You guys are probably tired of hearing about just our family all the time, so we thought we'd do a post about some very special folks: some of our Free English Classes teachers, volunteers, and students! Each Tuesday night our team of teachers and volunteers made up of IPC-Ealing members and regulars arrive at the church at about 6:30 pm to get ready to teach English to folks from the surrounding community, many of whom are non-christians.
Pictured on the left are our dear friends Ray and Sara who volunteer every week to teach our most basic beginner level class together, which they've created completely from scratch. At first glance, Ray and Sara might seem like an odd pair to team up and teach English together, but Jesus seems to love bringing folks together in His church from different generations and walks of life. Ray is an 80 years young retired Northern Irish school teacher, principal, and basketball coach (he spent most of his teaching and coaching career in Canada before retiring back to the U.K.). Ray grew up as a Northern Irish Catholic in Belfast and came to faith in Christ later in life after living through "the troubles" in Northern Ireland as a younger man. Ray wakes up and reads his Bible and lifts weights every morning, and loves talking with us about American football and basketball, especially his beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish, which we try not to hold against him!
Sara is 19 and was born and raised here in London after her Spanish mother Andrea and Ecuadorian father Mauricio met here, got married, and decided to call London home. So because of her unique story, Sara speaks perfect Spanish, as well English with a lovely west London accent, having lived in London her entire life. Sara and Andrea are relative newcomers to IPC-Ealing and members of our House Group Bible Study that meets at our home every Thursday night, and as a new believer who we have the privilege helping to disciple, Sara is hoping to be baptised at IPC-Ealing soon. It has been such an encouragement having Sara and Andrea as a part of our lives through church, House Group, and now Free English Classes every week!
On the far right is Elvira ("El-veer-ah") who's been coming to Free English Classes since the very first week we started offering classes back in January. Elvira is from Colombia, and on her first night at Free English Classes Elvira called her English speaking son to have him explain her situation to us. Elvira's son explained to me that he had heard about our Free English Classes on Facebook and that he was hoping we could help Elvira. He explained that Elvira lives with him and his family and even though she has called London home for over 12 years, Elvira does not speak any English at all, and because of this, is often very dependent on her family to be able to communicate with the outside world and do the most basic things in London.
After coming to class the first couple of weeks, Elvira was so encouraged by what she was learning and the relationships that she was building with others that she invited her niece Mariana (standing behind Elvira) to come along as well to Free English Classes. However, Elvira and Mariana spoke so little English that they were not even able participate very effectively in our beginners level class. We didn't know what to do or how to help them most effectively.
Enter Ray and Sara. With Ray's years of experience teaching school and Sara's perfect bi-lingual skills in both English and Spanish, they both had a heart for helping Elvira and Mariana and decided to team up to create a unique “basic beginners” curriculum to help them, so that hopefully they will come far enough along to eventually be able to join our beginners class. About three weeks ago, Fausto from Argentina (back centre) began coming to Free English Classes as well, and after feeling a bit overwhelmed in our beginners level class, and as a fellow Spanish speaker, decided to join Ray and Sara’s basic beginners class along with Elvira and Mariana.
It is such an encouragement to see how God is at work through Ray and Sara at Free English Classes. Please pray for them both, along with Elvira, Mariana, and Fausto. Due to the language barrier that exists, as you might imagine, being able to communicate the Gospel with them (which is a big part of why we are teaching free English classes in the first place) verbally is especially challenging for all of us but Sara, but we are trusting that over time the Lord will use our (and especially Ray and Sara's) service and care for Elvira, Mariana, and Fausto to encourage them to learn more about the good news of Jesus Christ along the way and over the long haul of building a relationship with them.
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