A couple of
years ago I became friends with a lovely Peruvian lady who works at a local
diner bussing tables. I took 3 years of
Spanish in high school more than 40 years ago now. I was not very fluent in the language then,
so as you can imagine, I’m even LESS fluent now. Martha speaks almost no English as well, yet
somehow, we manage to “converse” about children, grandchildren and the
weather. That friendship made me think
that it would be so helpful to learn to teach English as a second language so
that Martha and others like her might better adjust to their new culture and
navigate more easily.
With our
close proximity to New York City where many men work, our county draws people
from all over the world. The street we
live on is a cul de sac on both sides and the population occupying the homes represents
people from all over the world! We have
Asians – Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese.
We have East Indians. We have Philippinos,
Malaysians, Egyptians – all of them first generation – and their children, some
of them American born. And then we have
us - second, third and beyond European types but we are quickly becoming the
minority! We don’t have to travel far
these days to hear other languages and experience another culture – and I love
it!
After meeting
Martha one of the desires the Lord put in my heart was to get some kind of
training in ESL (English As A Second Language).
It wasn’t long after that I notice a flyer at our library offering
free training and I was very excited! The
down side was that the training was offered at a time when I was not free.
The next year
it was advertised again and my excitement was renewed, however, I discovered
that with the training came a commitment to participate in the library’s ESL
program for a year, meeting once a week for an hour and a half with your
student. That year I was doing a number
of other ministry related things at church and was afraid I wouldn’t be able to
fulfill the commitment, so I had to let the opportunity go.
Then finally
this fall everything came together. The
class was offered at a time I was free and I thought I could fit the year long
one and half hour sessions into my schedule, so I signed up. I met with about 20 others for 8 hours total of training,
which was interesting, informative and challenging.
The
librarian trainers told us that most of the people who are interested in ESL
tutoring are beginners. Although I’m a
trained teacher, all of my teaching was with young children. That lack of experience teaching advanced
grammar concepts, combined with the many years since I’d actually studied
English grammar, made me anxious about teaching anything but a beginner. So I breathed a sigh of relief.
And then I
received information about the young woman I’d be teaching – she was described
as intermediate. I immediately began to
kick myself for not paying better attention in class when they gave some
suggestions for teaching intermediate students!
In her e mail of information about my student, the librarian said that
if I thought for any reason the match wouldn’t work, I could request someone
else.
I have to
admit, my initial thought was, “yes”! I
thought I was getting a beginner, I’d never done this before. What would I do with someone who might
actually need help in advanced grammar???
And then I
stopped whining and complaining, and faith kicked in. I knew the Lord had been leading me to do
this for some time. I hadn’t requested
any particular level of student because I had prayed for the Lord to do the
matching, so now I had to walk by faith that this student was HIS student. So I said yes and made arrangements to meet
Eri.
Eri is a
lovely young Japanese woman (whose name is actually pronounced Eddie) and has
been living in the states for some time.
She’s the mother of two young children and her husband works in New York
City. In her former life, before kids,
she was a dietician in Japan, so she’s well educated as well as sweet and
smiling and polite. And her grammar is
excellent! Whew! What a blessing!
In those
first conversations back in the fall when we were still finding out about each
other, Eri told me that she and her husband had been living in Idaho (yes,
there apparently really are people living in Idaho – although I have never met
anyone else from there – sorry you Idahoians!) while Kaz went to school. There they were befriended by Kaz’s ESL
teacher – a woman who, along with her husband, had been missionaries in Japan
for 19 years and who had a ministry to international students!
I heard
“missionaries” and my heart did a flip!
That was the confirmation I needed that being paired with Eri was not a
chance encounter. It was a divine
encounter, orchestrated by God to bring her and me together.
At some
point I mentioned something about my church and Eri told me that they attended
a Christian church in our town. When I
asked if she was a Christian, she said, “We’re learning”. I was already impressed that this young
couple had sought to continue to learn about what it means to be a Christian by
venturing out on their own here in New Jersey to become part of a Christian fellowship. That takes courage!
So Eri and I
are new friends, but we are more than that, because the Spirit of the Lord is
moving in both our hearts, drawing us together and blessing us in ways neither
of us imagined, and in ways we’ve yet to see.
Following
Jesus is an adventure – an adventure that has taken me to exciting places I didn’t plan to go and
never would have dreamed. His plan for
us is so much bigger and better than anything we could dream for
ourselves.
And what
could be better than encouraging someone seeking to know Him so that one day they
too will walk with Him. And I didn’t
have to go to Japan to do it!
Want to live
more than just a ho-hum Christian life? Then
“delight in the Lord” and let Him put HIS desires in your heart, and get ready.
. . . adventure will surely follow!
All you have to do is say, “Yes, Lord, lead
the way. I’m right behind you!”
