You can call me Miss Claire

Hi friends! I just finished my first week teaching English classes and thought I'd give you a short synopsis.
I love our students already. We have students from the Syria, Congo, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Morocco, Albania, Senegal, and Iran, ranging from age 13 to 60-something. They are (for the most part) very eager to learn and fun to get to know. As you can imagine, you learn to laugh at yourself a good bit when you're learning a foreign language, so we've been able to laugh together a good bit already. We have 4 levels of classes, with the highest being a conversation class. This year, only one student enrolled in conversation class, a 27 year-old woman who works for the European Union and also happens to be very friendly and easy to talk to. Essentially, we have a coffee date twice a week for the next 10 weeks to talk about whatever she wants. Finally, I enjoy teaching much more than I expected to, which makes class fun. I originally thought of English class only as a means to build deeper relationships with these individuals, but the process of helping someone grasp a word or concept has been satisfying as well.
Please pray for all these relationships being formed with our students: I want each individual we're teaching to think favorably of Christ by the end of the semester because of knowing Janee, Hary and I, and I want each student to see and hear the Gospel as clearly as possible by the end of the semester.
I leave tomorrow for a church-wide weekend retreat in Waterloo. The adults of the church will be led by a guest pastor from Germany and worship leader from Syria, while Janee and I will lead separate sessions for the youth during the same time. We've planned about 9 hours worth of Bible study and discussion focused on our identity in Christ: who we are as Christ-followers, what our message is as such, and the practical daily application of that in our lives. This is the first time for most of the youth to participate in something like this, and likely the first time they have personally engaged these ideas. Please pray for them to wrestle with God this weekend and respond to the Gospel with sincere understanding and joy!