Please Pray for Asylum Seekers from Iran

Hey folks, would you please pray for our friends Bijan and Najme and their daughter Artemis? They came to London as asylum seekers from Iran just a couple of months after we arrived here in the U.K. ourselves, and yesterday at 3am they were evicted from the hotel near the church that the U.K. government has put them up in for nearly 2 years now. They recently received their approval for asylum status and granted the right to work in the U.K., which is good news, but that also meant that they were now put into a different category and no longer qualified under the contract the government has with the hotel for housing them and countless others of our refugee friends here in London from the Muslim world, Ukraine, and Russia.

Unfortunately, we have seen this as a common theme with asylum seekers in the U.K. After spending the night and most of yesterday in a homeless shelter, thankfully, a couple from church has stepped in to take them into their home for a couple of weeks while they try to find a place of their own to live nearby, and the church’s deacons and others are also stepping in to help as well.

Bijan, Najme, and Artemis arrived here with almost no English in 2022 and have been very faithfully attending church at IPC-Ealing, Persian Fellowship, and our English classes for the past 2 years, and Bijan’s need to learn English was actually one of the driving forces behind us starting an English class at the church that men could participate in. They are strong (though new) believers in Jesus coming from a Muslim background who have been through a lot and fled persecution for their faith in Christ, first from Iran, and then Turkey before landing here in Ealing.

Please pray for them to find a home near the church and Artemis’s school that they can afford so that they do not have to completely lose the community of care and support that they currently have around them in the church, and have to start from scratch with a new church, new school, and new community far away. Please also pray for their job search as they now finally have the right to work here in the U.K., but their job prospects will be slim as they continue to learn English.

Also, we have quite a number of our friends who come to our Free English Classes, the Persian Fellowship, and who we encounter every day here in Ealing who are in very similar situations and live in this same hotel and others like it nearby who are asylum seekers. Many of them are either new Christians, or very open to talking about the Gospel, especially as they experience care and friendship from Christians and the church. Often they had very good and successful careers in their home countries and then find themselves stripped of everything, including even the ability to communicate and work after fleeing for their lives to find safety in western nations like the U.K. and U.S. Your prayers for them would be so appreciated.

**This is not a picture of Bijan, Najme & Artemis, as it would not be safe for us to share a picture of them with you. This is a picture of another Iranian family who were denied assylum status in Sweden several years ago because they had become Christians, and were sent back to Iran. Right now the Christian faith is growing faster in Iran than in any other place on Earth (https://www.persecution.org/.../the-worlds-fastest.../). If you would like to read more about their story, you can click here:

https://www.persecution.org/2013/03/27/iranian-christians-denied-asylum-even-though-arrest-torture-and-death-await-back-in-iran/

https://www.charismanews.com/world/38808-sweden-denies-asylum-to-christians-facing-persecution

https://www.christianpost.com/news/iranian-christians-fleeing-severe-persecution-being-denied-asylum-in-sweden.html

Hope Explored Session 2 tonight, please pray

Hey friends, please pray for session 2 of our Hope Explored outreach tonight at IPC-Ealing at 7pm London time (1pm CST). We had a really encouraging turnout last week of about 55 for dinner and discussion about the Gospel, and many of those who came were not Christians and not in a church anywhere, and from many different religious backgrounds including those from Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu, as well as secular backgrounds.

Please pray for our associate pastor Reuben Hunter's talk on Peace from the Gospel of Luke and for good discussion, and pray that many would come back from the week before as well others who were not able to make it for session 1. Please pray for our friends Kit, Alicia & Edward from Hong Kong, Adil from Pakistan, Jorge from Chile, Khalid from Kuwait, Francesco & Diana from Italy, and many others who may come along as well.

