The Call to Reach the Nations: “The nations are at our doorstep.”
“The nations are at our doorstep.”
Cassie Roberts is Chief Executive and co-founder of Open Doors International Language School (ODILS) in Plymouth. In the second of 3 blogs, she continues their story.
Waiting is never easy, especially when you are really looking forward to whatever you are waiting for. For us, it was waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promise “to bring the nations to us” and, even though we didn’t know exactly how that would look, we were excited. When God holds us in a period of waiting it is always for a reason, and often that reason has something to do with the preparing work that He is doing in us. A waiting period does not mean you just sit and do nothing while you wait. Our four year waiting period, between when the Lord told us to stay and when He actually began to bring the nations to us, while challenging, was instrumental in strengthening our faith and preparing us for what He planned. During that time we planted where we were and set up a mission group; meeting with other believers to pray for the nations and for the international students in Plymouth. We continued to look for opportunities to engage with and build relationships with those from other nations in Plymouth, although at the time they were few in number.
Two years into this waiting period we heard the Lord telling us to ‘Prepare’. We believed the time was coming where He would begin to bring the nations to us. One practical way was for me to take the Trinity Cert TESOL course, qualifying me to teach English. Later that year, Plymouth became a designated dispersal city and there was a large influx of Asylum Seekers. By having the Cert TESOL, I was quickly employed to teach some of the first Asylum Seekers who arrived. As they continued to arrive, and with the City ill-equipped for this shift in demographics, I was soon given the job of Refugee and Asylum Seeker Coordinator.
In the summer of 2001, we felt the Lord give us a vision and tell us to ‘write it down so that others can run with it’. The vision that He gave us was threefold: to reach the nations on your doorstep, to train and equip the saints, and to use this as a model for church planting. In October that year we became a registered charity called Open Doors International Language School. Our hope was to be a safe place for those from the nations to come and learn English along with other skills to enable them to settle into life in the UK. Since that starting point, we estimate that we have taught over 8000 people, with more than 80% of them originally from the 10/40 Window. We also received registration as a Teacher Training Centre and have trained 360 people to teach English. Over half of which are Christians who have gone out with the Gospel, using their Cert TESOL as a key to open up doors to the nations both in the UK and overseas.
The Lord is so faithful, and as we look at the journey we have been on so far it is clear that His hand has been in it all. He was often preparing us for opportunities to serve and reach the nations that have been greater than we could ever have imagined. He continues to open doors for us as the demographics not only in our City but in the entire Nation continue to change. The nations are at our doorstep, are you prepared to step outside and step into the opportunities that the Lord has for you?
For more information about ODILS please visit www.odils.com
For more information about the Cert TESOL please visit www.onlinetesolcourses.com or contact Chris at 01752 258770 or cwilson@odils.com
