We had prepared 10 English lessons all with about 20 words for each lesson using pictures and fun activities weaving the Word of God and Bible stories into the hour we were there. Our team put a lot of time and effort into these lessons… but things always change on a Russian Mission Trip that I had told the team to be prepared to “flex” or be flexible. Our ESL had to have a LOT of “flexing”!
Most of the 430 kids at this camp apparently had several years of English lessons from school. They knew most of the basic words we had brought to teach. Even the Bible Stories we taught were well known by the kids!
On staff at the camp were two guys attached to an organization that would pay English speakers to come and teach English at the camp. Camper’s parents paid extra for their child to attend these classes. John and Teddy are great guys and we all made fast friends. This helped us to understand the level of English the kids had at the camp. Their ability was higher than we anticipated and they wanted more conversational English, especially with the older kids.
We had to make some major revisions in the lessons that we taught. We also only got to teach one or two of the 10 lessons we had prepared. Our first meeting with any of the 17 groups we
did lesson one. A few days later maybe the same group would sign up for a class and we would move to the second lesson. But much of the lessons had to be revamped while we were there to accommodate the level of English that was known.Toward the end of camp we led some of the older groups in a game show that required them to use some convers
ational English. We created the “Dating Game” where we pre-wrote questions in English that the kids would have to answer. The game was a hit once they understood the concept and it spurred conversational English. However, it wasn’t meeting the ministry goals I had intended. It was only on the Monday after Parents Day that I saw an opportunity! Read the next blog entry about “Angel Day” and what we did to incorporate the Word of God!
ational English. We created the “Dating Game” where we pre-wrote questions in English that the kids would have to answer. The game was a hit once they understood the concept and it spurred conversational English. However, it wasn’t meeting the ministry goals I had intended. It was only on the Monday after Parents Day that I saw an opportunity! Read the next blog entry about “Angel Day” and what we did to incorporate the Word of God! 
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