Bible Study Prep For Home Group in Multiple Languages

This is what my prep for Home Group Bible Study on Ephesians 2 looks like for tonight, and no, I don’t speak Farsi or Arabic. Why do you ask?

Google Translate For Our Home Group Chat Group

It warms my heart that sometimes we have to use Google translate to understand what’s being said in our home group’s WhatsApp chat!

Home Group Off To A Start for 2024

Hey friends,

After a very busy month of outreach in January with Hope Explored and getting our weekly Free English Classes off to a good start for the term, we were finally able to kick off our first Home Group Bible Study of 2024 tonight, starting a new study in Ephesians. We had our biggest group yet with 28 in attendance, including a really encouraging influx of newcomers from English class and Hope Explored, most of whom are not yet Christians and new to studying the Bible. Our friend Kit from Hong Kong came, as well as three other friends from Hong Kong, Calvin, Barbara, and Benson who I've been meeting with regularly to read the Bible together. 

Our Kuwaiti friend Khaled from English class came as well, even though he speaks almost no English whatsoever. Thankfully we had two other newcomers in attendance who can speak Arabic, Nadia (Iraq) and Habib (Iran) and were able to help translate for Khaled, and we also had some Farsi speakers who were new as well, Davood and Nayesh. Habib and I were able to visit more with Davood and Nayesh after the study to find our more about their story and they shared with us that they are from a Muslim background in Iran, but came to London in December wanting to learn more about Jesus. Last but not least one of our English class regulars, Mila from Ukraine came tonight as well who Shanna and I were really encouraged to see connect really well with one of our Polish friends Patrycja Pe-Ka who is a strong Christian and one of our Home Group regular attenders. Patrycja and her husband Dawid Kaliński and their children are very dear to us and have been such an encouagement for our family over the past 2 years here in London.

Please pray that the Lord would give us good opportunities to continue to follow up with each of these newcomers about Jesus, and that they would continue coming to Home Group and Free English Classes that God is using to help us connect with people, and especially that they might come along to church with us on a sunday morning or evening.

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.

Please Pray for Parham

Would you please pray for our friend Parham from Iran? I’ve met with Parham probably 4-5 times now over the past several weeks to answer his questions about Jesus, and we began reading the Gospel of Matthew together today. Parham came to London to pursue a master’s degree in renaissance art, and first began considering the Gospel after his dissertation research led him to a book called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, by the German political economist Max Weber.

Weber argued in his work that it was Christianity (and specifically the Protestant Reformation) which has led to the progress and prosperity of the western world, which to Parham, seemed to stand in stark contrast to what he has seen in his homeland, dominated by Shia Islam and Sharia law which have led Iran and other predominantly Muslim nations mostly to inequality, poverty, injustice, and systematic oppression. So Parham sought out a Reformed Protestant church like IPC-Ealing that might be able to help him understand the message of Christianity better, which is how we met.

In God's amazing providence, Parham came to IPC-Ealing for the first time in the middle of a Sunday afternoon after the morning service had ended, and the only thing going on at the church at that time was our Persian Fellowship Bible Study as we discussed that morning's sermon in English and his native language of Farsi. Since that time, Parham has been coming regularly to our Free English Classes outreach, our Home Group Bible Study, and to the Sunday evening church services. In his own words, Parham is at a place right now where he is no longer a muslim, but he's not sure yet if he is ready to trust in Jesus.

Please pray for Parham to trust in Jesus, and not merely in an intellectual or pragmatic way, but so that he might repent and be saved.

Thanksgiving in London

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! We've had a busy few days of life and ministry between Home Group, a trip to York for Presbytery on Friday and Saturday, and a very full day at church yesterday, so sorry we're just now getting around to posting this. On Thursday evening our Home Group Bible Study celebrated a very international take on an American Thanksgiving Dinner with guests and dishes from around the world.

Even though Thanksgiving is celebrated in several countries other than just the U.S., including Canada and Brazil, the United Kingdom is not among them. In fact, many British people and many other nationalities often don't know much about Thanksgiving or why we celebrate it. So because of Thanksgiving's origins and orientation toward thanking God for the blessings in our lives, it’s a really great opportunity to talk about Jesus. Before dinner Dawson gave a very brief explanation of the origins of Thanksgiving and a short devotional from Psalm 100 before praying for our meal.

