The VES Origin Story

The genesis of VES came in the early days of Croydon Vineyard around 2015. The church had a heart to be good news to the people of Croydon, and show Jesus’ compassion to the last, the least and the lost. An obvious place to start was the queue outside Lunar House…

Lunar House, in central Croydon, is one of the ‘front doors’ to the UK - where people claim asylum in the UK for the first time. There were regularly queues of people outdoor waiting to start their applications so Phil Greaves and a small team from CV started to go and offer teas and coffees to the people there. Many conversations started, and offers of prayer and practical help soon followed.

It became obvious that one of the key needs of the people there was help with English language education. This is even more pronounced as people are not eligible for government language provision until they have been in the country for 6 months. Caroline Greaves and a small team borrowed a backroom of a local church hall and began offering free conversational English language classes in order to be a blessing and demonstrate the compassion of Jesus. VES grew and developed from that one small class.

We want to mark this beginning. At its heart VES is a ministry of welcome and compassion done in Jesus name as part of Croydon Vineyard Church. We want to offer excellent educational provision, but we will always be ‘more than a language school’. We always welcome, we always seek to show compassion, we always want to share the good news about the Kingdom of God.