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by David and Maura Baldwin

I know about Jesus, but I heard in my country that God also had another son, and he was the devil. What do you have to say about that? asked Richard, a southern African diplomat serving here in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

What would you have said? The fact that Richard had an open Bible on his lap made answering his question more easy … if easy is the right word. Well, the discussion just took off from there: How can we trust the Bible? Does God know and determine absolutely everything about our lives?

Since SELS (SIM English Language School) got off the ground about a year and a half ago, we have welcomed students from Bolivia, Japan, China, Ecuador, Korea, Laos, Somalia, Ukraine, Brazil, Congo and Cameroon, as well as all manner of Ethiopian nationals.

Learning English is such fun, and the classrooms are full of laughter and happiness; people feel comfortable together at SELS. (OK, the students don’t always do their homework but you can’t have everything!)

As I write this and you read it, we both take for granted the language we’re using. English is a wonderful tool. People all over the world are desperate to learn the tongue that you can dream in without even thinking about it, the language that can take you anywhere. 

English is an 'open door'

This is not lost on the Ethiopian government, which is actively pushing ESL. Teaching English is a great contribution to make to any country, and that’s not all. It’s an open door to people you’d never ordinarily even meet. It’s an opportunity to make friends, form relationships and share the love of Christ.

SELS trips remind me of the Sunday school outings I enjoyed as a child; family fun, excited chatter, gambling on the weather, decrepit old buses, enjoying a picnic together. The students always listen so attentively as the gospel is explained at these events.

Lucy heard the Easter story for the first time on a mountainside near Addis and her eyes grew wide. She kept moving closer and closer to the speaker, hanging on every word. 

Now she’s gone …. she left us holding a Chinese Bible we’d found for her, and flew back home. Who knows if she’ll ever hear the gospel again? You never know how long your opportunities will last.

On Saturday mornings it’s always hard to get out of bed. ‘The old man’ would far rather watch Grandstand in a dressing gown than lead a Christianity Explored class at SELS.

Richard, our diplomat friend, also confessed to a late night and a tricky emergence from under the covers. I felt that God was calling me here this morning, he concluded. We feel that too. 

One of the more enjoyable aspects of being involved with people through ESL is watching them take responsibility for their own learning. The challenge to communicate this is all the more acute in cultures where classroom rote learning is the norm. 

Our resources

Here at SELS we have really enjoyed setting up a fledgling Language Access Centre, where our students can come, sit and access the English language for themselves through books, journals, audio cassettes and interactive CD ROMs.

All the equipment is in place, but our library book shelves are a little like something Old Mother Hubbard might have put together. 

Our specific need is to purchase graded readers and other ESL resource materials. We’d like to invite you to partner with us in this initiative.

If you’d like to help, please send your gift to SIM-UK, marked for project 92790.

Interested in serving at SELS?