I didn’t grow up in a religious family but was open to spiritual things and as a teenager started asking all the big ‘life’ questions. I always wanted to please and had high standards for my life, but I also lived with shame and guilt for my mistakes. I was a failed perfectionist! When I realised God loved me and wanted to forgive me it was amazing - I discovered grace! Now I’m free from striving for acceptance and everytime I mess up God gives me a fresh start. My life has been totally transformed.

If you are an international student studying in London, we would love you to come and visit us at Emmanuel church. We want to be a church full of different languages and cultures and want to help people new to the city make friends and feel at home. We run an ‘English corner‘ just next to the Greenwich university maritime campus to help international students with language, culture and simply finding their way around.

We love having children and families coming to Emmanuel church. Usually you will be greeted by one of our kids team and shown the area where their activities take place. The 0-11s stay in the meeting for about 15 mins and then go to their groups where they are looked after by trained and police checked volunteers from the church. All the children eat a light tea provided by the church at around 5.30 and are ready to collect at the end of the meeting.

At the moment we have 2 regular groups:

Emmanuel tots (0-3) - mostly free play with a short bible story or activity

Emmanuel kids (3+) - a mixture of play, songs, teaching and activities.

Feel free to be in touch if you would like to ask any questions about the childrens groups.

Starting in October we plan to run a parenting course based around the content of the book ‘Shepherding a child’s heart.’ The book is brilliant and focuses in on how the gospel shapes our thinking and our practice as parents. The evenings will be once a month over an extended period and will be suitable for anyone who wants to raise their kids according to biblical truth.

London is full of students, all of whom need to hear the life changing message of the gospel and be trained and equipped to make a difference in the world we live in. Our heart is to welcome in many students and help them to follow Jesus through their time with us by involving them in the life of the church. Our prayer is that we can play a major part in helping the students in London to impact the universities and colleges across the city by lifting up the name of Jesus.

Our first offering we took as a church was to go to a group of churches in Kenya who were responding to the massive need of displaced people on the back of the political violence that took place earlier this year. We sent several thousand pounds to help them house the homeless, feed the hungry and care for the bereaved. For more information on the churches and their work visit www.edfri.org