A hunger to study the Bible

By Bindy Taylor
Editor-in-Chief & Communications Officer

Posted Apr 15, 2016 in Faith

On two evenings each week, Parafield Uniting Church becomes a melting pot for people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures as they join together to study the Bible. These sessions are held for people for whom English is a second language and are coordinated by Karen Vanlint, the CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) Coordinator at Uniting College of Leadership and Theology. The students who attend are passionate followers of Christ who wish to study the Bible and grow to maturity, perhaps to become leaders in their own churches.

Uniting College was inspired to start this work after seeing a need for an avenue to study the Bible in easy English for new arrivals to Adelaide. The most recent group of students are mostly Burmese and worship at the Adelaide Falam Chin Church, who meet in Salisbury three times a week. Other students this year are Iranian, Indian and Vietnamese.

The students asked for two evening classes, and Karen believes more could be opened in the future to accommodate students from other areas. 

“They are hungry to study the Bible. Three current students have been looking forward to the class from their camp on the Burmese border and started attending after only being in Australia for a week!” says Karen.

“It is a privilege to be working with such passionate students.”

Karen is working hard to ensure the material she delivers is both relevant and comprehensible, but recognises that the students, and even herself, are all on a “steep learning curve”.

One of the attendees, Zing, is a single parent who, with her three children, came to Adelaide from Burma in 2013 after her husband passed away. One of Zing’s friends was studying the Bible in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class with Karen and suggested that Zing should come along, too. Zing was fearful about her English, worried that she wouldn’t understand 100% of the class. But she came along to the classes anyway, as it was her dream to study the Bible in English. Now Zing is fulfilling that dream, and she goes home happy every week after the class.

Thang is another refugee from Burma who has been in Adelaide since 2007. He left his home country at risk of being arrested by the Government, fleeing to India, Thailand and then Malaysia, where he spent ten years before obtaining his Australian visa. His faith is central to who he is, but he also needs to support his four children so he spends his days working as a welder. Thang is hoping to study ministry in the evening once the ESL course finishes.

Thang is a member of the Falam Chin Church and is very proud of the community they have built in Adelaide. The church has two major goals for the future – establishing their own church building (they currently share a building with Seventh Day Adventists in Salisbury) and establishing missional outreach in Burma and India. Thang shares these hopes and dreams.

Both Thang and Zing feel blessed to be living in Australia and to have an opportunity to study the Bible in English with Karen’s expertise.

For more information about the ESL Bible classes, please email Karen at Turn on Javascript! or contact the Uniting College office on 8416 8420.

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