Susan Morinaga

Usually once per semester, International Connection (the English as a second language program at RBC) plans a “talk-a-latte” for both morning and evening sessions of classes.  This is a time when all four class levels meet together for the last 30 minutes of the class time in the Clubhouse room to have coffee (hence the “latte” part) and snacks, then sit around tables in their class groups with teachers to engage in a particular topic of free discussion.  The topic designated for February 14 -15 was “What do you think is the American (culture’s) view of love?  What do you think is God’s view?”

After I briefly introduced the concept of Valentine’s Day, I asked them to pause and consider another point of view by watching a music video.  We then watched Jason Gray’s video entitled “Remind Me Who I Am” in which many characters were shown holding signs that typified negative characteristics or characters, for example, “Anxious”, “Empty”, “I’m Angry”, “ Victim”, etc.  But the crux of the song was that no matter what we think of ourselves or what others may think of us, in God’s eyes we are His “beloved”.

On our tables, in addition to sheets with the song’s lyrics, there was a list of the main vocabulary words written and defined in order to enhance understanding.  For the ESL group, any time one can combine words with pictures or visuals of any kind, greater comprehension is achieved.  And when one adds music, it adds yet another dimension of interest!

The five tables of students and teachers set about recapping the meaning of the video and song and the lingering question:  What is God’s view of love?  The word “beloved” is rarely used these days and took some time for the students to grasp – but again, the contrast to the other negative labels mentioned in the song was helpful for gaining understanding.  Many of the students could relate to feeling under-valued, abused or “less-than” in this culture.  Incidents of discrimination are regular occurrences to the immigrant population here in Northern Virginia.  But it was the concept of being God’s “beloved” that surprised many of them.  One Buddhist monk came to me and asked for clarification, “Does it mean greatly loved?” he asked.  It does.

I closed the talk-a-latte sessions with a short devotional based on John 3:16 (which was made available to each student in his/her first language) and asked for those who are spiritually interested to continue the conversation with me or with their teachers.  Both sessions provoked deeper questions than the usual classroom lesson plans even for the first-level students.  Our prayer is that the questions will continue and that the Holy Spirit will bear fruit in our students’ lives.

Picture the Clubhouse room in the RBC Children’s Ministry area with crowds of people all speaking different languages. Women wearing head scarves. Buddhist monks in their orange flowing robes. Children of all colors racing around. The smell of Thai noodles and Iranian pilaf. This was the scene of the annual International Connection Thanksgiving Dinner on Tues. Nov. 15th.

International Connection is the English as a second language program at RBC. We have classes on Tuesday nights and Wednesday mornings. Last year’s enrollment of adult students was a little anemic as local internationals had a hard time finding our new church facility. This year is an entirely different story! Student registration has been extremely robust. We finally had to cut it off when class sizes started to outgrow their effectiveness due to their growing sizes.

Every November, we put on a Thanksgiving Dinner for the students and their families. This year, the Bereans adult fellowship group provided the traditional Thanksgiving food (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pies, etc.) and students brought dishes from their home countries. It was an outstanding buffet! Homemade spring rolls, pupusas, taquitos, rice pilaf and more! To make matters more complicated, we had the greatest number of participants ever – 160 bodies! The Clubhouse was set up for 150, but we stretched the limit and were forced to make a classroom the buffet room.

Before dinner, one of the teachers, Marca Fritzemeier, explained the 5 corn kernel story concerning the plight of the first Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. Each place setting had a small cup of 5 candy corn kernels to illustrate the story.

After dinner, the children were dismissed to their childcare workers and we enjoyed a post-dinner program. A short video was shown on the history of the Thanksgiving holiday. This was followed by student speeches. A couple of representatives were selected from each class to tell what they were most thankful for. A surprising number of students mentioned their thanks to God and Jesus – totally unprompted by their teachers! Some expressed their thanks for our program, for their jobs, for their families and their health. One young man expressed his hope that someday soon his young daughter would be able to join him here from El Salvador. These were heartfelt words, and I was reminded of the
many everyday blessings that I take for granted.

Erik Palmer ended the evening with some well-chosen “Thanksgiving “songs that we all joined in on, thanks to the words on the screen. Appropriately, he also presented the gospel in a simple but thorough way and invited anyone who had questions to talk to him or I.C. staff later. It was a meaningful ending to a memorable evening. May God use our words, our relationships and our lives to reflect His goodness and love to these wonderful people.