VES Team End of Week Update - In it for the Long Haul

Dear wonderful VES team,

I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and thank you for a really fantastic final week before half term!

Please note: there are NO VES classes next week for half term, and we are also taking Monday 1st June as an additional pause - so classes will restart on Tuesday 2nd June.

It has been another full, fruitful, and encouraging week across VES: busy classes, warm welcomes, students taking good next steps, creche soaring, youth drop-in going well, and the team once again carrying the scale of the school with amazing generosity and care.

Spotlight this week: In it for the long haul

There have been plenty of headlines in the UK again this week about migration and asylum numbers. We know these things matter. National policy decisions affect real people, including many of those we know and love at VES. None of us are untouched by the environment we operate in, and we pray for and participate in the political processes we are part of.

At the same time, this week I'm again grateful that VES has never been driven by the news cycle. VES was serving before migration and asylum became such a huge political football, and we will still be here when the media conversation moves on. Ultimately, we're serving another Kingdom so our basic VES calling remains:

to welcome people,to serve people,and to help people take good next steps.

We are trying to love our neighbours well, in the manner of the Good Samaritan. There is a verse in Galatians that says: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” This ministry, like most that matter, is a marathon not a sprint. It is faithful, steady, long-haul work.

So I've also been thinking this week about the people who have carried this ministry not just for weeks or months, but for years and years. Several members of the team are now around the decade (!!) mark of serving at VES — Liz, Dave, Jan, Lesley… I’m looking at you! Many others have been faithfully involved for years now - that is remarkable!

That kind of “long obedience in the same direction”, steady presence, and quiet faithfulness week in, week out is a beautiful thing! It is what has taken us from stopping by and serving cold drinks on the street, to one of the largest church based esol ministries in the UK - making a tangible difference in many many lives. It is a signpost to the faithfulness of God in people's lives. Thank you!

Full house last Monday - many students arriving 20 minutes before the class to secure their favourite seat!

Key dates — please read carefully

Half term break — NO classes next week - Monday 25th May – Friday 29th May

Additional pause — NO classes on Monday 1st June

Classes restart on Tuesday 2nd June.

Summer finish date: Our last full week of VES classes will align with most Croydon schools, finishing on Thursday 16th July.  There will be a light touch ‘summer VES’ through August, that we will outline that in due course.

VES Dashboard — Week at a Glance

● 19 classes delivered across 4 days
● Plus 3 creche sessions and 1 youth drop-in
● 263 student sessions enabled
● 66 team sessions given
● Weekly participation number: 391 — second highest week ever!
● +85% increase on this time last year

Behind each of those numbers is a person being welcomed, taught, encouraged, helped, and given a place to belong.