This Thanksgiving will be especially memorable for our family as we gathered together with our regular Home Group members as well as a few non-Christian friends who we’ve been getting to know and reaching out to from our Free English Classes outreach. Please continue to pray for our Home Group Bible Study and for our outreach to international friends through Free English Classes.

Please pray especially for non-Christian friends Parham (Iran), Adil (Pakistan), Benson (Hong Kong), Dmitri (Russia), and Francesco (Italy) as Dawson meets with them weekly to read and discuss the Gospel of Mark one to one. Please pray also for growing Christian friends who we are meeting with regularly as well for one to one discipleship, including Eduardo (Spain), Zuri (Brazil), Justin and Zuko (both from South Africa), Fenno (Kenya), Amirreza (Iran), Yuki (Japan), Prateek and David (both from India), Dawid (Poland), as well as many others, and that the Lord would continue to open doors for new opportunities for evangelism and discipleship through Free English Classes, church, Home Group, and the Ealing community.

Home Groups Off to a Good Start in Revelation

Hello everyone! We had an encouraging second Bible Study this evening at our Home Group at ours with about 15 adults and several children in attendance, and on a lark I thought I’d snap a couple of pics to share with you all. We’re studying Revelation 2-3 this term in all of the church’s Home Groups at IPC-Ealing, taking a look at the letters to the seven churches of Asia. Tonight was in Revelation 2:8-11 to the church at Smyrna. We had a great time together in God’s Word and some truly encouraging fellowship.

Record Breaking Crowd at Holiday Bible Club!

Well, we’re happy to report that we had a record breaking 113 children turn up this morning for our first day of Holiday Bible Club, and a good time was had by all! Thank you all for praying!

Holiday Bible Club This Week at IPC-Ealing!

Hello from London everyone! If you would, please pray for us and IPC-Ealing this week as we begin a week of Holiday Bible Club (what we call VBS here in the UK) at the church with 85 children signed up this year ages 5-14, begining tomorrow morning through Saturday as we share the Gospel together with children of the church, their friends, and those from around the neighbourhoods nearby.

Please especially pray for unchurched children whose parents may just be dropping them off for a bit of a break. We've been very blessed and encouraged over the years to see children from the nearby council estate (government housing) come to trust in Christ, be baptised, and join the church and youth group for a lifetime of faithfulness to Jesus and his church. Please pray for the Lord to work mightily to bring these young ones into His Kingdom.

“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” -Luke 18:16-17

2023 Year End Update

As we approach the end of 2022 and close out our first year in London, we wanted to post our year-end letter here for any who may not have received it already through post or email to give you a review of how the Lord has been at work over the past 12 months, and what our hopes, prayers, and needs are going into 2023. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and partnership this year, and wishing you all the best to you and yours in 2023!

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." -Philippians 1:3-5

A Year Ago, We Were Still In Texas!

This time last year we were still in Texas, anxiously waiting for our U.K. Visas to be approved! But as we reflect back on 2022, we're amazed by Lord's goodness and the incredible things he has done since our arrival in London in January. From street evangelism to Bible studies, discipleship, and Holiday Bible Club to theological development, we've been so encouraged to see how the Lord has been at work. Tonight we launched our new Free English Classes, Ealing outreach at our church, IPC-Ealing, in hopes of reaching the 40% of Ealing residents who were born outside the U.K. with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray with us for this new and exciting outreach opportunity for us and for our church!

With today being "Giving Tuesday", would you pray and trust the Lord with us as well to raise an additional $23,000 to help our family and ministry to the Unreached in London start out 2023 on solid footing after what has been a rather unpredictable year in the U.K. financially with significant cost of living increases, inflation, rising energy prices, and a wildly fluctuating exchange rate? If you feel that the Lord may be leading you to give a special year-end gift to the Great Commission through our ministry in London, we would be so honoured, and you may give your gift online at www.mtw.org/bean. We so appreciate your prayers and partnership in taking the Gospel of Grace to the Unreached, in London and beyond.

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." -Philippians 1:3-5