This will be Kagiso Lekoa's first Christmas in Lancaster County — and his first apart from his parents and family, who are in their home some 8,000 miles away.

But Lekoa is still going to be with family.

He will be in a home where "it's like having all kinds of brothers and sisters," said Lekoa, a native of the southern African country of Botswana who is planning to graduate from Millersville University in May.

Because of those people, he said, "you don't feel isolated."

Added Aklilu Beyene, who's from Ethiopia, "We feel like we are family here. … This is like my second home."

For both men, as well as for other international college students from China, India, Taiwan and other countries, the holidays in America can be a lonely time.

Most U.S. students go home to Christmas trees and gifts and family and friends, or, if they don't celebrate Christmas, they enjoy other holidays, plus time off.

People from faraway lands might not have that luxury, with many not able to make it home for the holidays.

But they have a home in Millersville, thanks to people such as Dan Gehman and his wife, Jenny.

The Gehmans, through Millersville International House, will strive tomorrow evening, Christmas Day and in the coming holiday week "to make the (students) feel like they have a home," as Jenny Gehman put it.

"To be by yourself and to not take part in the celebrations, that to me would be tragic," she said.

"So we try to … give them a home when they don't have one, to give them a family when they don't have one here. So they inherit grandparents and brothers and sisters and families. … They get the whole spectrum.

"They just feel the warmth."

While schools in the U.S. are closed over the holidays, the International House, sitting behind a large soccer field just off Millersville's main road, is open and running full speed.

Gehman, its director of resident services, and his wife for the past 14 years have invited the students to Christmas Eve services at their church, to a subsequent soup-and-bread supper at their home (which adjoins the International House), and often on Christmas Day back to their house.

They also take them to the Christmas show at American Music Theatre. (A friend of the International House gives them the tickets.)

The couple often invite young-adult groups from area churches to bake and decorate Christmas cookies with the international students.

The students also enjoy decorating an indoor Christmas tree, which is in the main living room inside the International House.

The Gehmans on Christmas Day often will hold a big holiday brunch for up to a dozen of the international students.

There, the Gehmans ask them to explain the main holiday in their country, and then the couple will explain to them the meaning of Christmas.

"We learn what's important to them (about their country's holidays), and it gives them a chance to re-create the holiday spirit and remember it, even though it may not be Christmas necessarily" that they celebrate, Jenny Gehman said.

"They have a lot to offer," she said. "All we do is give them the opportunity to offer it."

The house at 321 Manor Ave., which is not affiliated with the university several blocks away, houses students from around the world who are in the U.S. to improve their English and/or study at MU and other Lancaster-area colleges.

Some of those students come from places where Christmas is a major holiday; others are from lands where Christmas is fairly unknown, or at least is not a major holiday.

Lekoa is the son of career diplomats — his father is the country's former ambassador to the U.S., so in recent years at Christmas he'd be with his family in suburban Washington, D.C.

But his parents this year are back in Botswana, and their son has to stay here for a winter-term course at Millersville, so it wasn't feasible for him to travel home.

Lekoa's parents visited the International House about a year ago and really "liked the place. … They were really comfortable knowing that I was staying out here with such nice people" and in a family atmosphere, said Lekoa, who's 32 and studies political science at Millersville.

That family atmosphere is especially noticeable at the holidays.

When the Gehmans have students over to their home on Christmas Day, "they get the feeling of a real family Christmas," Jenny Gehman said.

They play Christmas trivia games, and the Gehmans give gifts to the students emphasizing the spiritual aspects of the holiday that Christians believe are the real purpose of Christmas.

Each student is presented "with a gift we receive from Jesus," she said, things such as forgiveness, love, peace, joy and strength, "all of the different things that the Bible says come from Jesus," she said.

"Something that money can't buy."

Others who help make the international students feel at home include Carmelita Joyce, who's 25 and serves on the International House's support staff while also studying at MU.

"There is a familial kind of feel at the International House," she said. "You don't feel like you're ever alone here, because there are always people around who you can associate with."

When she was growing up in Ephrata, "we celebrated (Christmas) and everything, but it wasn't our favorite holiday."

But with the family atmosphere and spiritual emphasis at the International House, she said, "it's just more special. It's like a family celebration."

Lekoa's home country, Botswana, is a largely Christian nation of 2 million people. He said Christmas is just as important there, except it's more relaxed, more family-oriented.

"Coming here, it's different. It's more festive, and America is larger than life," he said with a laugh. "And … gifts! Giving each other gifts (back home) is not as common a thing."

For David Simpson, working at the International House provides a chance to "learn the customs of people. … It's fascinating and it's a learning experience for me," he said.

Simpson is English and has lived in many countries. His missionary parents served all over the world and are now relatively nearby, in Vancouver.

In the U.S. for his first Christmas here, Simpson sees the importance in the U.S. of customs at Christmastime: "Families have certain things they always look to do. … It's just a special kind of time, when those traditions are quite important," the 22-year-old said.

Ray Huber, the International House's executive director, said that Christmas "creates an opportunity to not just learn where (the students) are coming from, but to also give them some more pieces of the puzzle, of a spiritual dimension to Christmas."

The students eventually complete their studies and move on with their lives, with many going back to their home countries.

This means the Gehmans have "friends all over the world," Jenny Gehman said — people who remember the kindness shown to them at Christmastime, by the Gehmans and others at the house, when they were so far from home.

"I think when we retire," she said, "that's what we might do — go and visit people around the world!"

doconnor@lnpnews.com