Last September, Norma Powell and Karen Dahlberg attended a TEX (Teaching English with Excellence) workshop in the Rio Grande Valley, and by February, they were off and running with their own ESL program at First Baptist Church Los Fresnos.

Norma had served with her husband on the mission field in Venezuela for 30 years, and had taught ESL before. She said, "I pretty much knew what I was getting into, but you always think, this is kind of scary . . . this is a big responsibility." Karen stepped up to co-direct the program, with no prior ESL or Spanish language experience. But God had laid it on their hearts to meet a need in their church.

Norma, raising her left hand at last fall's Rio Grande Valley TEX workshop

FBC Los Fresnos is a bilingual church, with an 8:30 Sunday morning service in Spanish, and an 11:00 service in English. Some of the Spanish-speaking members had expressed a desire to communicate in English with their church brothers and sisters, and Norma and Karen responded. 

They decided to limit the classes to their own church for the first year. Twelve adult students enrolled and nine have consistently attended, split between levels one and two. No matter how they choose to move forward after this year, we know that they're already building relationships and changing lives.  

ESL ministry is an evangelistic tool that meets a need, builds a relationship and gives the opportunity to share the love of Christ. As members of the Christian community we should care about people as individuals, and therefore want to help them.

FBC Los Fresnos is doing just that, benefiting English language learners and, at the same time, experiencing the blessing of being a blessing. "It's very rewarding helping my fellow sisters and brothers," Karen said. "You can see their confidence. They'll greet you in English and take it as far as they can."

Is your church ready to explore the challenges and rewards of ESL ministry? Check out our line-up of TEX trainings coming this fall, shown below, and sign up today!