Our ESL program

Our ESL program, begun with a "summer session" 2 years ago, has enrolled almost 40 persons from the community this winter. Volunteers from our congregation and some other churches in the community have expressed their discipleship through helping students from various countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, central and far eastern Asia, Central and South America, Mexico and Puerto RIco, to learn or improve on their English while also making new friends in our community. We have made Upper Room magazines in Spanish available to those Spanish speakers who wanted them, as well as the English Upper Rooms and New Testaments (CEV) that were marketed by Cokesbury during Christmas and Easter a couple of years ago. (After the holidays, we took advantage of the steep discount of $20 per case at the local Cokesbury store and bought several cases for later distribution. Children who came with their parents enjoyed themselves as they made friends with one another - most already were English speakers, but the one 3 year old who understood no English in January learned her colors in English, as well as several basic "survival" phrases - "I have to go to the bathroom", "please" and "thank you", "hello" and "good-bye", and "I'm sorry".

End result: we have connected with our increasingly diverse community as we have been hospitable to all sorts of relatively new neighbors from various Christian and non-Christian backgrounds. In doing so, perhaps we have also promoted peace in the world.