Responding to Student Needs

Bhutanese men talk together at the ESL Launch Party last Tuesday night.

There is always a break between each trimester at Mission Adelante.  During this break, staff and lead volunteers ask ourselves questions like: “Is what we are doing meeting the needs of the community?” and “How can we meet those needs better?”

This spring, the Bhutanese ESL Lead Team felt that it was time to give our students a little more of the “social” experience that many of our students long for –especially the women. We have done this in the past by changing our registration night from a formal process to being a time to hang out, talk, eat, and listen to some great music with a little business on the side. But we felt we should take it a step further this trimester, not exactly knowing what it will bring.  Instead of doing our usual four levels of English classes, we are doing only two classes: one men's class and one women’s class.  We want our students to learn English but also to build community and strong relationships with each other.  The dynamics of the classes are completely different-- lots of joking and talking during the entire women’s class and lots of nonsense and then getting down to business in the men’s class.

We hope to see Bhutanese and American relationships grow stronger, and we want the Bhutanese community to become even more unified this summer.  Please pray this with us as we experiment with this new program format. We want to be constantly listening to our community and meeting their needs.

In other news

• Our Leaders in Training programs celebrated a successful year by heading out on a camping trip (Latino LIT) and to Great Wolf Lodge (Bhutanese LIT). It was a blessing to reward the kids for all of their hard work this year.
• The level 1 Latino English class began with the largest turnout ever! We also have a vision to start a new house church through this group of people.
• The Bhutanese community of Kansas City celebrated a cultural festival last weekend that included music, poetry, awards and food.

Prayer needs

• Please pray Kansas Senator Moran and Congressman Yoder.  We have shared real-life stories of undocumented immigrants with them and asked them to vote for immigration reform that keeps families together. 

Current Needs

• One of this year's high school graduates will be the first from our community to go on to college! As she heads to KU this fall, we would love to bless her with a new laptop or Chrome book to set her up for success.  We are looking for a person or small group to purchase the computer.  Please contact Megan McDermott (meganm@missionadelante.org) if you would like to help.  (Please no cash donations.)

• We need several 4x8 foot ivory-colored cloth tablecloths to be used for events at the building. If you are able to provide these, please contact Jenny Dunn at jennyd@missionadelante.org.

• We still need a few more board books for our Mommy & Me ESL and early literacy class in June. Please contact laurent@missionadelante.org for book titles.

 

Hasta and Bibi play the piano together while they wait to register for English class.

A Deaf International volunteer comes each week to work with our deaf ESL students.