I thought I would give a positive update today and share about how my English classes are going. I am absolutely loving teaching (cue the *gasp* from all my past teachers). My favorite thing is by far the students, I teach all ages now, but my main focus is the staff of Sister Connection which are all roughly my age or a little older. God did something when I began working with Sister Connection in 2008 and when I met each of the staff on my first trip in 2009 I think God knit my heart to theirs. I simply love these people so much!

Mondays I teach a beginner class which is attracting many people from the area that are friends or neighbors of the staff. This gives us opportunity for evangelism and for relationship building in the community. I think I am going to start a game time each week also where our family will come with a few board games and we will all interact with this group, teach English and learn Kirundi as we play together. It is a challenging class because some of them speak little to no English at all so you’re starting from zero with some and others have a few words and phrases while some are a little further in their English skills. It’s hard to teach to the different levels for me, but I am just loving getting to know the community around us and loving on them.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach an advanced class and they are my voracious, eager English learners that are challenging me in good ways. They want to learn in depth vocabulary which I have to look up definitions for often. I am overjoyed to be teaching them vocabulary and conversation to help them in their specific jobs at Sister Connection. They are feeling more and more confident so when English speakers visit they can communicate better with them and this is exciting. I love the conversations that come up in this class.

For example, this week we talked about employment vocabulary one day and they were asking me so many questions about what a labor union was I ended up calling my dad so he could help me explain it better! Then on Thursday we discussed different jobs and one was a chef and again their questions were challenging me so I called my friend Heather who works in a restaurant and she discussed with us the different levels of chefs and kitchen workers.

It is also intriguing because there are words that are common to us that they have no concept of, like this week talking about firefighters I said, “they use fire hydrants” which no one in my class had ever heard of. So, we spent time talking about what a fire hydrant was and how it works. I was able to learn that in Burundi you have to be military before you can be police and you have to be police before you can be a firefighter. There aren’t many firefighters in the entire country, usually friends and neighbors would help put a fire out with the local water source.

On Wednesdays Josh is teaching a Bible study to the men, right now it is the Sister Connection staff men, but it may begin including men in the area interested. The men are eager to learn the Bible more!

Every other Friday I travel 2-3 hours to the city one way and teach the staff in the city for 2 hours then we travel back up the mountains home. It is a long day, but again, the opportunity to spend time with the staff, get to know them better and encourage them has been an overwhelming blessing to me.

The other Fridays we will be traveling around the country to visit unsponsored widows. To hear their stories then write them down and encourage these women and their children who are in dire need.

Please, pray for wisdom as we teach and safe travels as we go all over the country and travel to the city often. Please, pray for every student and the families they represent.

I told my students they are to memorize 1 Corinthians 10:31 because that is my standard for them. I do not care if they learn English fluently, but I do care that they work for the glory of God in all they do. I told them I would be learning it in Kirundi too so I leave you with that today!

1 Abo I Korinto 10:31

Nuko iyo murya, iyo munywa, canke iyo mukora ikindi kintu cose, mube mukorera vyose gushimisha Imana.