On November 11, I returned to the states after a September and October full of wonderful blessings and some challenges as well! One of the wonderful blessings that has also at times been a bit of a challenge over the last two months has been continuing to work with my English students in Hoya del Caimito and Los Guandules. The pictures to the left are of the students in Caimito (top) and Guandules (bottom) with their certificates for completing the classed offered.

These classes started in January, and as of the end of October, we completed 12 of the 16 lessons in the curriculum we have been using called Spoken English Learned Quickly, and my students are speaking and reading English! In fact, they have become so comfortable with the material, which is very well designed, that they are continuing to study on their own to finish the material while I am in the states (they are using CDs and photocopies of the lessons I gave them before I left), and I will be “testing” them when I return to the DR in December!

Each week, my students continued to surprise me with their desire to learn and continued attendance in class, despite dropping class numbers. However, what surprised me the most was the request of one of my students to begin to study more intensively in order to begin teaching English classes himself! This is one of the goals of the English classes, to have a student of the class become a teacher who can then start teaching and reaching out to many more people than I can if I were to continue teaching by myself, and the material we are using is perfectly set up for that!

Jose Luis has been working with G.O. for several years heading up our baseball ministry, reaching out to young men in Santiago for Christ through helping them improve their baseball skills and teaching them about teamwork, and through being an example of Christ’s love in their lives, and now he wants to add teaching English to that in order to reach out to even more people! He has been diligently studying for classes and practicing (he is pictured here to the right with his certificate for the class), and he also began taking classes at an institute (along with his wife) to learn as much as possible about the English language! His dedication to the young men who are a part of the baseball ministry has inspired many, and now his desire to teach English in order to reach out to the people of his community is also an inspiration and an encouragement to me.

Over the last two years, as I have been teaching my English classes, I have at times been discouraged and a bit overwhelmed as class sizes tend to fall from 20 or more at the beginning to 5 or less by the end of the classes. As well, teaching Spoken English is very different from teaching high school English, which I loved and came very naturally to me, and I have honestly missed it and my students at Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville, KY. There have also been times when I have questioned and prayed about whether or not I am to continue offering English classes here in the DR, but God has continued to lead me to offer them, regardless of the class size, showing me that He has a plan that is much bigger than what I can see and more important than how useful I might be feeling at the moment.

Seeing Jose Luis’ enthusiasm, initially for learning and now for teaching English, and more importantly for sharing the love of Christ through whatever avenue is available, has been a source of joy and encouragement to me. Now, I can honestly say that it was a blessing that the class I taught for the young men in the baseball ministry dwindled to Jose Luis and one other student, because the smaller class allowed me to focus more on these two individuals, one of whom will now begin teaching as a result! In the picture to the left, I am showing him how to access the class material on-line and using a CD of the entire curriculum that I left with him - as you can see, he is very focused and attentive!

Additionally, my last class with my English students in Los Guandules was also a very special time. After receiving their certificates, these students proceeded to thank me for the class and express what it meant to them – all in English! After the first session, which ended in April, the group had a party for the class during which they presented prepared skits, prayers, and songs, all in English as well. However, this time was even more special to me because it was unscripted – we were conversing in English – one of the main objectives of the class, and since the material used Acts chapters 1 through 9 for the lesson texts, they learned to do this through studying God’s word!!

Even more exciting, Griselda, one of the students from this class and the wife of the pastor in Los Guandules, will be leading the others through the last four lessons as a “trial run” for teaching her own class! Griselda was a student in my very first English class in January 2007, and it has been a blessing to see her skills develop and now be able to encourage her to teach her own class!

Please be praying for Jose Luis and Griselda as they continue to study and prepare to teach classes. Please also pray for all of the students in the classes as they also continue learning English and also learning about Jesus and the truth of who He is and what He wants for us.

It is only through your continual prayers, support, and encouragement that I am able to bring God’s word to the DR through my English classes, and I am eternally grateful for this! Thank you for all you do to support my ministry!

With love in Christ,
Catherine