China (MNN)–English language ability is in high demand in East Asia. Good conversational English skills open doors to many more employment opportunities.
Teaching English as a Second Language classes in China has also proven to be a seed planting tool for the Gospel.
SEND International’s Robin Pocklington says, “English teaching is an excellent outreach strategy to expose students to Christian friendship, to invite them to church services at those locations where we have a partner church and to build longer-term relationships to share the Gospel in locations where no church is available.”
Not only is it a ‘location’ issue, it’s a timing issue. It’s a time when students are open, and then, Pocklington says, a short-term team comes through. “We’ve found that about a quarter or a third of the students in this college class are asking questions and moving right on through to a place where they make some kind of commitment to Christ.”
Pocklington says not only does the team minister to the Chinese students, but they find themselves opened to new career possibilities. “Time and again we find that a certain percentage of young people who have done a short-term missions trip sense the call of God upon their lives for fuller involvement in missions. Some of them come back as career missionaries. Some of them will spend the rest of their lives in missionary endeavor.”
The vision of SEND East Asia is to reach the unreached Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking people and minority groups in East Asia with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
