English Opens Doors

     One of the gifts we realize God has given us is just the fact that we speak English!  While there is not a high percentage of people who speak English here by any means, it is still something that people are interested in and is often an open door to getting to know people on a deeper level.  People want their kids to learn English, as they know it could help them to find better jobs and have greater opportunities when they grow up.  One of our new friends together with a local church recently created a space for people to come and learn English, with a library of English books.  Our family has both enjoyed borrowing books as well as has been happy to find a new home for some of our unused books.  We have been invited to utilized this space, and we are strongly considering starting another English Club at this new location.  It's near our home and can be a place that we invite local people who ask us if we teach English.



     This spring I met some ladies from Singapore who were here for a short time to teach people how to teach beginner English!  I knew that God's hand was in this, as I'd been praying about a course just like this...and had even looked for something online that I could do. I attended the 2-day course, and brought the kids with me on the second day.  We had to practice teaching certain rules of grammar.  The kids jumped right in with me.  =)  I feel that what I learned will prove to be beneficial.

     Now that it's summertime, we don't have our weekly English Club, but Leif gets together about once a week to play basketball with whoever wants to from the club (we have a Viber group so that people know they're invited and where and when to meet).  It's usually a small group like the one pictured above, but they have a good time.  Anneka has enjoyed going with Leif.

     We also hang out in other ways with people that we've met through English and other connections. This summer we've been having fun playing the lawn game kubb.

     My little local English conversation group is continuing through the summer.  We've had some new ladies come the past couple of weeks, which is fun.  We have a lesson, and then everyone wants to stay so we play games for a couple of hours afterwards.

     And, of course, drinking tea together is an important part of growing in friendship.

     We've been planning and preparing for our yearly "English Club on Baikal".  So far we've had more people sign up early than any other year!  Several new people are coming who have never come before.

     One of our friends had a group come from China to lead what was basically an English VBS,  It was a team of kids (with their moms, but their moms worked in the kitchen) and their English was perfect because they had all lived in the States previously.  We took our kids, along with 5 of their friends.  (There were a lot more kids there than are shown in the pictures.  I just dropped off the kids each day, so only quickly snapped these at the beginning and end of the second day.)

     The kids sang songs, played games, ate yummy food, did crafts, and learned about God- all in English (but translated so that they could understand the important parts.) In this activity, they broke into groups and acted out different Bible stories.  This group acted out Samson and Delilah.  Our kids all had a great time, and their friends did, too.