King’s Lynn church sharing love through language
The Gateway Church in King’s Lynn host a weekly international café for refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers to learn English, and life skills, make friends, and share food together.
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Gateway iCaf runs every term-time Tuesday offering a safe and welcoming place for refugees and others to meet and learn conversational English. It is led by a qualified TEFL teacher and local volunteers who help with befriending and hospitality.
Andy Moyle from the church said: “Our Gateway iCaf on Tuesday mornings gathers internationals in a safe and welcoming place to make friends and learn conversational English. We gather Ukrainian refugees and Turkish mostly.
“Some of our Ukrainians come every Sunday to our church services – we are setting up translation equipment to interpret our services. We are also running an Alpha course on Sunday evenings for Ukrainians too!”
The group started the year learning vocabulary by discussing the process of getting through an airport and onto a plane. The learning of language and skills is always accompanied by food and drink: “In February our Turkish ladies demonstrated their coffee and sweets, and then we taught on buying second hand items from websites like Facebook Marketplace,” said Andy.
The church also facilitates free English lessons on Saturday mornings that have been funded with a grant from a local charity. The lessons, run by Sarah and Iryna, are in a classroom style and they have students from Turkey, Bangladesh, Ukraine and other nations joining every Saturday during term time.
In a similar effort to help and equip, the church has organised an Additional Needs and the Church training session at St John’s in King’s Lynn on Saturday March 23 at 6:30pm.
“It is an essential seminar for all parents, teachers, church leaders, youth and children's leaders, and anyone who cares about children, young people, and young adults with special or additional needs,” said Andy.
The event is free to attend but booking is required.
Find out more and book online: thegatewaychurch.info/additional-needs-training
thegatewaychurch.info/international-cafe
iCaf images courtesy of The Gateway Church