Here's a short preview video with Rico Tice to give you an idea of what the programme is like, especially if you might like to give it a try at your own church or just at home with non-christian friends. It works equally well in small groups or one-to-one (if not better) as it does in more of a programme setting at a church, and can be done using the videos or someone giving a talk on the topics in person. Blessings to you all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8AbJ2N8NAY

Thank You For Praying For Hope Explored

Thank you so much for praying for our first of three Hope Explored outreach events last night at the church- we have two more weeks the next two Wednesday evenings so please do keep praying! We had a really encouraging turnout with about 55 in attendance for the discussion and a couple of great talks on the topic of “Hope” by Christianity Explored’s Rico Tice and our associate pastor Reuben Hunter. Please pray for the many non-Christians who came along, including Mary Elisabeth’s friend’s mum Kit and Kit’s nephew Edward (who are both Buddhists from Hong Kong), as well as Jorge (from Chile), Adil (a Muslim from Pakistan), and Nadia (an Assyrian Catholic from Iraq), who all come regularly to our English classes and are meeting with them for one to one Bible reading together. 

I had a really encouraging conversation for about an hour after the event ended with Adil from Pakistan (pictured in the black coat at our discussion table) about the Gospel where he just about asked me every question about Jesus that you can imagine. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work in his heart and the hearts of all who came and heard the Gospel. 

Finally, please pray for a newcomer named Khalid, a Muslim and refugee from Kuwait who showed up seemingly out of nowhere to our English Class Christmas Party last month and since then has shown up to not only Free English Classes, but also Sunday morning church service and now Hope Explored. We are working very hard to try to communicate effectively with Khalid using things like Google Translate, but Arabic is his first language and he speaks almost no English whatsoever, but he seems very friendly and interested.

More Home Group Members Joining the Church

We were encouraged this evening to have some more of our Home Group Bible Study members join the church this evening. When we started our Home Group after arriving in Ealing in 2022 we wanted to gear it toward newcomers to the church and those on the “periphery” who were not already plugged in. We also hoped that it would be a safe place, both for non-Christians who we and our members are building relationships with to be able to come with their questions, and for hurting and broken people to experience the grace and loving care of the Lord and his church.

While new to IPC-Ealing, Rico, Lucy, and their three children have been anything but on the periphery, and have jumped right into church life and our Home Group since moving from Central London to just around the corner from us here in Ealing over summer. We’ve been so encouraged by their faithfulness to the Lord, their heart for sharing Christ with others in evangelism, and how they have already helped in caring for other members of our group!

Rico has a gift for evangelism and will be leading a Hope Explored dinner outreach at IPC-Ealing the next three Wednesday nights of January on the 10th, 17th, and 24th, which we and many other church members are inviting non-Christian friends to. Shanna and I will also be helping with the outreach by hosting a table at the dinner each night and facilitating discussion. Please pray for the Lord to be at work to bring many non-Christians to the Hope Explored events, and that he would use these next three Wednesday evenings to clearly present the Gospel to those in attendance.

An Encouraging New Years Eve Email From Japan

Hello Friends, we received such an encouraging email on New Year’s Eve from our friend Kaoru from Japan who you may recall us requesting your prayers for this past spring. It’s not every day that we get to hear from those we’ve had a chance to minister to after returning from the U.K. to their home country, so it’s a special treat to share this with you. 

After meeting with Kaoru several times and him coming along to English classes and our Home Group Bible Study in the spring and summer, it became apparent that Kaoru was already a Christian, which was an encouraging surprise! We’re so thankful to hear from him about what an encouragement our ministry to him was while he was away from his home culture, wife, and children, and that he was able to pass his Japanese government service English exams with distinction. 

Please continue to pray for Kaoru, that he would continue to walk with Jesus while living in his home country of Japan, one of the world’s largest unreached people groups, where less than 0.6% of Japanese people are Bible believing Christians and Christian fellowship and good teaching can be very hard to find. Please also pray for his efforts to be promoted to a foreign service post with his government in the U.S., U.K., or other English speaking country, or that the Lord would give him more and greater opportunities to witness to his faith in Christ at home in Japan.