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Coventry: Refugees Welcome
Coventry Jesus Centre runs ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes for refugees and immigrants, mainly from Eastern Europe. Julia Faire works at the centre as an ESOL teacher. She writes of her experience.Published: 25th Sep 2015
ANOTHER new ESOL student: so many young men from overseas have arrived in our city over the summer months. He lingers after the class has finished. It’s time to pack up but he wants to stay and, sensing this, I sit down and listen.
Listen … listening is magic.
He tells me his story. A close family member finds he is guilty of illicit activity and informs the police; his life is in danger, he flees to a neighbouring country. There he goes ‘underground’ and finds illegal work; he daren’t appear in public because what if he is found and deported home? Long hours labour, a pittance for pay, sleeping under the work benches of the factory at night; eventually he moves on, working his way...
Comments Read more on the Coventry Jesus Centre site » -
Coventry: A Course to Celebrate
Julia Faire celebrates diversityPublished: 26th Mar 2015
If you’re visiting the chippie today for what you think is a real British meal, please tell yourself that it was refugees fleeing Portugal, France and Spain several hundred years ago who first introduced fish and chips to England!
Comments Read more on the Coventry Jesus Centre site »
I’ve been designing and running a new course at Coventry Jesus Centre: ‘UK: a Mix of Cultures: Imports, Immigrants and Refugees.’ Students are learning English (I’m an ESOL teacher); they’re also learning about the unique and huge contribution immigrants to the UK have made over the years. I’m learning too... I had no idea just how large that contribution was – and it’s a cause to celebrate. -
London: The Need For Celebration
Published: 14th Jan 2015
“DO you have a party I can come to?” she asked.
She needed a place for celebration, for enjoyment, for fun.
There had been little place for that in the dictatorship she had come from.
So I invited her to a party at the Centre. Two parties in fact.
One party I made especially for her, because I knew that she needed it: needed to be loved.
He wanted good news to be given to the poor. But can we cope with a Saviour who is so good that He lavishes His grace and His gifts on those He welcomes into His kingdom?
I made her a little party with presents, food, joy, and it was worth it to see the beginnings of an understanding of the extravagant grace of God in her smiling face.
... Comments Read more on the London Jesus Centre site » -
Northampton: Volunteering is “challenging, but rewarding”
Volunteer Esther is living proof that anyone can do something small to make a big impact, writes Hannah Lantsbery.Published: 22nd Aug 2014
A MUM of two young children, Esther Sohatee, 29, has her hands full with her busy day-to-day life, but that doesn’t stop her doing something positive for others.
Every Wednesday night, Esther leads an English conversation group at the Northampton Jesus Centre, where she helps people that can't afford English lessons and classes to speak better English. The group is free and welcomes anyone. It has been going for about nine months now, and will re-start when the holidays are over.
“The group can be both challenging and rewarding,” Esther explains, “It can be disappointing when there's only a small turnout of people. Because we don't charge anything the number can differ every week.
... Comments Read more on the Northampton Jesus Centre site » -
Coventry: Smiling Through Pain, Somali Asylum Seeker's Story
Erasto arrived in England looking for peace and found it at the Jesus Centre.Published: 18th Apr 2014
“FIGHTING in Somalia is a tradition” said Erasto,* who arrived in the UK from Somalia 15 years ago as an asylum seeker. “People don’t always know what they are fighting about. Our grandfathers were fighting – and we are fighting.
“I came to England hoping for peace. Yes, the UK is peaceful, but the weather is terrible especially when it snows! Africa is just sun and rain, sun and rain.”
Erasto lived for a while in London and Crawley before settling in Coventry in 2003. Some of his friends call him “Smiler”. Why? Because he’s constantly smiling and “always likes to look on the positive side of life” – an amazing feat when you hear his story:
... Comments Read more on the Coventry Jesus Centre site »
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