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.

Planeta Rica, Colombia, training workshop

The first week in December, Kent Davy and I traveled to Planeta Rica, Cordova state, Colombia, South America for a one-week English teacher training workshop. Liceth Oyolo Gamboa has been teaching a basic English class in a Christian school, and wanted to train other teachers as an outreach of her church, La Iglesia del Divino Salvador (Church of the Divine Savior).



There were 7 teachers and about a dozen students, all but one,
under the age of 30! What fun! They were enthusiastic, energetic and full of it....

Though it was hot (their summer) we were able to communicate both methodology and content from my new English book, Using Everyday English.

We played games--Zip-Zap, Elephant, It's a what? and sang songs: The Hokey Pokey, He has the whole world in His hands.

Here in this picture, students are demonstrating the need to blow air for the letters H, P, T, etc. Using a tissue, they hold it close to their mouth and pronounce the word. If the tissue puffs out, then they've placed their mouth in the correct position.

Liceth and her finance, Fabian. And notice that fab T-shirt with the "Carlsbad, CA" logo. How smart.

Here are the teachers with their certificates in the sanctuary of the church.
Alba, Jeimmy (Jaimie), Kent, Reuben, Don, Liceth, Neivies, Erica.
Fabulous teachers - bright, intuitive and creative.

Teachers and most of the students.
Liceth also gave out certificates from the church to her students.

These students are part of the youth ministry of the church and other local association churches in Planeta Rica. The "kids" are a tight group that spends lots of hours together because they play instruments in the worship team, or sing on the worship team, lead Sunday School classes, etc.


Kent and I were housed in a very comfortable home. Our hostess was Afredina. Kent and I must have added several inches to our waistline.

We would eat a meal, then the gang would come over and take us out to some friends home to celebrate their birthday party (more snacks!) or out to their favorite haunt...an ice cream parlor.

We are so blessed by all their love and graciousness. To know that the family of God is doing so well in this rural city of 37,000 is such a joy to my heart.

You have to experience God's love through your brothers and sisters to truly appreciate the definition of "God's Family."

Leona just reminded me that I should put a quick note on our blog so that those of you who access our blog can also link to Daniele & Andrew Vuksic and their Gospel on the Go Ministries. When we were there in the summer of 2008 we helped them move into their new home and had a wonderful time with them knowing how God was going to grow their new congregation. We feel close to their ministry and want you to share in our joy, too. So, check it out.

Through God's grace 250 books of Using Everyday English have been printed. Michael Tetteh in Ghana was able to print these for distribution (for sale) to the people who attended the English Language Ministry Training Institute in Abokobi, Ghana.

Give glory to God for this first incredible step to the advancement of His Kingdom through English classes with Bible stories.

I'm excited about this...and I hope you are, too.