What is ESL? And why should we start an ESL ministry? The past weekend, eleven of us from NCFC had the opportunity to attend an English as a Second Language (ESL) Training Seminar at Chapelgate Presbyterian Church in Marriottsville, MD. The training seminar was for churches who have a burden to start an outreach ministry, especially to their surrounding community of international students, immigrants, refugees, and non-native language speakers. NCFC is definitely situated in an international neighborhood and community in Germantown, MD, and there are still many who do not know our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! We learned that the primary goal of church-based ESL ministries is “to intentionally share and demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ as we help people learn to speak English.”
Some of us were frightened at first by the packed schedule, which ran from 6pm to 9:30pm on Friday evening and from 8:45am to 5:30pm on Saturday. But after helping ourselves to a cup of Keurig coffee and the variety of sweet and salty snacks provided, we were ready to tackle the training! We learned the nitty gritty details of how to organize ESL classes and recruit/train volunteers, how to place students in the appropriate class levels, how to plan out an ESL lesson and effectively teach it, and how to deal with cultural misunderstandings. At the same time we also learned how to incorporate biblical material into our ESL classes. We realized that ESL ministry is more than just about providing quality language classes, but also about building relationships with people, meeting basic human needs, physically demonstrating Christ’s love, and providing a natural setting for sharing the gospel. Oftentimes, ESL ministries also result in new missions and church starts.
But perhaps the most inspiring part of the training seminar for me was the many testimonies that the trainer, Nancy, shared from her 25+ years of involvement in ESL ministry as a lay church member with no professional training in ESL. Here is one that I would like to share with you.
After much prayer and hard work, Nancy finally witnessed the wife of a Chinese couple come to believe in Jesus Christ as a result of attending ESL classes. Even though the husband is not a believer yet, both of them decided to start a weekly bible study at their home. At one point, they were expecting her parents to visit from overseas, and they were hoping that her parents would sit in on the bible studies as well. What they did not realize was that her parents were extremely against Christianity. In fact, they had called the police on a house church just above them in their apartment complex, which led to the church shutting down. As you can imagine, the parents were adamant about not joining the bible studies during their visit. But the Holy Spirit was working! By the second week, the pa rents were eavesdropping from the staircase in the house. By the third week, the parents continued to eavesdrop, this time pretending to clean in the kitchen which was situated closer to the bible study. By the fourth week, they were finally sitting in the bible studies. Her parents eventually became Christians through the bible studies, and returned overseas with the intention to start up the house church that they had originally helped shut down!
I hope this testimony inspires you as well. Our God has literally brought the nations to our doorsteps right here in Germantown, and he desires for us to engage with and transform our community for His namesake! May NCFC take on the call “to love those who are foreigners” (Deut. 10:19).
From Pastor Dave’s Heart
March 6, 2016