One focus of our community center activities here is English classes. I currently teach English every Tuesday and Thursday at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., in the same space that we rent as a church on Sunday. On June 13 and 15, we’re going to extend the teaching time to 1-3 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. when a group of 26 from Mt. Calvary Church joins us!
Why teach English? Why do any sort of community center outreach, for that matter? Such activities establish community; little by little a new “oikos” is formed (not the Cam Newton yogurt kind, but the basic social unit kind). As classes progress, a relationship forms, a camaraderie. We begin to laugh at ourselves, begin to enjoy being together. The teacher (me) with a group of 20-25 people (total both classes), none of which go to church, and none of which I would have met otherwise.
So we learn English, and as the class ends, I always say this: If you are interested, we have church here, right here, on Sundays at 11 a.m. It would be great to see you.
So far…only one person has gone to church. But I indeed hope that we’ll soon see more of these students realize that maybe going to a Christian church isn’t so crazy of an idea.
The video below: a short greeting to Abby Chennels, who taught class for a couple of weeks.
The day we helped with Spanish to English vocabulary is a great memory of mine.