Small church draws big crowds
with weekly classes in English
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___DALLAS--Spanish-speaking people have been moving into the neighborhoods around Park Central Baptist Church in north Dallas, and God laid a vision on the hearts of church members to offer classes to teach these newcomers English.
___They did, but they got more than they expected. More than 140 adults from 24 language groups came to the Thursday night classes at the church, located near I-635 and Coit Road.
___"Our people were just amazed," said Howard Fadner, associate pastor. "We're learning
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ETHEL LEWIS (right) involves a student in role-playing during an English as a Second Language class at Park Central Baptist Church.
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more and more about ourselves and the area around us."
___Park Central volunteers spent the late winter and springtime teaching ESL classes--English as a Second Language--at three levels, with multiple classes as the number of students grew.
___The church was "really overwhelmed, in a good way," Fadner said. "We found a way where we're on mission and serving our community again."
___This mission began in the heart of one woman, Ethel Lewis.
___Someone had approached her about needing help in learning to read English. She then saw an advertisement in the Baptist Standard regarding literacy training, and she signed up.
___The instructor, Ruby Drye, spoke about how ESL classes provide an opportunity to reach out to people, Lewis said. "All of a sudden, it just felt like the Lord was talking to me, saying, 'I want you to do this.'"
___Her response: "Who, me?"
___Drye, a Mission Service Corps volunteer working as a literacy missions consultant
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DANIEL WEBB tells a Bible story to children of ESL students.
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with Dallas Baptist Association, had stressed that "the most important part of beginning a ministry was it had to be based in prayer," Lewis said. That's what she did; and when she felt certain of God's leading, Lewis went before the church and got approval and the support of others willing to volunteer.
___Forty-one students enrolled the first week, and more came in following weeks as word spread around the community.
___"He made it happen," Lewis said of God's working. "He made the students come."
___Enrollment topped 140 by late March, with average attendance at 60 to 65. "They're working people," Lewis said of the students. "They can't come every night, but they show up when they can."
___Quickly, the students and teachers bonded.
___When students ask why the workers do it, they respond, "We want you to know the love of Jesus," Lewis said.
___Some students arrive with the look of excitement in their eyes; others appear more self-conscious and timid. As for the volunteers from Park Central, they smile a lot, enjoying ministry to people they didn't know just weeks before.
___"The workers are wonderful," Lewis said. "They're so faithful, and the students just love them."
___The students "reach out and grab your heart and won't let go," she said. The teachers are "all so excited, and they take that excitement into the classroom. ... It shows."
___Teachers of ESL do not have to know other languages, Lewis said. They use materials prepared by the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board and attend training provided by Dallas Baptist Association.
___"We're a small church," Lewis said. "This is something that probably you would think we would not be able to do."
___But they are, and she hopes other churches will consider it as well. "All they have to do is pray about it, and if it's God's will, it will happen."
___ESL is one of three literacy ministries, said Drye, the Dallas Association literacy consultant. The other two are adult reading and writing, and tutoring children and youth. About 70 churches in the association are involved in one of the ministries.
___"It isn't easy work, and there has to be a commitment there," she said. "This isn't a quick fix; ... This is long term."
___The success of Park Central's ESL program "has to do with the prayer that was put into it before the program was ever started," Drye said. "It has to do with the focus, the commitment and the leadership of the Holy Spirit."
___It has to be "bathed in prayer and in the leadership of the Lord ... because you understand that when you start a literacy ministry you are going to come in contact with people you never would have met under any other circumstance," Drye said. "The mission field comes to your door."
___A potluck dinner and presentation of ESL certificates in May marked the end of the first training cycle at Park Central. One of the advanced students asked to speak on behalf of the others, Lewis said. He thanked the church for opening its doors and the workers for opening their hearts.
___Some of the families are now attending church at Park Central, and several of the children accepted Christ as Savior during Vacation Bible School.
___The church is now looking toward the fall, when ESL classes will resume and other literacy ministries will be started.
___ Ethel Lewis (right) involves a student in role-playing during an English as a Second Language class at Park Central Baptist Church.
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