Ladies English Class

I have been teaching a group of ladies for 3hours every Saturday since January. This small group of women have been a blessing and a challenge. Most of them can not even read or write properly in Spanish and many have not made it past the 3rd grade. The majority of them are Nicaraguan and are living illegally in this shanty town (This is very common in La Carpio). They currently all work as daycare workers for several daycares set up by the Humanitarian Aid Foundation.

I was asked back in January to teach English to these women. I am sure you can imagine the difficulty it has been. I have found myself not only teaching them English but also teaching them fundamental skills such as telling time. My academic year with them is coming to an end.  My goals for these women started out simply being to teach them English, but as our understanding of La Carpio and their role in it as daycare workers has grown so has my desires for them through this class.

As any leader or teacher, my foundational desire is to duplicate myself. In other words I hope to be able to touch their lives and in turn they may be able to touch the lives of others. The best way I felt I could do this was not only through education in the English language but much more importantly with Biblical education. Luke and I have found that there are several churches in this shanty town. Many of the people we have met claim to be faithful members of these churches yet, it seems that their knowledge of the Scriptures and of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is lacking. (Many of the churches we have visited in Costa Rica do not place focus on any strong discipleship, leaving their members quite malnourished of the Scriptures and there applications.) It has been my desire to try and fill these voids in education through my simple class every Saturday. This has been a challenge as I have had to fit many different subjects into a short amount of time every week. Throughout this class I know I have grown a great deal as an educator and I hope my students have grown as well.

FROM LEFT: Gloria, Jorling, Yessenia, Summer, Yessenia's daughter, and Emilce

 I ask that you keep these women in your prayers as we gear up for the end of this class. I also pray that their interest in the Scriptures will continue to burn within them and they may continue to study the Bible and develop deep relationships with a personal Savior.They will be working the next several weeks on their final project. For their final project I have asked them to properly prepare and deliver a class to a group of children Luke has been working with on Saturdays. Our desire is to be able to have others take over these tasks so that we may be able to reach more with both Education and hope and salvation through Jesus Christ.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

-Proverbs 1:7 NASB

"My father's son is in trouble". "You mean your brother?" "No,he is an only child". -Don knotts

Throughout our lives we are exposed to and often use many different excuses to get out of our responsibilities. One all time favorite in our family is the quote above from Don Knotts in "The Reluctant Astronaut". I am sure we have also all heard of the ever famous "My dog ate it" or the old, "My grandmother passed away". (No offense intended grandmothers)

When we hear these worn out excuses we can't even help but laugh at the audacity one has to even attempt to use them anymore!

Well, Luke and I have also heard some very interesting excuses over the past year and a half on the mission field. Many come from students not showing up to our classes or Bible studies. They always seem to give us a little laugh so we thought we would share (these are translated from Spanish with no exaggerations):

Young student, "I was on my way to class but then I had to go to the store"

*This was an excuse for a two hour class and the store was 2 doors down!

Adult student, "I can't come to class anymore because my brain is sick and the doctor told me not to use it for awhile"

Adult, "I was going to come but then it started raining"  (This was for church)

Adult student, "I can't study English today because I hurt my finger last night in my sleep"

Adult student, "I can't come to class today because my sister is in the hospital from a miscarriage"

Me, "So you are going to the hospital?"

Student, "No, I am going home to take a nap"

Adult student, "I can't come to class because I have been throwing up"

*(Approximately 10 minutes after she said this I passed her at the bus stop catching a bus to downtown San Jose to go shopping. We ended up giving her a ride to San Jose... to make things more awkward she never brought up that she just spoke to us about being "sick"!)

Me, "Where is Christopher?"

Adult Mother, "Oh, he did not feel like coming to church tonight so he is home watching cartoons"

*Christopher is a 5 year old child that was coming to our kids church program! It is common in Central American cultures for children of any age to make their own decisions about going to church or even school.

Adult Student, "I can't come to class today because my brain hurts"

Adult Student, "I did not go to class because I did not know where it was"

*This was for a 3 hour class that has been held in the same place for 2 months straight (the student above was attending this class faithfully for the full 2 months)

And last but not least......

Adult Student, "I can't come to class anymore because my brain is not built for that"

Well, we hope you were able to enjoy these as much as we did! I am sure there are many other teachers/leaders who could add to this list as well. Feel free to comment with some good ones you may have heard in the past! 

9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. 10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

-Galations 6:9-10 (NASB)