My Placement experience

We have worked along side Pastor John for the last 2 weeks.

Somebody had asked me if I am excited about placement and I honestly would have said, that excitement is probably the wrong word.

But I was looking forward to it, to see how different the Asian culture would be from the African.

Both cultures are very relational, very relationship oriented. I could see that in their actions.

One day, early in the beginning of our placement, John while he was talking to us was looking at his watch two times. At this point in time I did not have a relationship with him, so I did not feel comfortable to ask. I am still not quite sure if this was a sign of: Oh, I have something else to do and because I am relational I can’t say it, or maybe it was just a normal thing for him to do.

It was very interesting for me to see that John doesn’t really address things straight out. Like with food, even though he said he would provide food for us food, we did not get anything. So when we brought our own packed lunch, he offered us some food. Sometimes it is a bit awkward when we don’t really know what his next plans are with us and what he is thinking. I guess after getting to know him better, we could just ask him. Later in the second week, I would ask him in the beginning of the day what is plans are with us, so confusion on our part would be prevented.
Pastor John asks us to bring a little message for Sunday and he asks us what we would like to share. After a while we find out, that actually he has already a theme for Sunday, and it would be great it our message would be in line with his. So we asked him, just to tell us what he is preaching about and we will go with the flow. His topic was: ‘God has promised forgiveness to the Penitent’. I actually had to look up the word Penitent. We thought it was quite hilarious.


One evening we went to an Asian prayer meeting which was very powerful. For me it was very encouraging to see such a small group of people praying with their whole heart and with a ‘free spirit’ worshiping the living God.


I enjoyed very much the ESOL (English for speakers of other languages). I helped a few girls to write and pronounce words. It was great to see 12 or more people coming together from different backgrounds (Iraq, Pakistan, China, India…) wanting to learn English. Especially one lady caught my attention: she was dressed in her burka. This was my first time ever that I could talk with women like her and also the next session she was sitting right by my side. So I helped her with her English. I wish, that they could have the ESOL in the afternoon, so I could join for long-term, to build relationships with the women and to get to know them. Funny was though, that I taught a few girl to speak English with a German accent :-)

A few days we visited a few families from church, which was very good. Just to get to know them a bit and to hear their stories: what and why they are in England, how long they have been here, what struggle they face etc. For example, in one small house lives a young couple with 6 other single men together. He goes all day to work and she is at home with most of them. She hasn’t found a job yet. They told us that they saved up a lot of money to come to England, the land where honey and milk flows. Now they are here the reality hid and all they could think of was packing their suitcase to fly straight back home to India. It reminded me of my time in America, where I couldn’t speak the language and I had a difficult time. All what I could do at this point was to pray for them and to encourage them and share from my own experience.

A challenge for me was and will be to find the balance between appointments and relationships. When to I have to let the one thing go in order that I can serve the person in front of me. Or when is my meeting more important than the person I am speaking to now.

Also when I am in Africa, it will take a while to get accustomed to peoples style of life, how they address issues, especially when they talk around the bush (which they will do :-).

What impressed me the most was probably the commitment both, Pastor John and especially his wife Florence, show to the people around them and the church. They reach out into their community, not only to church members.
Florence is working 5 nights a week in a hospital and still after coming home from a 12 hour shift if there is a need from any of the church members she would go and talk to them, and afterwards she would go to bed and sleep.
Also, people from Church can contact Pastor John around the clock even it is 11pm in the night. They did not have a lot of vacation during the time they are here in England. He says, that this is this fulltime job. How amazing, they both have such a giving and serving heart.

All together it was a very good experience and I enjoyed my time. And I am positive that we will be back to visit them both, our new friends and the church.