Oct. 25, 2006

My speaking at the English Bible study went well last night and the discussion groups were lively and deep. (This is a point for thanksgiving and praise in whatever prayer network we develop)

The regional meeting for the Amity teachers in Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang Province was held in Changshu last weekend (Oct 20-22). We arrived late on Friday evening and began our program on Saturday morning. After a morning devotion with some deep discussion that was led by one of the teachers, we shared ideas and resources for teaching. I shared a piece of writing about dealing with stress that was written by one of my students. It will be a great piece to use in classes to stimulate students to discuss this critical issue in their lives because my student talks about her own successful way maintaining a healthy mental attitude in the midst of what would usually be considered a very stressful life. A Danish English teacher shared some wonderful ways to use the stories of Hans Christian Andersen to relate to issues the students face in their lives and, thus to stimulate good discussion and learning on several levels. A teacher who is very talented with words shared some "ditties" he had created to help students practice with the pronunciation of sounds they find difficult. In addition, he gave us a mystery story exercise he had developed for his oral English classes. These all stimulated additional discussion amongst us all as we shared many ideas that we can borrow from one another to use in our own classrooms. In addition, one of the teachers shared about a website where we can download a lot of great listening materials for our own Chinese learning. This site has everything from beginner to advanced Chinese listening materials in mp3 format for free. All of the Amity teachers appreciated learning about this resource. Of course, in addition to this kind of sharing, we spent some wonderful times just in fellowship with one another and some time in seeing the sites and learning about the town where our meeting was held, which by the way was the town where on of our teachers lives and teaches. On Sunday morning, I led us in a time of worship in which we looked at the various stories of Andrew and Peter and Mary and Martha and reflected on how we can learn from these early witnesses in our own life and witness here.

Thanksgiving and praise for the safe journeys of the 12 of us Amity teachers who had our regional meeting in Changshu last weekend (Oct 20-22) and for the wonderful sharing and fellowship we had together.