English Class - Level 2
Mondays are so easy with this group! I love spending time each week preparing for this class and watching them enjoy all the games. At the start of the school year, I started a Special Person Chair in which we ask questions to one person in the class each week to get to know each other better and to practice basic English conversation skills. Now that we are a few weeks into the school year, most of the kids are volunteering to be in the special chair. We've had to draw names because everyone wants to sit in the chair! These students are already very attached to Gerald and Piggie - our class stuffed animal mascots - actually, the boys have claimed Piggie as their own, nicknaming her "Little Ham" and holding her during all the activities! I am really proud of this group. They are all growing so fast in their English abilities and really working together as a team!
Working together - with Piggie too, of course.
Using their new adjective vocabulary to guess what animal is on their head.
English Class - Level 1
My Level 1 English Class is full of energy! They love moving and calling out their English vocabulary while we are running around in different games. We are still continuing in our theme about the farm and the students are really excited to finally be adding lots of animals to their art projects. With this group, I've learned it is the simple games that are the most fun! Sometimes, I introduce a game that I expect will take just a few minutes (planning for the younger kids with shorter attention spans), but they ask to play again and again until finally the translator and I are bored and decide WE want to switch games! Each week, we review all the farm vocabulary we have learned so far, and I am always so impressed with all the vocabulary this clever group can remember.
(1) Finding who has the hidden object. (2) Rolling on the "field" as we practiced vocabulary for the farm.
Little Linguists
On Tuesdays, our ELIM space drastically changes from the morning to the afternoon. We start on Tuesday morning lots of toys and singing with the toddlers, and by Tuesday afternoon, the space is transformed into our youth club space. I adore the time with the Littles and creating the lessons that guide them to experience their world. I have also been focused on creating activities for the kids that their mothers would easily be able to replicate at home. I get really excited when I hear mothers say, "I guess all I need is a cardboard box and chestnuts to keep my son entertained for a half-hour!" or "My girls absolutely love this game! We can make our own spiderweb with jump-ropes at home." Due to a lack of preschools and enrollment in our community, more and more kids are staying home longer with their mothers, so the moms are thrilled to have a guided learning time for their kids and to also get to chat with other mothers. All the kids are reluctant to leave when we finish on Tuesday mornings and already making their mothers promise that they will come again the following week!
(1) Feeding Mr. Squirrel the chestnuts. (2) Blowing the leaves off the tree.
(1) A happy little spider! (2) Making it through the spiderweb without getting caught!
(1) Even the littlest ELIM program has lots of green - our logo color! (2) Catching flies in the web (contact paper and yarn).
Boskovice Club
At our youth club in Boskovice, it is really fun to see the different groups of friends come to the club center and then play in games, like dodgeball or Nerf Battle, together. Some of the older kids have taken the younger ones under their wings to teach them new scooter tricks in our courtyard when the weather is good. Often in autumn, the weather can get dreary and rainy, but we were so excited to see a rainbow appear one day!
A rainbow at club!
Many of our kids arrive to club on wheels - scooters, trick bikes, skateboards - all lined up in the entryway of our building and taken out to the courtyard to practice tricks.
Skateboards, Scooters, and Bikes!
Nerf Battles are accompanied with action soundtracks with this group!
Velke Opatovice Club
At the beginning of the month, we opened our third Free-Time Youth Center in another nearby city. The leaders of the city have been asking for ELIM to come to Velke Opatovice and are very excited for the opportunity of club for their youth. There were many families and young kids at the opening party, so we could feel all the support from the community already. While there were many families at the opening party, we still didn't know how the youth would respond to the club - we have seen that at the start of opening a new club, it could be a month or so before the word gets out to all the teens before they start coming. This was not the case in Velke Opatovice! At the first club, we had nearly 70 kids! Since the room for our club center in this city is smaller than our other facilities, we have been creative to create space for the kids. The kids come and go as school finishes at different times and some of the youth live in surrounding villages and need to catch buses home. We are all very excited for the hunger these kids have for gathering together in this community. We are praying to develop close relationships with these youth as we begin to invest in another city!
