Free English Classes at IPC-Ealing Are Growing

Hello Friends-

Apologies for the lack of posts recently! We've been having such a great time with our Free English Class students and other new friends here in London who we are pointing to Jesus I'm afraid we often get swept up in the moment and either forget to take pictures completely or it would just be awkward to do so.

Just two nights ago, I think we may have set a new record for the number of students attending our Tuesday evening Free English Classes, Ealing, but we were all having such a good time, none of us thought to stop and count. If I had to hazard a guess, I think we had about 40-45 students, exceeding our previous attendance record of 36 from the week before. The Wednesday morning women's class also set a new record as well of 44 attendees this past week.

For the past three weeks after our Tuesday evening Free English Class ends, we've held a Christianity Explored Bible study, which is a 7 week study looking at the life of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark, and have had several English students stay on to participate including students from Japan, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, China, and Iran. 

We've made the Christianity Explored study completely optional and separate from the English Class as a low pressure opportunity for students who the Holy Spirit may be at work in to further explore the Gospel and to take another step toward knowing Jesus. We plan to run these a few times a year in conjunction with Free English Classes on Tuesday nights, and the Wednesday morning women's class has an optional Bible study after class ends as well.

Ultimately, this is what Free English Classes is meant to be about. We are trusting the Lord to create a "funnel" of sorts to draw as many non-christians as possible into closer contact with the Church and God's people, in hopes that as we build relationships with them, practice hospitality, and share the Gospel with them, that some of them may come to trust Jesus and "get stuck-in"* to Church life for a lifetime of deepening faithfulness to Jesus and His Church.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support as we trust Jesus together to build His Church in London.

*to "get stuck-in" is a "British-ism" that means "to start doing something with enthusiasm or determination".

God is at Work Building His Church

You might recall our update a couple of weeks ago about Sara and Ray teaming up to teach English to South American Spanish speakers at our weekly Free English Classes outreach that we launched at IPC-Ealing in January. Sara and her mum Andrea are members of of our House Group Bible study that meets in our home weekly, and we were so encouraged to see Sara baptised yesterday and join the church at IPC-Ealing.

In fact, the past two Sundays we’ve been so encouraged to welcome into church membership at IPC-Ealing four members of our House Group Bible Study, as well as three other friends who we’ve enjoyed spending time with over the past year in Ealing. Sara amazes us with her bilingual superpowers and the way that she loves and cares for those around her, and how the Lord is using her already as a new believer.

In addition to Sara, we also welcomed into membership our House Group members Anthony, Justin, and Rebekah on Palm Sunday, as well as our friends Funso, Dana, and David, who is another of our English teachers.

Nothing encourages us more than seeing how the Lord is at work to build His church in this place, both in those coming to faith in Christ, as well as seeing longtime believers finding a church home and place to serve at IPC-Ealing, and helps remind us that missions works best when paired with planting and strengthening Gospel centered churches.

Happy Easter From London!

Happy Easter everyone, Christ the Lord is risen today! This year our oldest son Joshua decided to start an Easter Egg Hunt for the children at IPC-Ealing. It was completely his idea and he approached our pastor, Paul Levy, to get his blessing, purchased all of the eggs and candy, and got the word out to the church. It was fairly low key, but everyone had a lot of fun with this new tradition at IPC-Ealing.

Please Pray for the Lord's Work Among Persians in London

Hello friends, please pray for us and our Persian friends here in London. Our long serving MTW colleagues David and Marcia, who've led the ministry to Persians here at IPC-Ealing for 13 years, had to leave to return to the U.S. permanently and quite suddenly last week when David was diagnosed with some significant medical concerns, after 40 years in the mission field.

Shanna and I have been helping David and Marcia with this ministry to Persians over the past year and gaining their friendship and trust, but they are absolutely gutted and feel that they have lost their spiritual parents. Many of them come to us already quite traumatised from their experiences in Iran and Afghanistan and their journey here to London, as well as the loss of loved ones and severed ties from their families and communities as part of the cost of following Jesus as saviour out of Islam. So this loss brings up quite a lot of unresolved past grief and trauma for many of them. We are deeply saddened by David and Marcia's departure as well.

We are trusting the Lord to continue this ministry to Persians now in David and Marcia’s absence. Some have said that they will no longer come if David and Marcia are not there, but we were very encouraged on Sunday to have a small group of about a dozen Persians come to church and our Persian Bible Study after the service, and even welcomed a new young grad student from Tehran named Sam, who just moved in down the street from us. We were also really encouraged to have two new Persian ladies come to our English class last night and invited them to join us for church and Bible study this Sunday.

Over the next couple of weeks, we hope to meet with as many of our Persian friends who are already Christians one-to-one as possible to care for them, as well as to encourage them to continue on in trusting the Lord together with us at IPC-Ealing. We also hope to meet with those who are still learning about Jesus to continue with us in investigating the Gospel.

