The last three months have been a whirlwind and I think we owe you guys an update. Since another bout of Covid has given Shanna and me a little "forced downtime" this week, we can finally write something up. Back over the Christmas holidays, we shared with you that we were launching a new “Free English Classes” program for both men and women in the evenings, and helping to better resource the church’s existing women’s English classes that Shanna had already been helping on Wednesday mornings. Several of the ladies in the church have been doing this very faithfully for years, but had been feeling a little overwhelmed by coming up with new curriculum every week, and a bit short handed recently as some of the older ladies began to feel the need to step back from their role as their participation has become more difficult with age.
Well, after spending the Autumn researching options and recruiting and training a team of teachers and volunteers from within the church for the new co-ed class, we launched the new co-ed class in the dead of winter in mid-January and we have been absolutely amazed by what God has done so far. Since 17 Jan we have met weekly on Tuesday nights for the new co-ed class and have had at least 22 students every week and a record breaking 34 students tonight, in spite of Shanna and I both having to miss due to Covid. Prior to tonight, Shanna and I have been very hands on with all of the details, but our team of volunteers and teachers pulled it off tonight with flying colours and we are so proud of them all.
Even though all of our teachers and volunteers are church members or regular attenders at IPC-Ealing, with only 1 or 2 exceptions almost all of our students have been complete newcomers to the church who have never set foot inside our doors before. In fact, many of them have never set foot inside of any church before. They are from backgrounds ranging from across Asia including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Japan, and China, to European nations like Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Hungary, Spain, and Italy. We’ve even got a little table of Colombians who speak almost no English at all who’ve been helped by our 80 year old Northern Irish friend Ray who speaks no Spanish whatsoever and our 19 year old Home Group member Sara, who will be getting baptised at the church soon. I think I may have to tell you more about this fun little group that Ray and Sara are helping in a future update soon 😉
This is what we’ve prayed and continue to pray for- for Free English Classes to be an opportunity for our church members at IPC-Ealing to interact with and lovingly serve our non-christian neighbours who live all around us, in a very practical way, and that helps them forge positive relationships with them for the furthering of God’s kingdom. And by God's grace we are already beginning to see this happen as Free English Class members have begun trickling into our Sunday services and Home Groups during the week like our new Ukrainian friend Julia and her daughter Mira who’ve come to our Home Group the last 3 weeks in a row now (another upcoming update perhaps?). Please pray with us as we continue to build friendships with the folks who are coming to Free English Classes and help those who are interested to make the transition into church life at IPC-Ealing and saving faith in Jesus Christ.
The women’s class has continued to go strong, and just a couple of weeks ago experienced a record attendance of 40 after experiencing record low numbers this time last year. However, due to the challenge of meeting during the day when many potential volunteers may be busy with work or family, they have unfortunately continued to struggle with recruiting new volunteers and teachers. Please pray for the Lord to raise up new volunteers and teachers to help with this urgent need.
Thank you for all of your continued prayers and for your partnership in the Gospel with our family here in London!
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