Wha ees ju nai?

The girls and boy that eagerly came to learn English.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Matt and I had been presented with an opportunity to serve in a poor community about 20 minutes from here. We went out there to see the place a week and a half ago, and committed to coming on Tuesdays starting today. My task is to teach some children English. This is funny because I always told God that I didn't want to teach English. Well, I prayed to him to provide for us a clear, and very shortly thereafter, Noel approached me in the park and asked us to help him in his ministry.





I am very much out of my element teaching English. At the same time it makes me have a deeper appreciation for my sweet teachers and their pacience with gingo after gringo struggling to learn the Spanish language and our butchering of their words. I did not come with any teaching materials, but there are a few flash cards at the building where we work. I worked on the alphabet and colors. Then I tried to teach them a few greetings. For the most part these little girls do not have a shy bone in their body, but when it came to trying to say words in English, they were filled with embarassment because they knew they sounded silly. It was hard to keep them focused, so I know I change up what I do to make their experience both educational and fun.





Some of the phrases we worked on today:


"Hello, my name is Nicole. What is your name?"


"How are you?"


"I am good. How are you?"


"Goodbye. I will see you later?"





Each young lady tried so hard to say these phrases. We went in a circle and two by two the girls would act out the conversation. Next week, instead of teaching one mixed class I will teach the younger children (7-12) in a class from 3-4 and the teenagers in a class from 4-6.





While I was teaching the class, Matt was in front of the church teaching some guys how to throw a football Americano. Some of them have expressed interest in learning this foriegn game. I think really it was more of a learning experience for Matt, not because he doesn't know football, but some of the things he saw in the community.





Please pray for us in this new ministry venture, and if you have any suggestions of how to teach English as a second language to kids please leave a comment.