God said in Isaiah 49:6 that it is “too small a thing” for His people to be focused solely on building up their own community but that He wanted them to take His “salvation to the ends of the earth.” Jesus said to His followers in Acts 1:8 ” you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” icc is keen to embrace this global vision and, so far, has had involvement in projects in India and Kenya.

 india

On 5th March 2006 we began praying that when God wanted us as a church to develop overseas involvements this would happen in a natural and definite way, leaving us in no doubt that this was an opportunity that God was opening up for us. Less than one week later a telephone call was received from an Indian national who was visiting Ipswich and had seen one of our Alpha posters in a town centre window. He was seeking some very specific assistance with projects which he had initiated in and around Delhi and our poster and website had persuaded him that we might be able to provide what was needed.

Following on from that telephone conversation friendships and connections developed which resulted in people from the church making visits to various parts of India and a family moving there for a time, to pursue a number of projects in Delhi and West Bengal.

burmese refugees in delhi
icc has had some input into the substantial Burmese refugee community in Delhi, assisting with the setting up of a centre to provide the teaching of English as a foreign language and IT training, specifically geared to this people group.

kenya

During 2008/9, Becky, then a member of ipswich community church and a student at Oxford Brookes University, together with her friend Siobhan campaigned for a Channel 4 project called Battlefront. They were filmed for a half an hour documentary about their exciting journey, which was aired on Channel 4 in 2009.

Their campaign was entitled ‘Make a BIG change with your small change ‘ and stemmed from their experiences of working in a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where thousands of children are unable to afford school, yet as little as 15p can send a child to school for a whole day! It aimed to help people to realise the immense difference each of us really can make in our world, even by doing something so simple as collecting our small change in a pot each day. Their goal is that as many people as possible will find a cause that they truly believe in and want to support, and will collect their small change, to make a massive difference to that cause.

Arising from this campaign, members of icc have become involved in a sponsorship scheme funding the education of children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Nairobi.