Hello everyone! This has been a super busy week. I cant believe it is already Saturday!! So we started new ministries this week that we will be continuing throughout the next few months. 

   On Mondays and Tuesdays we will be teaching ESL at El Colegio San Antonio and The Sisters of Charity which is an orphanage. We were split into two groups Joann, Annie, Sarah and I went to Colegio San Antonio while the rest of our team went to Sisters of Charity where they taught some students and also did some one on one tutoring. The only thing I knew going into the school was that we were going to be teaching ninth graders.  I didn´t have any idea how advanced they were in English or really anything that could have prepared me to go into the school. My team and I put together a rough game plan for going into the school which consisted of going in and finding out how much English that they knew, that way we would know how to prepare for Tuesdays class. I was really intimidated going into the school because these kids were closer in age than some of the other kids we have worked with. When I got there I was suddenly very aware of my being a foreigner, some kids were making cat calls and others were just staring. When my group and I were finally led into the classroom we were introduced and then the teacher left. Tana our leader looked at us and said, "Okay guys this is your deal so go for it, I was terrified to say the least. Luckily Sarah took charge and numbered the kids off 1-4 and I got group number 4. I can say that I was praying really hard that I would be confident and not let my fear show through because I was sure that those kids would eat me alive. I started out by asking my group to tell me their names, age, and how many brothers and sisters they had in English. I had 9 kids and their ages ranged from 11-14 It started out a little rocky but eventually they warmed up to me and I started feeling better about the whole situation. I had a hard time remembering their names however, so I had them write down their names and ages etc. Afterwards I had them recite the alphabet in English and write it out phonetically. Before I knew it our 40 minute class was over and I said goodbye to my group. After class my group and I came together and talked about how things went and how we could prepare for Tuesday. We all decided that we would continue with the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes so that all the kids would stay on the same level. On Tuesday I totally felt prepared to lead my group and I memorized all of their names. When I got to the school I experienced pretty much the same fear from the day before and we walked by a class with older kids who cat called at us. Then we got to the ninth grade classroom and were introduced again and we told the kids to split up into their groups until another teacher stopped us and said that we were teaching a different class on Tuesdays. Of course we had to go to the class with the older kids that had cat called us only 5 minutes before. If I had been scared the day before the feeling I experienced in this new classroom was 10 times worse. Long story short I did not connect as well with the older kids who ranged in ages of 16-20. I believe that there was some miscommunication because we were all under the impression that we would be with the ninth graders Mondays and Tuesdays until December.                                                                                                                                                     

            Well I have been really enjoying our new ministries and look forward to telling you what happens in this next week! Please keep praying for me and hope everyones school year is going well!! Keep your eye out for updates and take a look at my pictures. I love and miss everyone. Talk to you soon.   Also if you would like to write me a letter my mailing address is :

                                                 Melissa Brown