On Thursday nights my church provides dinner and low-cost, college-curriculum ESL (English as a Second Language) classes to the community. Some of the reasons I serve:
- I was often the new kid.
By 8th grade, my parents had enrolled me in seven schools in four states. I always admired the children bold enough to step out of their routines and friend groups to show this stranger the ropes. Their hospitality made a lasting impression.
Conversely, right before high school we moved again, and it felt like we’d maneuvered our green Dodge Caravan unintentionally behind enemy lines. This move was 1,500 miles away and my new classmates didn’t let me forget I was an outsider. We’d landed in the heart of Amish country where many of the same families had lived for generations.
Though I experienced a cool reception for the first two years, the coaches, teens and teachers who eventually welcomed me were a lifeline.
Being new is hard, and I want our ESL students to feel welcome.
- God cares deeply about new people.
At a low point in high school I started reading my Bible – only to find out God cared about new kids like me!
The visitor, the stranger, the foreigner – this group is mentioned many times in the Old Testament and God’s people were repeatedly charged to show care and concern for them. In fact, the Israelites themselves were foreigners several times in their history.
After the Israelites escaped from Egypt, the Lord told them through Moses in Exodus 22:21, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” In Leviticus, God commanded the people to leave part of their crops at harvest for the poor and stranger who might need them. In Deuteronomy 10, Moses describes the Lord as loving and providing for the foreigner.
He reminds them they were foreigners in Egypt and calls them to also love foreigners. Psalm 146:9 tells us the Lord watches over the foreigner. Lastly, in Ezekiel 22:29, Israel is condemned for mistreating the foreigner and denying them justice.
If the Lord is for the stranger or foreigner, I want to be too.
- Strangers = Neighbors
God didn’t only address the topic of strangers in the Old Testament. In Galatians 5:14 in the New Testament, we learn that the entire Old Testament law can be summed up by loving our neighbors as ourselves. In Luke 10, the story of the good Samaritan affirms that we can’t limit our definition of neighbor. Our “neighbors” don’t have to look like us, think like us, dress like us, eat like us, worship like us – and still we are called to love them.
- So Families Can Flourish
If you’ve visited a country where you don’t speak the language or can’t speak it well, you know how complicated the most mundane tasks can be. Filling out a form. Buying food. Asking and receiving directions. Everything is easier when we can communicate with the people around us. Helping adults learn English can be a path to dignity, confidence, citizenship, education and upward mobility. Those things are not just good for the learner, but their family and community too.
- It’s Soo Funny and Fun!
I don’t consider our ESL students to be “students” per se, but rather friends. As we get to know each other, ESL becomes a safe place for us all to learn and laugh. There are so many opportunities for funny mix-ups when we try to overcome language barriers. Lots of things sound similar in English but aren’t related – like condos, condoms and condominiums.
In my level one class, we once spent an entire lesson on ordering pizza. I had originally planned to mention it and move on, but we all quickly realized this was a skill everyone in class wanted to master but was too nervous to try. When it came time to list typical pizza topping options in America, they had some wild guesses! After we got the pronunciations down, I almost wore out my pinkie-finger-and-thumb phone that night playing an employee at Papa Johns or Pizza Hut or Domino’s. They can now all order a pizza!
- To Lighten Loads
Many ESL students have experienced trauma and/or hardship. Backstories often naturally comes up during our conversations about home, and to the extent they want to share, I’m ready to listen.
In January of 2022, an Afghani family of five showed up, fresh off a months-long stay at a U.S. military base. The previous August, they’d been some of the “lucky” ones to escape the chaos at the Kabul airport.
That day as the crowd pushed toward the gates and her husband was knocked unconscious by a tear gas cannister, the matriarch of the family screamed for help when her special-needs infant turned blue from the fumes. The baby was passed to a soldier over the gate and the rest of them were ushered in. They all received medical attention and the next day caught one of the last American military planes out with only the clothes on their backs. So sudden was her decision to flee – prompted by seeing social media reports of her husband’s employer, President Ashraf Ghani, escaping – that she hadn’t packed diapers. When her family arrived in the U.S., they had to navigate a foreign healthcare system to continue their oldest child’s cancer treatments, as well as using Uber to get there.
Another ESL friend explained she journeyed 50 days by herself to escape the violence in her Central American country. When I asked what that was like, she glanced past me for a minute and then just simply said “hard.” The look on her face communicated it was so much more.
Even if a student doesn’t have a harrowing escape story and has lived in the U.S. for many years, not having the opportunity or ability to study English has created its own hardship. Sometimes people just need a listening ear.
- The End-of-Year Potluck
My last point was originally going to be “We Become Like Family,” and we do. And my family can COOK! For our last class of the spring semester, everyone brings a dish from his or her home country. It is a world buffet unmatched and my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Someone once told me God doesn’t waste pain, and in my own life, I’ve found that to be true.
After years of being the new kid, the first day of my high school senior year provided me with an unexpected role reversal: I was paired with an exchange student from Tokyo. By then I had the scoop on everything Masahiro Nakashima needed to know. Seeing him experience the U.S. through the lens of his background was fascinating and I was hooked. A few years later I began volunteering with ESL classes near my college campus.
Since then, I’ve had the opportunity and thrill to befriend strangers from all over the world because they moved to my city. What a gift.
For information about the ESL ministry at Central Bible Church, see Central ESL.