Shining Stars

At today's service [postponed Lessons and Carols], I awarded a Stewardship 'Shining Star' certificate to each person that helped out this session in the 'Play, Pray, Hello USA!' ESOL classes for the Karen community.

The certificates went to the three pastors: John Endler, Ich Duc Nguyen and Gie Dor.

Those who had helped out with the program [in many different ways] were: Victor Agosto, Linda Carrasquillo, Bruce Davidson, Joan Davidson, Amy Endler, George Grisevich, Kari Miller, Norma Sproul and Cheryl Zeiner.

Without the help of the above, the program which provided 243 hours of English instruction would not have been possible. Thanks to everyone!

Certificate Party

Today we held our Certificate Party. Many were in attendance; Pastor Ich and Cheryl Zeiner attended also.

We opened with a prayer by Pastor Ich in Vietnamese, myself in English and Pastor Gie Dor in Karen. Then we all introduced ourselves with the help of a passed box of candy canes.

A crossword activity with Christmas was a lot of fun. Then the Karen community sang a song and presented me with a beautiful jacket which I will wear to church soon.

Certificates of Attendance went to:
Hser Nay Paw
Say Lway
Lay Naw
Day Mu Si
Ner Ri [received a Special Award for Perfect Attendance]
Hser Nay Chris [also received a Special Award for Perfect Attendance]
Gie Dor
Peh Htoo [& received a Special Award for Excellence in Story Writing]
Sha Thaw
Taw Nay Moo
Sha Kier Moo
Say Lay Paw
Htoo K Paw
Po Day
We closed with The Lord's Prayer

Cheryl Zeiner then took over and conducted a meeting concerning:
Workshops for Jobs
Prescription Cards
Opportunity to sell handicraft items in the CBC Crosswinds Store
Listing specific needs of the Karen Community

This was definitely the highlight of my Christmas season! Thank the Lord for the opportunity to work with such wonderful people. Hallelujah!

Music Class today!

Today's class in the 'Pray, Play, Hello USA!' series was taught by Norma Sproul and Joan Davidson. They taught the words in English to three Christmas Carols: 'Silent Night', 'Deck the Halls' and 'Away in a Manger'. They left 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' for me to teach next week which is our last class of the Fall session.

I visited the class at the end of the session and they were all fully involved. The singing was beautiful. It is a blessing to work with a community so willing and eager to learn the new language.

Thanks to Joan and Norma for their help as Guest Presenters. I hope many more people will get involved in the Winter session that will start in January.

Our Personal Commitments

2010 ‘PRAYERFUL’ PERSONAL COMMITMENT

Today is Pledge Sunday. You have heard from many people about the importance of pledging both your time and money to increase the life of the church and the power of its congregation. I ask you to consider the Time, Talents and Energies booklet. A pledge of assisting the Karen community in their English classes would be most appreciated. Next year, starting in January, we will embark on an improved program of ‘Play, Pray, Hello USA!,’

I would like to thank those of you who have already been involved in the program. Would the following please stand up: Victor Agosto,  Joan and Bruce Davidson, Amy Endler, George Grisevich, Kari Miller, Norma Sproul, and Cheryl Zeiner.

Joan, Bruce and Amy came in to assist with a class.

Cheryl came in to assist with a meeting.

Victor, Cheryl, Amy and Kari taught classes.

George will teach next Saturday.

Norma and Joan will teach two weeks after that.

Eight people have been involved. Next year we can do much better with more people and offer a program that far surpasses anything done in any other church in Hartford. We will meet next January for a presentation about the new program. God bless you all!

guest presenters...

Looks like the every other week guest presenter format is going well.

Amy Endler was the guest presenter today and I will hear about her class tomorrow in church. She was going to work with descriptive words and prepositional phrases. Will post on the details.

Last slot Kari Miller took on the subject of knitting and worked with colors, clothing, body parts and measuring. The class really enjoyed it. Pastor John used a Bible story for his presentation. Cheryl Zeigler and Victor Agosto talked about job skills and preparing for the job market.

George Grisevich will be the next presenter and wants to talk about Hartford and its history; good subject for the newcomers. The last slot for guest presenting will be Joan Davidson. She is scheduled for early December and will work with the words to Christmas music. That's a good idea as she is an alto and mentors some of the Karen young women in the choir.

blognote: The Fall session ends on December 19th with a Certificate Party at 10am. Everyone is welcome to attend.

first double class day...

I am so blessed to be able to work with the Karen community.

Today was the first Saturday of our new double class schedule. The beginners met at 9am. We studied the family and learned about my family tree. This seemed to be very successful. The class was spirited and lively with the beginners feeling at ease without many of the advanced students present. Then at 10am the intermediate/advanced students met. We devoted most of the time to the vocabulary in the first practice test for the DMV. Then we discussed the stories that the students are writing. They were pleased with the reformatted stories and most will continue their writing. The stories are very interesting and I will put them together in a booklet for our last class.

After class I joined the students in eating sticky rice and crispy chicken wings. As I was leaving, the group started their choir practice. What a wonderful day!

blognote: Next week Kari Miller, our Director of Music, will be the guest presenter.

Pastor John's class

Today Pastor John Endler was our guest presenter. He is very familiar with the Karen community so this was a great opportunity to get to know them even better.

Pastor John worked on story telling using the Bible and continued the grammar work on the past tense stressing the differences between the regular and irregular forms. The verbs in English will take many lessons as this is a difficult area for second language learners.