Funny moment from our last week of English For Missions.

We were watching a few videos on line dancing during our break (I don’t remember how we got onto that topic.) I looked over at Valya and said, “Valya you would make a great cowgirl.” She had started to walk toward the door but stopped and gave me a confused look. “This has something to do with cows? Cow and girl?”

We all burst into laughter as we imagined the sort of thoughts that were going through Valya’s mind. We explained that a cowboy and cowgirl are people who work with cows, not look like cows. Apparently she always wondered why we said cowboys…

Once upon a time, I had the fun privilege of visiting an after school/work tutoring program that runs in the center of the city. A strong king invites people to come and pay to be part of a class for extra English lessons. This is open to kids, fairies, and adults a like! I have been in contact with one teacher and a shepherdess who has asked me a couple of times to come and be a part of her class. My most recent visit involved me and a talking shoe to take part in one of their teacher seminars and afterwards teaching a short lesson in a classroom in a cave.

Speaking to teachers (not in a cave)

I like to use a fun little game called Once Upon a Time when I teach. This is a game that is all about storytelling as you may have gathered. Stories usually sound like the one above, just complete nonsense. (The previous story is true if you take out the randomness.)

Making a storyline

Students have fun learning to create a story based on cards that they drew from a deck. The objective of the game is to weave a tale using storytelling cards you pulled from a deck to arrive at a predetermined ending. These can range from a wide variety of cards, you can have words like strong or weak, king or queen, forest or castle, fairy or giant, ruins or broken… the list goes on. The ending of the story is also chosen from a deck of possible endings. You can have the classic, ‘and the lived happily ever after,’ or ‘the evildoers were thrown into a well and never heard of again,’ or perhaps ‘and he picked up his weapon and went on his way.’ There are many options but you can only arrive at one ending!

Sharing the rough draft

My time at the tutoring program was fun. Students created stories that had magical changing forests, armies of devils, and sleeping beauties. They were very creative and ready to share. I look forward to being able to come and partner with this program in the future!

Working hard on stories

Our 2013 school year has begun!

5 Staff and 1 student

As some of you know, this year we have just ONE amazing student. We started with several applications and people claiming that they will come, but slowly one by one people cancelled, their plans changed or I simply never heard from them again.

We spent time in prayer wondering if the school should continue? Should we cancel? Should we change the dates? We were inundated with questions and doubts.  As we prayed though, all doubt vanished. We were 100% sure that God wanted the school to continue no matter how many students came.

As the time drew near for the start of the school we had one student who seemed determined to come. I emailed her and let her know that she may be the only student and should feel free to reconsider if she did not want to do the school alone. I did not hear back for awhile, but when I did she wrote that she had bought her ticket here! Ok, I guess that means we have a school!

We of course have had to readjust lessons, activities, and plans to fit having only one student. Lucky for our student, she gets to have every lesson tailored to her needs. God made a way for her to be here financially and with other plans. It really is a miracle that she is here! She is so happy to be here and we are blessed to have her.

This past week we held an English camp for kids. We had gone back and forth on whether or not we should have a theme. We eventually landed on virtues. This gave us a direction for our English lessons as well as being able to teach kids Biblical values. We chose, friendship, manners, honesty, and work.

Presenting... the "good" friend

I taught on friendship on the first day. It was a fun time teaching what makes a good friend and what the Bible says about friends. We had about 30 or so kids the first day, but they seemed to keep coming as the days went on. We had almost 50 by the last day!

The kids did various activities, they sang songs, did crafts and of course learned some new English vocabulary! They made friendship bracelets, politeness pillows, promise tickets (promising their parents that they would do a certain chore) and an honesty train. Each day ended with a list of vocab words that corresponded with the topic of the day.

Where's Megan?

Parents were grateful for the opportunity to have their kids come and learn virtues that are important in most any culture. One parent remarked “thank you so much, there is very needed. Please do it again next year.” Hopefully, we will be able to do something like it again!

Last Group Shot

Here we are at the end of all things…

Yep, the first English for Missions school has come to a close for this year.

I smile when I think of all that has happened and how God was faithful in every moment that I needed him. It was a huge growing time for me and I was certainly stretched in many areas.

I have learned how to better communicate with my students.

I learned that teaching Slavic students is completely different than teaching North American students.

I always considered myself to be somewhat flexible, but I learned to be really flexible in this time.

I learned simple and complex things, as simple and silly as learning to have be more conversational when giving grades to as complex and difficult as dealing with students who do not want to do something.

I have gained a further understanding of Slavic culture.

I have grown in interpersonal relationships and leadership.

I started the school with a simple bag of tools, but I feel like I’m leaving with a full tool box.

The students have of course gained many things besides English as well. They have also gained an understanding of North American people. They are leaving with not just English, but with a broader scope of missions and Western-thinking. To see an academic list of what the students are leaving with or to see picture from graduation, go to the school blog here.  There are so many different levels of learning that go on in a classroom.

It was a great year, really, I think I can say that. Even though it was super difficult sometimes and I cried a few times, the school was a success. God was with us every step of the way. His plan was laid out and came to pass. I am so blessed to be part of it. I can’t wait until January 2013, when the next school will start!

My amazing staff and I

Just for fun