Teaching In New Ways
[Posted 2021-01-27]
Last week I was able to take a big step forward in two areas.
Since last year I have been developing a teaching on Faith & Finances, largely focused on equipping missionaries who, like us, raise support to be on the mission field, but also involving teaching on approaching our finances in general as Christians. This has grown from the support raising training sessions I have been offering online, one-on-one, to missionaries during the pandemic.
At the end of 2020 we hosted a team from the YWAM base in Guatemala City and in speaking to some of the leadership of that base who came up with the team I mentioned that I would be willing and interested in offering to come to the base and teach this to the staff there. Then, about two weeks ago, I was contacted by the leadership and invited to come down a week or so later to start teaching the staff.
And so, in the middle of last week, having much of my material now ready in PowerPoint slides, I took an overnight bus down to the capital. This was the first time I was going to share this material in a group setting, having first started teaching on this one- to-one with someone in Malaysia, having then had similar meetings in Antigua, and then having been teaching it to individuals via video calls throughout much of the last year. Switching to a group dynamic, or classroom setting, is quite different, but I had been able to pick out some of the group activities from the source material I had been developing my teachings from, as well as tweak some of my own work to make it more interactive and fitting for a group.
But there was one more big change. Until now I had delivered my teachings always in English, but upon being invited to share with the base I knew it was going to be in a bilingual environment. My initial thoughts had been that my class would be delivered with a translator, giving me the option to take the safe route and teach in English, or to even push myself to teach some of it in Spanish. However, since everyone there speaks Spanish with varying levels of English I was instead challenged by the leader I was liaising with (who is also a friend) to deliver the teaching completely in Spanish. This seemed pretty scary, having never done so before, but being reassured that those who spoke English in the room would be available should I need help with a particular word or phrase, or that if in the worst case I should get mentally exhausted and need to switch to English someone could become a translator, I accepted.
So last week, for the first time, I spent around 15 hours teaching pretty much exclusively in Spanish! This has been a huge encouragement to me, since I had no idea how much I would be able to pull it off. The time started with an afternoon for me to meet with the leadership team, almost fully in Spanish, as we spoke about their desire to grow in this area as a base and help their staff develop their own support levels. The teaching proper began the next day, from 9-5.30 with breaks in the morning and afternoon and time for lunch in the middle. It all went well, and though the end of the first of those two days left me with a headache, I felt ok throughout the second day.
We got through about two and a half of the six sections that comprise my material so far, so the plan is to go back next month and pick up where I left off, hopefully finishing it all in that time (though I need to finish the rest of the slides before then!). I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to deliver my classes to a group, and for the challenge to step outside of my comfort zone and teach in my second language, and I’m looking forward to going back to carry on.
(Photo Credits to YWAM Guatemala City, from their Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/YWAM-Guatemala-141177112625328/)
