Eden for Internationals

A guide to Eden for those new to the UK

The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:34 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. Revelation 7:9

A big welcome to you if you are new to the UK. We hope you will enjoy your time in Cambridge, and at Eden.

The verses at the top of the page summarise our hopes for internationals at Eden. We long that newcomers, and people who are not from the UK will be loved and looked after in our church. We want to include you in all that we do, and we seek to support you as you live away from family and friends.

We know that God wants people from every nation to know and follow Him, and so we have a passion to see this starting to happen in our church. We know that it doesn't matter to God whether we are British, or whether we were born somewhere else.

At Eden we want you to feel at home in the church and to feel a part of it, so we encourage you to get involved in whatever ways you would like to, even if they are not specifically for internationals. See the list of activities on the left of the page to see what you would like to join. There are things for people of all ages: children, young people, students, mums, families and older people. We hope you make lots of friends in these groups.

However, we also recognise that one way we can support internationals at Eden is by bringing you together with other internationals, so that you can support and help each other. So we do have a few specific things for internationals:

• Three or four times a year we organise an international lunch, for any internationals at Eden to come together for food and to meet each other. Look out for these being advertised in church services and the church bulletin.
• International women are invited to the International Women's Group. There is also the opportunity to find out more about the Bible with ladies from this group.
• International students are invited to the weekly student supper after the Sunday evening service, with all the other students. You can also sign up to read the Bible with an older Christian, and to be linked with a family home for meals once or twice a term. There are often other meetings and gatherings for international students that happen throughout the year. To find out more about student life at Eden, click here. International students are also welcome to the Wednesday International Fellowship.

There are many other things for internationals in Cambridge. There are cafes for you to make friends and to practise your English, there are Bible discussion groups to find out more about Christianity, and there are one-off events and holidays throughout the year. For more information about these, click here.

I hope you are richly blessed during your time in Cambridge and at Eden, and I hope to meet you soon!

Zoe Newby Eden International Worker