Just in time for Christmas… a blog on Thanksgiving. Yeah!
This year was similar to last year, the whole base came together to eat, and eat, and eat, and talk, and eat. It is always great to see everyone. We had half a day of class then spent the rest of the time preparing and cleaning.
For the food, yummy mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, stuffing, gravy, and for the meat we had goose. Goose is basically all dark meat, very fatty, not bad though. Doesn’t compare to turkey of course.
There I am, taking my food seriously.
Like last year, I gave a little speech on the history of Thanksgiving day and how Americans celebrate it. Many people have never celebrated Thanksgiving day. Many countries do not have this holiday, but they may have a sort of harvest festival.
The highlight of the evening was my advanced group giving their speech on Thanksfulness. We had been doing a study on famous speeches and for their final project they had to write a speech on Thankfulness. It was great! They are so creative. To see the full written speech, go to the EFM blog!
"My lovely people..."
I ended the night skyping with my family and wishing my mom a happy birthday. It was a full day!
The joys of community living... skyping in the laundry room!
Every Monday, one student is assigned the task of writing a post for the blog. Students can write about anything, there are no restrictions on the topic. The options are endless!
By Friday, every student needs to comment on the blog.You too can comment and leave encouraging notes and bits of inspiration. The students will love it!
The Terrific Teachers will also be writing posts about funny moments in class and what we are doing. Don’t forget to leave comments for us!
First Class
For another glimpse, into the classroom watch EFM Students hard at work to see students using English and discovering who they are in Christ!
posted under EFM, team | Comments Off on English for Missions blog!
This was from awhile ago, but it keeps reoccurring. My wonderful roommate will often tell me at night “I go shower my teeth.” I laugh every time. Yesterday she said she was going to shower her face too. That’s a funny mental image…
This past weekend, Marichka’s mom came to visit. I tried to put my Russian to use, but I failed miserably. I was telling her “I like verenky, semki, borsch, and boys.” Boys? She sort of raised her eyebrows a little when I said this. Of course I did not mean to say boys, I was trying to say holoptsie which are the cabbage rolls. The difference between the word for boys and the word for cabbage rolls comes down to a hard ‘h’ or a soft ‘h’. Small things that make a big difference.
This video is for all the different English ministries that happen here at the base in Ternopil. We made it for the YWAM Ukraine conference in Lutsk a couple weeks ago. I’m just now getting around to posting it…
So our first two week of English for Missions are finished and we still have all 12 students! It has been quite a packed two weeks, but God was in all of it. I am so amazed at God’s faithfulness and seeing His hand in everything.
The School
Our first week was mostly spent in assessing where the students where in their language ability. This put a few people in tears, but we have been reassuring students that we simply need to know what they know. There is no way around it. Tough love.
We explained most of the procedures and expectations, gave lots of handouts, and just spent time together. Joanne started out our first week with several lessons on who God is. It was fun learning English while also learning about who God is. The students did lots of activities to bring out their expectations of the school and teachers and what their dreams and nightmares were about learning English.
I also taught a lesson on different learning styles and Allison did a lesson on devotions. We had a class picnic on Wednesday, did a craft on Thursday, and had a game night on Friday, we like to do fun stuff through out the week. Our week ended with a class covenant. We went over what we felt were important points to cover and put into practice, and ended with students signing a poster together agreeing that they would follow the covenant to the best of their ability. And week one was finished, and it was good.
Week two went much the same, except that we put students into groups based on their abilities. This allows us to focus more on what they need, they are also in multilevel groups, and then there are also writing groups. Lots of groups. We also implemented a fasting day on Wednesday. Every Wednesday we will be fasting breakfast and lunch together, instead of eating we are going to be praying and worshiping as one group! I love spending time with God with others who enjoy the same thing. Week 2 finished, and it was good.
