So it's been a month since I last sent out an update.
Guess that means that perhaps I should update ye old blog. So here it is!
For the past month and a bit I've been at Youth With A Mission - Lebanon, Pennsylvania (not Lebanon the country). Most of my time here is spent in my office (I have an office!) rebuilding the website. I started out with the online applications as the old system wasn't informing us of new applications or applications just weren't being submitted. Our DTS was "full" and no applications could be submitted. That was rather high priority since it's hard to run a school where students are unable to apply. So the new applications are up and working well and we've seen an increase in inquiries as a result. The new website is taking a little longer. I spent a long time fighting with my virtual server before I finally got it working. Apparently Windows 7. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll have the new site running. As well I'll be mounting our projector next week and moving all our worship from overhead transparencies to a open source worship program. We're moving into the 21st century!
There are a few things I do outside of 'my office'.
Mondays I spend at Hopes Resource Center which is the day part of a homeless shelter. Originally I was just supposed to sit at the front desk and let people in who are registered or help new registrants through the application process. It was quickly discovered that I knew my way around computers and I now spend most of my time there working with records and smoothing out the wrinkles. It's probably my favorite part of my week. I really enjoy it there.
Monday through Wednesday afternoons I help with an after-school program at the Middle School. It's not terribly exciting and we aren't allowed to do a lot but we hope the longer we're there the more impact we'll be able to have on the children at the school.
Saturdays a few of us travel into Harrisburg to work with an ESL school that teaches English to a Nepali refugees that were expelled from Bhutan in the 1990s and have recently come to America after living in refugee camps in India for many years. They say 'Zed' instead of 'Zee' which makes me happy having been taught some British English in India. One of the teachers was confused by this until I explained that all the other English speaking countries in the world say 'Zed'. The Nepali people are very friendly and enthusiastic and I enjoy teaching them.
Aside from that, I help lead worship with my fancy new guitar my parents got me for my birthday.
Here at the base we have a three-month ESL in progress with one student. We had six or so other students who had their Visa's denied, so now there is one. Her name is Dalva and she's from Brazil. Our TESOL teachers arrived yesterday. TESOL is a school to teach people how to teach English. They'll run two one month courses. The first starts on Monday with five enrolled students.
I'm enjoying my time here. I'm challenged daily but I'm constantly offered the opportunity to grow.
Blessings,
Christopher
