ESL summary of the past two months

Submitted by Cathy Brady March 8, 2006

126 have registered

111 have come more than one time.

37 women 82 men

7 children

Some of our volunteers such as Tommy Jarrett, Joyce Shrieves, Jennifer Walker, and Cathy Brady have attended all or almost all of the 36 sessions. That's between 72 and 108 service hours in two months, not counting preparation times. Many of our volunteers put in a full day of work, before coming to the evening classes. Lorraine Pica, an ESOL teacher at Bennett Middle School, often comes in feeling exhausted, but says that she is exhilarated after teaching our Thursday night advanced class.

So far our students come from 14 countries: Albania, China, Haiti, Korea, India, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan

They speak 8 languages: Albanian, Chinese Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Hangul (Korean), Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, and Urdu

Since the expanded ESL began on January 2, we have had 36 sessions with a total of 50 classes for beginners, advanced speakers and Sunday school, and 2 faculty prayer meetings. At either the beginning or end of each class we have led the students in prayer in Jesus’ name. For some of the classes students have sung gospel oriented songs such as "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", "Them bones”, and "For the Beauty of the Earth". (At other classes we have sung "This Land is Your Land", "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and, that great educational song, the "Hokey Pokey".)

Most of the classes have been attended by Pastors Kim and Rodriguez along with their wives. Mrs. Kim attends most every session. They were able to form relationships with many of the students. Since we are missionaries first, relationships come first.

Education comes second, a close second. Our teaching is good. Many of our volunteers are experienced certified ESL teachers and/or classroom teachers. But one of our most versatile teachers has no direct teacher training. Teachers have had to be flexible when attendance numbers are never guaranteed and newcomers register every week.

Topics we have covered in the past two months have been:

Ø personal information such as name, address and birthday

Ø months of the year

Ø ordinal numbers

Ø family relationships

Ø personal descriptors (and how "heavy" is more polite than "fat")

Ø anatomy

Ø ... and we've just started focusing on food. (We'll be having potlucks before you know it.)

Cathy gets tired and cranky and knows that this mission cannot run on human steam. She would like to see more prayer happening and more meetings just for the purpose of prayer for this mission.

Attendance has decreased over time. We have not focused on publicity. Many students need transportation. Perhaps some are intimidated by the difficulties of learning English, a language that often does not make sense. This is not discouraging, by any means. Many of our students are working hard and attend faithfully. Many of us have formed friendships with non-Christians that would have been impossible without this mission opportunity. God has given us new opportunities to be a part of His calling souls.