Hello Dear Friends,
As you may have seen posted here or in our Facebook Group, we are preparing for an urgent move with MTW to Prague, Czech Republic. I'll be serving as the Interim Pastor at one of the few gospel-centered churches in the capital and largest city of the most atheist nation in the world, Faith Community Church IPC. Shanna will be serving in evangelism and discipleship with women in the church and community. They are a sister congregation of our current host church in London, IPC-Ealing. After searching for a pastor for over a year, they extended a pastoral call for me to come and serve them last month. They have just one elder (RE) and need us to come to them as quickly as possible to help lead them for at least the next two years, beginning September 1, in order to help the church continue to grow and eventually become self-sustaining.
Financial Support Urgently Needed
We are facing a significant monthly financial support deficit that we are trusting the Lord to fill. New and renewed monthly financial supporters are crucial to help us get to Prague and begin serving at Faith Community Church as quickly as possible.
In addition to the church's urgent need, it is essential for our two youngest children, Caleb (17) and Mary (15), to arrive in Prague before school starts for them on August 30. They have been enrolled in British schools for the past 2 1/2 years and have already been accepted at Riverside School in Prague, which follows a British curriculum, ensuring a smooth transition.
Why Returning to the U.S. Would Be Detrimental
If we do not meet our monthly support need quickly enough, we will have no choice but to return to the United States for an unknown period to raise financial support. This would require our children to transition back into an American school, only to have to reintegrate again into a British school in Prague later. The initial transition into the British school system was incredibly challenging for them, and we want to avoid putting them through a transition like that twice more.
Meet Our Children
Caleb (17)
Caleb will be flying to the U.S. next week to spend time with his grandparents and other family in Texas and New Mexico. He’ll also be taking an SAT prep course while he’s in the States. Caleb has amazed us this past year with his academic intensity. He seems to have a brain like my grandfather’s (praise God for small miracles!), and his work ethic has really impressed us, especially after a tough initial integration into the British school system at his initial school, which forced him ahead a year. He was able to get a restart on year 10 when he transferred over to Joshua’s school, The Fulham Boys’ School last year, which helped him tremendously. He finished his last GCSE exam in Latin on Monday morning and is now done with year 11 of secondary school in the British system and plans to focus on Maths and Triple Sciences for his last two years of high school at Riverside School in Prague. He is on a trajectory to graduate high school in 2026. He has recently informed us he wants to go to Baylor for pre-med and then on to Johns Hopkins for medical school. We’re proud of his ambition and determination and we’ve suggested he consider Texas A&M and Texas Tech as well (the Oxford of the South Plains 😉👆🏻) and told him that we hope he does well on his SAT/ACT's and makes good grades for scholarships, because otherwise his hopes and dreams sound really expensive! He made a 1380 on a practice SAT that he took the other night "just for fun" without any prior preparation. He's smart and a hard worker!
Mary Elisabeth (15)
Mary is still in school here in London through July 18. She’s done well socially but has struggled a bit academically due to her dyslexia and being forced to skip ahead a year when we first arrived in the U.K. from 6th Grade to “Year 8” in the British School system, which made her go from being one of the oldest in her class in Texas, to one of the youngest in her class here in London, due to her summer birthday. Her school, The Green School for Girls, has been inflexible, unlike Joshua’s and Caleb’s school, The Fulham Boys’ School. She has been accepted into Riverside School in Prague, who have agreed to allow her to restart "year 10" (equivalent of Freshman year in a U.S. high school) to help her get caught up academically, which was very helpful for Caleb to do last year after a rough initial start. This will put Mary back on her original trajectory for graduation in 2028 that she had in the U.S. Mary is very bright and very social. As she is still in school until July 18, we're not sure yet what her travel plans will be for the summer, but she hopes to spend some time in the U.S. visiting family along with her brothers but will have to arrive a bit later.
Joshua (19)
Joshua just finished his A-Level exams last Friday and has now graduated from the British high school "Sixth Form" program, which is something of a hybrid between High School and University prep. He has done exceptionally well academically and wants to major in English Creative Writing. His success is due to his hard work and the excellent school he's attended, The Fulham Boys School. Joshua had planned to start at Cardiff University in September, but unfortunately he recently found out that he doesn’t qualify for UK school loans, which his guidance counsellor here in London thought for sure he’d qualify for. He’s exploring other financial aid options to continue with his plans for Cardiff, but may end up either taking a “gap year” in Prague with us and work, or return to the U.S. for college, possibly at Covenant College or Stephen F Austin State University in Nacogdoches. He will be flying to Texas a few days after Caleb to visit family.
Your Support Matters
We've just picked up two new committed monthly financial partners from members of our IPC churches here in the U.K. who saw the need and were encouraged by how they've seen the Lord's kindness to work through our ministry at IPC-Ealing since 2022. If you may feel led to join our team or to increase your current monthly financial pledge, you can do so on our MTW giving website at www.mtw.org/bean.
All the best from London, and Lord willing, soon from Prague,
Dawson, Shanna, Joshua, Caleb, and Mary Elisabeth Bean
