ESL Update
from Metu
"We finally started teaching Monday, July 14!" The relief was evident in
this first statement heard from the English tutoring team sent to Ethiopia
under the Ethiopia Partnership Committee's ESL Program.
Only a week or two before the team of 5 were packing to go
to Metu for their 5 weeks of teaching, Kathleen Haines, coordinator for the
program, was notified that the government had planned a required attendance
event during the first week of our teams' training.
After some communications, it was decided the Shenandoah team
would go ahead to Metu and that the training would be delayed until the students
were available. Below is the message received a few days ago from the
team:
"Hi,
We finally started teaching today, Monday, July 14. We have about 40-50
students in each of our classes. Students were very eager to be in a class.
We walk to class each day and enjoy the country and provide amusement for
those we meet, especially if we are slipping and sliding in the mud. Some
of our students are shy and others are very talkative (like in USA). We feel
blessed and challenged as we realize what a short time we have to make even
a little difference. All the teachers say it is most important to have students
talk to us and us to them. We will try. We welcome your prayers for our two
weeks and journey home. The people at the guesthouse have taken very good
care of us. We asked for Ethiopian food at our meals and we have many different
combinations. Thank you for your prayers. In Christ, Albert, Ellie, Sarah,
Robin, Pat."
Please remember the ESL team in your prayers.
Members of the team include: Pat Burslem, 1st Winchester, Robin Hunsberger,
Christ Lutheran (PA), an aunt to Kathleen, Ellie Lloyd, Shepherdstown church
and Shepherdstown University student, Sarah Chappel, Elkton & JMU student.
The Rev. Albert Connette of Olivet Church in Ivy, Virginia, also went
as the team leader and to teach in the Bible school. |
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Baja Mission Team Returns to Vicente Guerrero
For the 9th
year in a row, a mission team from Shenandoah has traveled south of San Diego
some 200 miles to the small town of Vicente Guerrero.
This year's team includes 58 people from 11 different churches
and 3 different mission communities traveling together as the SHENANDOAH Team.
The team divides into 4 smaller teams to build 4 modest houses
for 4 Oaxacan families who need better living conditions. Because people from
Shenandoah have joined with others from all over the nation to lend a hand
in this community, there are many now who have a better home for their families
to live in.
And yet, there continue
to be so many others living in cardboard huts with sometimes tin but more
often cardboard roofs. With so little rain in Baja - some 4-5 inches a year
- the sandy dessert
environment doesn't get much rain. Temperatures can get in to the upper
80s, but they remain in the mid-upper 70s most of the time. Nights
can be cool with temperatures in the upper 50s & low 60s. And of course
their homes have no heat.
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