Connecting to Culture

By Jenny Dunn, Bhutanese ESL Coordinator

A couple Saturdays ago, the Bhutanese volunteers and team had a chance to celebrate our students and the end of yet another trimester of classes. The summer parties are always a special time; they're our most low key parties but are always filled with lots of American culture with the picnic and lawn games as well as Bhutanese-Nepali culture with lots of singing and dancing.

This summer, we had an opportunity to have two outstanding Bhutanese interns, one of who is an excellent dancer. He teamed up with one of our volunteers and choreographed a Hindi dance for a group of us Americans to perform at the party.  We started practicing a month and a half in advance; we wanted the first American dance to be unforgettable. And it was!  It was fun and unforgettable for the dancers as well as for our friends in the audience.

Here are a couple pictures from the "historical party," as said by one of our Bhutanese friends.

In other news:

• We’re negotiating the lease for Adelante Thrift and starting to pull together the team to help launch sustainable community development in our community. Interested in serving on our Adelante Thrift Action Team? Join us at the next Volunteer Orientation and Training on September 13 (see below for details) or email Matt at mattt@missionadelante.org.
• We are having an amazing time with our Cuban family! Five members of the RAICES ("Roots") ministry team are visiting for about two weeks. We have had a lot of great relational time as well as intentional ministry time.  The RAICES team will join the Latino community on our retreat this weekend, where we will be learning about praising God in a variety of contexts.

Prayer needs:

• Pray for our fall trimester planning process. Pray for volunteers, students and kids to be drawn to our programs. Pray that hearts are soft and ready to respond to God’s leading.

Current needs:

• Volunteers for our Fall Trimester, beginning the week of September 15:
• Monday-Thursday afternoons: 20 volunteers to serve one afternoon a week at Leaders In Training, our after-school tutoring and character development program for a select group of 8-13 year old Bhutanese and Latino students.  Contact Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org or Megan McDermott at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Tuesday evenings: 8 volunteers to serve at Kids Club, our outreach Bible study for 1-13 year old Bhutanese kids.  Contact Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org.
• Thursday evenings:
• Volunteer conversation partners for our Adult ESL classes.  Contact Morgan Ham at morganh@missionadelante.org.
• 5 volunteers to serve at Kids Adelante, our outreach Bible study for 5-12 year old Latino kids.  Contact Megan McDermott at meganm@missionadelante.org.

• We are making progress on the house rehab and Christ Community Church has been partnering with us every step of the way.  They are organizing work days this Saturday, August 30 and next Saturday, September 6th starting at 9:00.  We will be installing siding, caulking windows, repairing the porch, and painting.  Email Sarah at sarahw@missionadelante.org for more information or to sign up to help.
• LIT has been gifted tablets to use with LIT this school year.  We are in need of cases to protect the tablets.  If you would like to donate one, check out our Wishlist: LIT Wishlist.  If you have questions please contact Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org or Megan McDermott at meganm@Missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, September 13, 9:00-12:30 All volunteers should attend this training once at the beginning of serving with Mission Adelante. It's also a great way for someone to become familiar with Mission Adelante's ministry. If you or someone you know is interested in finding out more about what we do, and about our volunteer opportunities, please plan to attend/encourage him or her to plan on attending this informative training, and to contact Morgan at morganh@missionadelante.org for all the details.
• All Volunteer Huddle & Dessert: Monday, September 15, 6:30 p.m. We encourage everyone that will be volunteering with us during our fall trimester to attend so we can prepare for a great launch. 
• Fall trimester programs launch: Week of September 15