served Korean and Japanese rice bowls from a local restaurant. Chopsticks were offered alongside spoons. For some students, the meal was a new experience. For others, it was a meaningful reminder of home.

“For some people, they had never had food like that before. And for others, it was, ‘I haven’t had this in a long time—thank you for bringing this.’ The meal became part of the conversation.”

Bos said that each gathering typically includes three or four people engaged in cross-cultural ministry. Instead of delivering talks, these guests help to introduce a central question or idea that serves as a springboard for discussion. Recent topics have included learning a new language, navigating intercultural friendships, hospitality in the church, and reflecting on discomfort in cross-cultural engagement.

At one lunch the group discussed the following: When you’re engaging cross-culturally, what do you do differently? And what remains consistent in how you relate to people, regardless of difference?

These are usually just prompting questions, Bos said—“something interesting enough that we don’t think about it all the time—but loose enough that the table conversation can kind of do its own thing.”

Each lunch draws around 20 participants, she said, and they sit  in small groups of four or five persons. And with about half of Calvin Seminary’s students coming from outside the United States, these gatherings create meaningful space for shared reflection.

“So many students are already living cross-culturally just by being here,” Bos noted. “These lunches give language and community to help process what they’re experiencing.”

A Space for Intercultural Reflection and Growth

When Bos began hosting “Think Global Lunches,” she hoped to spark interest among students with limited international experience. But what she did not anticipate was how deeply meaningful the space would become for international students.

“Again and again, students from India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Venezuela—they come and say, ‘Thank you. This was so good,’” she said. “It gives them a space where they can talk about adjusting to new cultures, about discernment, about where God is calling them.”

Many international students already speak multiple languages and have served in ministry contexts beyond their home countries. The lunches create a space where that richness is recognized and valued.

“It’s so easy to tap into the diversity here,” said Bos. “And then when students who haven’t had that experience come too—it’s amazing. You start to see conversations continue in the hallways, in classrooms. I had hoped that would happen. I just didn’t realize how much it would.”

Faculty have also noticed the impact, sharing with Bos that the lunches have increased excitement around global ministry and cross-cultural engagement.

“You learn theology in the classroom,” Bos reflected. “But this grounds it in lived reality. It’s the space where you process experience and make meaning together.”

“It’s amazing,” she said. “We only do this once a month. But people start talking about it weeks before—and they’re still talking about it for weeks afterward.”

And in those conversations, Bos added—over shared meals, across cultures, through stories—future church leaders are learning not only about global mission but also about the God who is already at work in every place.