We are striving to develop personal and gospel-motivated relationships with people in our community from all walks of life. As we open our lives and our home, we will do our best to physically show and verbally share the gospel of Christ with our new friends. We will rejoice together with the angels in heaven when some of these friends become brothers and sisters in Christ! - Mark 10:28-31; Luke 15:10
In light of our goal to create a unified multicultural church family, we believe English will be the most effective primary language for our ministry. After living and ministering in Brazil for eighteen years, our family understands the overwhelming benefits of learning and communicating in the predominant language of the country in which you reside. We became fluent in Portuguese, and can not imagine what our experience would have been like if we had limited our circles of spiritual fellowship and support to just the English-speaking community in Brazil.
We will endeavor to include non-native English speakers in the church family by offering the following as the Lord allows: language-specific small group classes each Sunday, language-specific small groups during the week, and an ongoing program geared to help non-native English speakers learn English or improve their English skills. The goal of these efforts will be to help the international community attending our church become fully integrated into our local church family as well as into the American society around them.
When possible, we plan to utilize interpreters and smart phone apps whereby those who still have difficulty understanding English can participate in the English services but also hear the message being interpreted into their own language.
We will work to recruit host families to reach out to the international and dorm students at KSU by inviting these students into their homes for home-cooked meals, special holidays and more.
As the Lord provides opportunities, we pray that the community will see and hear Christ through all of us as we seek ways to serve and connect with our local community.