Adelante Express: Consistency in Student Attendance

Faithfulness plus Enthusiasm Equals Consistent Students

We’re in the fourth week of the trimester, and we’re finding the students’ attendance to be increasingly consistent by the trimester. This is due much in part to your faithfulness and enthusiasm!

Kids Adelante reaching neighborhood kids

Thirty or more kids have attended Kids Adelante every week so far. Jarrett reports that each of the four age groups has good balance and that the volunteers are doing an outstanding job leading them. It has been exciting for him to see a boy named Eric in the oldest age group attend repeatedly with his friend Agustin, although his parents are not connected with the ministry. Also, Megan McDermott, Kids Adelante volunteer, is the first intern lined up for this summer, and has begun preparing for that role.

Milestones in the Mission Adelante Church Plant

A pivotal moment for the ministry occurred Sunday night as our monthly Worship Celebration was transitioned to meeting at the facility. Families assembled in rows of chairs set up in the south hall resembled a church gathering. Jarrett taught about Christian service and then we took the first big step in the process of mobilizing Hispanic volunteers: we divided up and launched three teams including Spiritual Growth, Practical Service, and Sunday-night Children’s Ministry. Please pray for momentum and member ownership of these new teams.

A Prayer Request-Stolen Truck

Also, a truck belonging to Yolanda, ESL level 3, and Lorenzo, ESL level 1 was stolen last week. It has been found, but was stripped of parts. Please pray for resolution of the matter in their favor with their insurance company.

Adelante Express: Schoffs Welcome Their First Son

If you haven’t already heard the news, Declan Neal Schoff was born on Wednesday, January 30 just before 11:00 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs, 4 ozs and measured 21 inches long at birth. He is healthy and Megan is feeling pretty good. I heard Jason comment several times, “I am very blessed” today at the office.

Upon hearing the news of Declan Schoff’s birth, student Telma in Class 2 on Thursday evening said they should bring gifts to class next week to share with Jason and Megan. It was clear that Jason had made a real impression on the students last trimester in level 1 and they wanted to show their appreciation for him and his family.

ESL level 4, led by Andrea Sears on Thursday evenings, has begun meeting at Gabi Martinez's house, as she has twins and volunteered to host the class so she can be available to attend to the babies as necessary. Andrea says, “It was refreshing and fun to meet in a student's house and see her ownership of hospitality/dessert and investment in the class. Our group of women is dedicated to learning English and continues to progress steadily. In addition to our TPR story and activities, we learned and practiced using some common adjectives, and Elvia shared the exciting news that she is expecting her second child in August!”

There were 12 volunteers at Kids Adelante. In the youngest group, after Megan is done with the lesson she has the children color a page relating to the story. One of the adults usually reads a couple books to the children. Darrel told them he was going to read from his favorite book first. He read the story of Moses, which was their lesson for that evening, to them out of the Bible. Mary Ann Bettis commented, “The children listened so attentively and quietly. It was fun to see.”

All of our English-learners and kids benefit from your continued dedication! Thank you!

Adelante Express: 2008 Winter Trimester Launched

Our winter trimester got off to a great start last Thursday! Five levels of ESL are meeting throughout the community on Thursday evening, with an additional level 2 and level 4 class meeting on Thursday and Tuesday mornings. The CHWC Conference room was barely large enough to hold the eager group of new level 1 students on Thursday evening, with 25 Hispanic students and 11 volunteers in attendance. Because of our space constraint, five of those students have joined our waiting list for next trimester.

There was just as much activity at the Meek’s home with 33 kids and 10 volunteers in attendance for Kids Adelante. Our goal is for Kids Adelante to begin meeting at the new facility just a few weeks from now. Stay tuned for the date when that will occur.

In addition to ministry news, I have some personal news to share on behalf of Jason & Megan Schoff. They went to the hospital this morning to begin the process of welcoming Declan into their family. Everything has gone well this far and they expect him to make his entrance tomorrow. Please pray for a safe and enjoyable delivery for Megan, Declan and Jason.

Thank you for your dedication to serving the Hispanics in Kansas City, Kansas!

A Note from the Director

Mission Adelante is making an effort to improve the way we communicate with those who love and support our ministry. Previously, The Adelante Express had been exclusively for volunteers. We are now broadening our scope of communication to include any and all who may have an interest in receiving stories, updates and prayer requests from the Mission Adelante community.

In broadening our communication scope we have set up a blogsite for The Adelante Express that will include each week’s update and links to other Mission Adelante information. You can visit this site any time you like. You can even choose to include The Adelante Express on your Yahoo! (or other) homepage by clicking on the “subscribe to posts” link on the bottom of the blog page. If you have friends who might be interested in getting our updates you can email them this week’s post so they can check it out and subscribe if they choose.

If you are not interested in receiving our weekly updates, reply to this email with the word, “unsubscribe” in the subject line, and we will respectfully remove your name from our list.

We hope you enjoy reading about what God is doing in and through Mission Adelante and we thank you for your interest and support!

In His Grace,
Jarrett Meek