Cultural Differences

I just completed a class and now I am certified to teach English as a second language. Not sure what I will do with it but I've always wanted to have the training. Right now I'm too tired to even think about teaching a 2 hour class once a week for months.

Classes were taught by the SC Baptist Literacy Mission division of the SC Baptist Convention or the WMU or something and were held in Greer at a small church called His Vineyard. This church was so hospitable to us. They have about 80 -100 attenders I guess (based on the size of their auditorium). They are about to celebrate 4 years as a church and are in their 2nd location. They have a Spanish speaking service every Sunday at 1 PM after their morning English speaking service.

We had 12 people representing 7 churches, most with ministries already in place. The teacher is from a small church in the Valley Falls area of Spartanburg. They have had literacy missions for 12 years and teach mostly Mexicans and Cambodians but also other orientals and Europeans. They have had a ministry in the past to work with the spouses of doctors who come from overseas to do their residency at Spartanburg Regional.

One of the things we talked about at the end of the 15 hours of classes (6-9:30 on Thurs & Fri and 8:30-5:30 on Sat) was the cultural differences - things that Americans do or say that can offend those from other countries.

As I sat an listened to this I thought about the cultural differences between NewSpring and these very traditional churches. Throughout the sessions the teacher would give ideas about how to get last year's missions posters from the WMU or to use a children's Sunday School room because it might have a lot of the visuals you could use. She talked about giving reports at business meetings to generate interest and having the class on Wednesday night so the children could go to the regular church activities while the parents go to their literacy class. None of this fits into the culture of NewSpring. It never occurred to the teacher that their might be a "different" church in the room.

I will let Howard and David Nimmons know that I have this certification but I don't know that the church would want to be the provider of classroom space or put it in the budget. I'll just pray about that. The training I took is meant to be an outreach of the church to share Jesus with the class by having a devotion and prayer before every class and even use scripture for teaching. It also encourages talking about Christmas and Easter, etc. I may get involved with a secular ministry if this is not the right ministry for NewSpring. It was my heart, my desire to know how to do this so God will lead me where I need to go and to those I should teach and just the right time to do it.