Wednesday, July 9, 2008

English Camp in Dzierzoniow, Poland

From right to left: Alana, Annie, Carrie, Jane, and Ray

Last week has proven to be a productive yet exhausting time for our team from America. All five of us are students or former students from Washington State University. Jane and Ray met Annie, Alana and me in Berlin and went straight to Dzierzoniow. Our purpose was to aid the local church in blessing the town by teaching a valuable life skill to its children: the English language. 

For five days we met with 30-40 young students, teaching them to sing English songs (about Jesus) and addressing the large group with a message about God's love. Then we broke up into three smaller groups, divided by skill level, and taught them some basics of the language. The children were introduced to several new vocabulary words and were given the opportunity to interact and practice their English on native speakers. In the oldest group of kids we had several great conversations about God and what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. 

Through the camp, some residents of Dzierzoniow have noticed the blessing that this church is to the community and have praised God because of it. Relationships were formed between the students and the American leaders, despite the linguistic obstacles. We praise God for the opportunity to be here and to work with this church. They, and we, look forward to doing this all again next year.

Ray Gross and Carrie Calhoun

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