At the center last night Claire, Jackson, Micah, and Luke continued doing oral assessments to place students. The classes are all full. We will teach 7:00 - 9:00 PM (19:00 - 21:00 as they say here) . We will teach two levels of beginner levels, an intermediate level, and an advanced level. The lower levels have 15 students, and the advanced class has 18 students. We haven't decided yet who will teach which level. Two classes will have one instructor and two will have two of us teaching. Please pray as we decide how to split up the classes. Since the classes are conversational, large classes make it hard to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak.
Also, I (Michael) have an additional task. Another college student, Micah N, is doing a business internship for his degee program at University of Wisconsin. He is setting up a coffee shop in the center that will be open during class hours from 4:30 - 9:00 PM, Sunday through Wednesday. He needs help with the coffee, and I am the only person on our Simpson team who really likes coffee! Bummer ;^) So I spent part of the evening with Micah N getting the espresso machine to work, and other coffee-related tasks.
Kim spent most of the evening working on lesson plans She has a better idea of what the students are like now, so that helps. The picture is Kim workingon her eee Machine in the coffee shop.
All of except Kim had great opportunities to put our cultural orientation into action. Micah, Claire, Luke, and Jackson were more comfortable doing the oral assessments, and got into more significant discussion with students. For me, I was talking to (bothering?) Kim and she pointed out three men sitting on sofas. "Why don't you go down and talk to them?" I was nervous, but said one of those under-my-breath "Help me, Lord" prayers and approached them. Soon the three grew to six (all men, of course) and a fun conversation developed.
After the registration closed, and the students left, our team went outside to visit with some members of the Amman Alliance church. I got choked up when I introduced myself to Pastor Youssef. I had seen this precious man on Alliance videos. For me it was like meeting one of my heros. A faithful pastor in a country that is 98% of another faith.
We taxied back to the Guest House, had a great team debrief led by Jackson, and got to bed at midnight. Several of us popped awake around 3:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep, so we haven't fully overcome the jet lag yet.
Today we are getting a tour of Amman by a Jordanian brother.
We'd love to hear from you!
Grace and peace,
Michael
