When I first heard about AMCA's (Asociación de Ministerios Cristianos) teaching english ministry, my heart lept. I had been praying about how to get involved in ministry, as it seemed the people who were involved were ones that had studied here/lived here longer or ones who had connections established here with their mission agency. I yearned to get involved in ministry again and to get to know more Ticas (Costa Ricans). AMCA sounded like the perfect place!
The first Wednesday was the first class, a one-size-fits-all time of instruction mostly meant for new comers. I could hardly contain my excitement and had an incredible time starting to get to know some of the students who would be coming to the AMCA classes. The model class (run by the director, Cynthia) consisted of reading, speaking, and listening to English. Cynthia used a lot of humor and taught some basic facts about English: "It's easy! English doesn't have masculine or feminine articles, it just has 'the'. 'The book', the pencil, the ball. Very easy!" I had never really thought about it like that, and I could see the comfort level in the room rising as students sighed in relief that learning English wasn't going to be the insurmountable challenge they thought. Sandwiched between the two parts of the English class was a time for cafecito (coffee break) and Cynthia's husband, Chris, did a small devotional (in Spanish) and taught the students an English song: Jesus Loves the Little Children. It was so amazing to sing that song and look around at some of the AMCA students, knowing that they were hearing the gospel loud and clear and praying that they would experience the depths of God's love for them, His children.
Find out more about AMCA here! Be in prayer for relationships to be built in which to share/show the students the gospel, for wisdom in teaching English (thankfully I'm co-teaching with my neighbor), and for patience/understanding between the teacher and student and vice versa about learning a language.
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