Keeping busy...

Wow, February has been a busy month for us! We are completely settled into our lovely apartment, as you saw in the last post. We're busy with our college class, teaching English, food pantry, and other activities! We are learning so much about American immigrants in history! It's incredible to be able to look at all that people like our great grandparents experienced and what immigrants and refugees experience today! It's great to be learning the history and connecting with our immigrant friends at the same time, and see it not only in text books but in people and relationships. Between education and relationships and seeking God's heart in the matter, we both are really excited about the ideas and vision he's giving us regarding immigrants and refugees!
This month we began to teach English to the elderly in our neighborhood. There is a senior housing center near us, and many of their residents come to our weekly food pantry (free groceries!). They have told us how much they enjoy coming, how our "SMILES" make them want to keep coming back. The food pantry has provided us such an awesome connection with this senior center, that one of the managers there has invited us to come and teach English to the seniors twice a month! We began this month, and we had a group of 8 Chinese students. The eldest senior, 100 years this September, was with us. We found out from his friend that he was a high school teacher back in China. It's pretty obvious that he's a smart man, as he was picking up on the English language skills quickly! Our hope is obviously not only to encourage the seniors in their English skills, but to continue down the road of relationship, speak value and importance into their lives and share God's love. Later this spring, we are going to host a barbecue for the residents as another chance to get to know them better. Pray for these sweet people, most of them are Chinese and Russian immigrants. God has a lot of love that He is wanting to show them!
Jason and I are also connecting with a refugee service provider in the area and we will begin this week to tutor a refugee married couple from Burma (aka Myanmar) in English. We will be able provide lessons in their home on their schedule! We've only heard stories, as I'm sure you have, of what the Burmese refugees have gone through, so I'm sure we'll be hearing more of that from them soon. Please be praying for our relationships with them, that it will not only be a great way to develop our Teaching skills, but that we will create a blessed friendship with this couple!
Please also keep in prayer our long-term vision, and how Jason and I can keep piecing together all that God is saying, and all that we are learning and experiencing in this season.
Feel free to check out our organization's website to find out more about what we're doing, because the things I'm talking about on this blog are just specific things that Jason and I are currently involved in. (Our organization, http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/ ; Jason and my specific branch that we work with, http://www.becausejusticematters.org/ )
Thanks to everyone for the prayers!