Opening Party
A regular club day
Letovice Club
In all the yeast of working with youth, we have learned the key to inviting kids to our youth club program is free popcorn! For kids and their friends who have never been to ELIM club, a bag of popcorn seems to break all uneasiness of coming to try a new activity. We realized a few weeks ago that there was a smaller number of kids coming to youth programs in Letovice because of long COVID lockdowns the previous year and moving into our new building, so we needed a party to invite new kids. The party was huge success as we had nearly 100 people at the Popcorn Party! Most of the youth who came were either new or who hadn't been to club in a long time. We rounded up the kids to participate in four competitions at the party - foosball, ping-pong, spikeball, and dodgeball. The time went so fast that if it wasn't for all the popcorn pieces on the floor, I wouldn't have guessed it was almost time to finish the party. The kids really enjoyed the afternoon, and we are so excited to see many of them back again for regular club activities!
The Spikeball Competiton
My little helpers
I'm so excited my English Class students are also becoming connected to club activities! One mom of one of the kids wrote me after the party, "[Name] is already planning to come next Tuesday to club and can't wait!"
Kid's Bible Class
We started Kid's Bible Class this month, and while the group is still quite small right now, we are hopeful the kids will begin inviting their friends and more will be joining us soon. My co-leader and I decided we would have the theme "Pirates" for the year. We wanted to create a theme in which the kids would need to work together (not against each other) and move forward as a team. As Pirates, the group comes together and we sit in our "ship" for the first part of the lesson time and the kids listen to a Bible story as we are "traveling" to our next location. Then, we continue the story of the previous week with new team-building challenges and activities. The kids are having a great time pretending to be pirates and enjoy seeing how their story will continue.
(1) Finding our direction on the map. (2) Working as a team to get across the river.
Youth Group
We've jumped back into a regular youth group meeting also, and my Connect Club girls are now old enough for youth group! They are coming regularly and beginning to bring more of their friends as well. It is so fun to see how excited they are about the programs. Many weeks, they already begin asking at the start of the week who will have the program on Friday evening and what we will discuss. It's great to see their excitement to hear the Bible stories and testimonies. We invited a couple from our church to come one Friday to share their testimonies and after they finished, the kids started asking, "Do all Christians have stories like that? Can we hear more of these testimonies from other leaders maybe too?" Then, one of our skatepark kids said, "I have an interesting life story also. Maybe I can share a part of it too?" Even though this student isn't yet a Christian, I was so proud that he understood the idea of a testimony and communicated his story - sharing how a difficult situation in his life created resiliency. It is definitely a theme I believe God has placed in many of our lives to share and encourage others too.
Youth Group
Each year, we have new half-leaders who join our ELIM team. They are often students about 14-15years old who are excited for some more leadership opportunities at clubs. We love investing in these kids, and honestly, it is one of my favorite parts of this job - to help them develop their leadership traits! I can see how these youth are excited to give back to the younger generation at club as they had been poured into by half-leaders when they were younger also. It will definitely be a fun year watching this group grow into their new roles as half-leaders.
Leaders and Half-Leaders Team Meeting
Free-Time
Autumn is my favorite season, so I try to spend as much time outside as possible during the nice autumn days. This month, I spent lots of time on my bike. I tried so many new trails and was excited to take my bike out for a couple hours many Saturdays. One of my little friends even joined me one Saturday for a quick trip, and I am looking forward to more trips with her in the spring. I finally downloaded a bike-tracking app to keep track of my trails and miles - and in the month of October, I went 120 miles on my bike. I simply couldn't get enough of the nature! On my bike in a trail in the middle of a forest is maybe my favorite place to pray and talk to God. It is also the place where I come up with the most ideas for my English Class lessons! Sometimes, the fog and sunsets make the most breathtaking sights that I have to stop and snap a picture. We are starting to get ready for winter weather here, but I keep hoping for a autumn to hold out a little while longer.
Biking with my Little Buddy
A stunning sunset