Love Above All - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

This week we ran an English retreat! The theme was Love Above All. There was a week where we made lesson plans for our class. So the first thing we did every-week was going to the youth building around six o’clock and meet up with all the leaders. We would talk and then pray for our evening that the students would hear God through the English we teach them.

The students would fill the building and we would sing songs with everyone. We went to a college where our team taught. My lessons always started with a game to get to know each other. The first day we made name tags and another day we put fears into a hat and the students had to guess who had that fear. Some of the fears were very real like loneliness, hopelessness, and dying. I got to know more about the people I was teaching. The next thing we did was read a bible lesson. I did lessons about how Jesus fed the 5,000, how he heals the sick, and how he performed these miracles when he was on the earth. Through teaching, I also learned a lot more about Jesus. After the bible lesson, we talk about practical things in English. Like one day we had a restaurant scenario and they had to order the fruit they wanted. I brought food for them to make it more exciting. We go over grammar as well. Then to top the class off, we play another game like hangman to get the students spelling.

After class is over, we head back to the youth building where one of our teammates share their testimony about how God showed them love in their lives. I loved hearing my teams testimony and how God loves them even through their brokenness. After the testimony, we sing more songs then socialize with people who may have questions about their faith and fellowship. We have tea and great pastries. Our team walks home in the rain all the time. Steeping in puddles wishing they had waterproof shoes like me. The shoes are the best investment I made.

After doing English all week, we went to a camp for 2 days on Saturday and Sunday. The meals they had were authentic Ukrainian meals. I taught English for 2 hours. The first day I taught about American holidays and politics in the United States. The Bible teaching we went over was how God performed more miracles. Then we did grammar lessons and reading. After that, we prepared workshops for the students. We had swing dancing and painting. We had free time and hung out with the students. At night we sang and Tania our host read a bible story. We played games and got to know the students more.

On Sunday, I taught another 2-hour English class. My class was all girls. This time, we went over the passage in the bible where it talked about loving God with all our heart, mind, and strength. I taught them about what a Testimony was. A Testimony is how God has worked in your life or a struggle you have overcome. I had them think about questions that asked, how can we love ourselves? How can we love God with our heart, mind, and strength? Why do some people not believe in God? I made the space comfortable for people to share part of their testimony. After the girls shared I taught them to say, ” Thank you for sharing” because it is hard sometimes for people to share about personal struggles. I also learned this at training camp with Beauty for Ashes. This day was my favorite because we all were opening up and thinking about personal questions.

After hours of lesson planning in a cramped apartment, it all paid off and we got to see the fruits of our work. Some people came to Christ and others had questions about what a relationship with Jesus looked like. I learned more just by teaching and other students got plugged in with the church. We got to teach the Gospel through English class!