What I’ve learned so far at Mission Adelante, and what’s to come!
by Veronica Garcia, Refugee Services Manager
I’m a new face at Mission Adelante so let me introduce myself. My name is Veronica! A little background about me: I’ve been volunteering with Mission Adelante since January 2021, and I originally started working with the Refugee Youth Club. I was initially interested in volunteering with Mission Adelante because of their mission to love people from all places. At the time, I was enrolled in university majoring in Teaching English as a Second Language; so I thought volunteering for the Thursday night ESL class would be a great opportunity to get hands-on experience. This past July, Gissell approached me and asked about a potential staff position that would start this upcoming fall trimester. Of course, I was intrigued! You can likely guess what happened from there- I wouldn’t be writing this if I said no!
I am on staff at Mission Adelante as a Refugee Services Manager. What does that entail, exactly? I have been creating an ESL class for Refugees, which actually launched Monday, October 3rd. This class is conversational and relational; using images and hands-on activities to learn and conversate in English. I’m excited to be launching this program. Volunteers have eagerly joined and are ready to build relationships and teach new students! So far, we have had interest from people who speak Korean, Swahili, Ukrainian, and Farsi. That’s a wide range of languages right there.
Gissell has also passed the Citizenship Class torch onto me as well, so I am the program manager for that as well. It’s been great getting to know the students who are currently enrolled and meeting new faces. A great development in our Citizenship program is we’ve expanded to 2 classes now- a beginner and intermediate class! It’s great to see that students are so willing to learn and practice more.
As I’m about to approach 8 weeks here on staff, I wanted to share two things I’ve learned so far working at Mission Adelante. The first thing is the work ethic that everyone on staff possesses. As a volunteer, I did not realize so much went into making these programs run as efficiently as they do! Now I understand the commitment and focus it requires to create this community for so many people. Being a part of it is fun, and being behind the scenes of it all takes the fun to another level. Something else that I’ve learned more about is the power of prayer. While it takes a lot of hard work, all the success is answered prayers from God Himself. The amount of time we have all spent in prayer about each of our programs and praying for the right people to come together at the right time for this launch has been extensive. When there have been times where I felt like this wouldn’t succeed, God has shown up in those moments of doubt and either brought a new potential student, volunteer, or a new idea. God truly has his hand upon this entire ministry and I am so thankful to be a part of it!
As I wrap up, I want to ask that whoever may read this will pray for this trimester of Refugee ESL. Please pray that there’s a great turnout of students that will come back each week to learn more and build relationships with the volunteers. Please pray that this launch will be successful so we can continue into next trimester and recruit more students out there who are so willing to learn English!