OUR TRAINING IS OVER

LOOK WHO SHOWED UP ON SATURDAY MORNING UNEXPECTEDLY!

Twelve students showed up. And here is Ruth Russel, 80+ years young, teaching the pronunciation section. She spends time in Budapest teaching the Bible and has a great love for evangelism.

Oh yeah...nothing as much fun as singing, dancing and playing the Hokey Pokey!

Even though this picture is blurred, you can see the students (learners) using Kleenex tissues to practice making the sounds of 'b', 'p', 'h' and 't'.

They laughed a lot and that's the greatest pleasure we have in tutoring.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the fun a tutor-training workshop is and will want to begin your own English language outreach ministry.

Here's everyone gathered at the conclusion of our 41/2 day training workshop.

FIRST EVER ENGLISH TRAINING WORKSHOP IN TORONTO!

There is a special feeling coming to Toronto for an English Language Training workshop. In the picture (left) standing next to me is Paul Terry Robinson and in front in the blue blouse is Mabel Wee. Paul Terry and Mabel attended the 2003 training institute in Tulsa and returned to Toronto with ESL as their vision and passion. I came to Toronto in 2003 and led a workshop using PASSPORT to the World of English as our text. Over the seven years, they have created English classes among the muslim community and established a resource cooperative for any church or Christian in Toronto teaching English - all online over the internet.
Between Paul Terry and Mabel is Carey Jo Johnston who leads our LEI-Canada office as well as co-pastoring Knox Presbyterian Church in a small town an hour away from Toronto. The two on the end (right) is Ken and Lori Martin. Lori is preparing herself to be the lead English trainer for Canada. She is scheduled to join Carey Jo on a primer construction training and project in Sierra Leone late October and November. She will be quite versatile and an indispensible member of the new Canadian team. Ken supports her work with a full-time employment in Toronto.

Juanita is working with Peng and Steven on lesson 2 of Using Everyday English doing the Theme Picture. Peng was quite advanced in English and was able to create some incredible storylines which made all of us roll with laughter. Steven felt a tad overwhelmed with Peng's stories, and being an electrical engineer was enjoying the stories and adding more. Peng's comment to us when before leaving was "I enjoy tonight. It is more fun! In my ESL class there is one teacher and 30 students. I don't speak any English. Here is speak a lot." A good commentary on the value of the textbook and the need for English ministry within the local church.

Here is Ruth leading the Theme Picture. The video will show you how creative Peng is. Ruth is 80 years 'young' and travels annually to Budapest, Hungry where she is part of Scripture Union and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. While in Hungry, she teaches Bible classes with small groups of university students and plans on using the ESL methods and skills on her next trip this Fall. I hope when you watch this video that you will be convinced that age is not a factor when tutoring. Her humble spirit, passion for the lost, compassion to bring people close to Jesus through teaching and language learning is a great inspiration to all of us.

September in Toronto!

Heading to Toronto in September for the first major English Language Ministry training workshop using book 1, "today!" of my new series, Using Everyday English. Carey Jo Johnson, our LEI rep in Canada will be organizing and preparing everything. All Leona and I have to do is to get there! We plan to drive our motorhome across the upper states and park it in the church's parking lot during the training.

Hopefully we'll be visiting churches on the way. Included is a possible visit with our friends, the Woods, who live in Ithica, NY., the Cranks in Cinncinati, and relatives in Tulsa. We'll be looking forward to seeing our "great grandson" Dylan who lives in Broken Arrow, OK.

Thanks for your prayers regarding this long trip...and a first for us in a motorhome.

Requests for 2011 are already coming in: our LEI directors in Malawi, Maxwell Mpinganga and Michael Tetteh in Ghana both want some training using UEE. This is planned around this time next year.

There are also two requests in Mexico, so we will see what God is doing and be as prepared as possible to assist the nationals and missionaries located there.

Coming to the finish line!

Yes! Thank you Lord, Jesus. This is July 1, 2010 and my goal was to complete the last 6 lessons of Using Everyday English (UEE) before the end of June. All I have left to complete is "How to teach a lesson" and the appendices which include charts of the verb tenses, adjective and adverb endings, prefixes and suffixes, etc., and finally, lyrics from the various songs included in the lessons and suggested games which are played during a training workshop.

Now, the big development will be to revise the training DVD to include the new curriculum, and (this is where I really need your prayers!) the production of a 3-D (3 dimensional) phonetic drama that will depict how a person can make the correct sounds of the English letters.

I have found that the two most challenging sounds for new English speakers are: th (both voiced and unvoiced) and the r (gutteral rather than dental). The letters n and l also give various learners trouble.

My goal, which you can continue to pray for me, is to complete this project before the end of this year, 2010.

Thanks for reading this blog. I only wish I had something more to share with you like a YouTube video, etc., but working on curriculum is like watching grass grow!

Blessings to you.