Thank you so much for your ongoing prayers and partnership in bringing the Gospel to the nations here in London.

Ray and Sara: Teaming Up to Teach English to Spanish Speakers in West London

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.

Free English Classes Update - We have Covid, but God is Still at Work!

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!

Caleb Sighting in the Wild

Shanna and I had dentist appointments yesterday in Fulham near the boys’ school, The Fulham Boys School, and had a rare sighting in the wilds of London at the Fulham Broadway tube station of the elusive “Urban Chic Schoolboy Caleb” species in his natural environment and full plumage on his way home from school. This rare species has a natural affinity for coffee, voracious reading, listening to music and audiobooks with his AirPods on the tube, and an aversion to having his picture taken by and/or with his tragically un-hip parents (“dad….😒”). We hope you’ll enjoy this rare sighting in the wild with us!

One Year in London!

It's hard to believe that we arrived in London one year ago this week! We celebrated God's faithfulness and the anniversary of our arival here this evening together as a family at a favourite restaurant in Shepherd's Bush. We're so thankful to call London home for this past year and look forward to many more years of God's faithfulness in this place that he's called us to serve in.

Thank you for your prayers and partnership which the Lord has used to sustain and encourage us every step of the way!

Please pray for our children as Mary Elisabeth (13) and Caleb (15) have their first day back to school today from the holiday break and Joshua (17) started back and had his first two mock A-Levels exams yesterday and another today. Mary Elisabeth is continuing on at The Green School for Girls, Joshua is continuing “Sixth Form” at The Fulham Boys School, and from today Caleb has transferred to join him at Fulham Boys after being on the waiting list for nearly a year. 

Caleb is excited for the new school but it comes with a longer commute on the tube, and Mary Elisabeth will be on her own on the bus for her commute for the first time. This time of year here in England it’s still dark out when they leave for school as well as when they get home, so we’ll have wait to get an updated pic with Caleb’s new uniform! Your prayers are so appreciated!

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

🎄Happy Christmas from London everyone!🎄

 

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

Happy Thanksgiving American friends! In honour of all of our friends back home in the States I thought I'd post this classic Thanksgiving throwback pic from our days with RUF in Martin, TN in 2013 when our babies were little and my beautiful bride made her very first Thanksgiving Dinner all on her own without the help of parents and in-laws, grandparents, aunts, or cousins!

While we've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the different holidays here that are part of British culture that we don't have in the U.S., Thanksgiving is absolutely one of our favourite holidays back home in the States, maybe even more so than Christmas! But here in the U.K., today is just....Thursday. Our kids are in school all day today and no one here (except fellow American expats) gives a thought about stopping everything to gather with family and friends and consume massive amounts of roast turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and all the rest (that's just a Sunday roast dinner here). And just forget about pecan and pumpkin pies, and American Football!

So, American friends, we are counting on YOU to flood our newsfeeds today with pics and videos of family gatherings, full plates, football, parades, autumn decor, deer hunting, and all the rest that Thanksgiving entails for you and yours! We will celebrate as a family on Friday when our kids have a day off from school, and we have an incredible "American Thanksgiving" Feast planned with our church House Group Bible study after worship on Sunday afternoon. So have a big slice of pumpkin pie in honour of the Beans in London, and don't go easy on the whipped cream!!!

A Visit to Mary Elisabeth's School

After not being able to see much when we initially moved to London in January due to the Covid restrictions at that time, we were recently able to tour Mary Elisabeth's school and meet some of the girls that she is friends with and sees every day. Mary Elisabeth attends The Green School for Girls, where she is in Year 9 (the equivalent of 8th Grade in the U.S.).

Since its founding 225+ years ago, The Green School has been affiliated with The Church of England, and is a tuition-free school sponsored by the state church. So, while there are crosses and bible verses posted prominently throughout the school, you'll also find ideas and attitudes throughout the school that just don't quite make sense with Biblical Christianity, to put it bluntly. But, such is life in the U.K. While there are many wonderfully Biblically faithful Church of England churches and schools throughout the U.K., they are sadly far outnumbered by Church of England institutions that quite frankly wouldn't recognise the Christian Gospel and would actually be quite opposed to it.

Mary Elisabeth has been a real trooper over the past year, braving the bus with her brother Caleb each day for their commute, and we're not talking about an American style "yellow dog" school bus, but a real deal red "Double Decker" London commuter bus, which is how High School aged children commute to school here. Funny enough, when we enrolled Mary Elisabeth at The Green School for Girls, we had to sign an agreement along with other parents that we would not drive them to school each day to help reduce traffic congestion and to "lessen the environmental impact"!

Please pray for Mary Elisabeth and her brothers Joshua and Caleb, that they would study hard, that they would hold fast to the truths of the Gospel, and be "salt and light" in a rather confusing system that often denies those very truths while claiming to uphold them.