This year, we were pleased when a family from our Monday night ESL class decided to join our church. They were from a Catholic background but seemed comfortable at our Anglican church. The children quickly fit into Sunday School, and the family said they enjoyed the service. After a few months, I asked them if […]
An obscure gardener died in a small town. His name was Hubert Bales, and he was one of the shyest men around. When he talked, he squirmed, blinked his eyes rapidly and smiled nervously. Hubert never ran in influential circles. He grew shrubs and trees, working with his hands the plot of land left by his father. He was anything […]
When a guest was received in Palestine 2,000 years ago the host performed certain courtesies. There was the kiss of welcome. Water was provided to wash the dust from his feet, and oil to anoint his head. The guests would recline at the meal and there was free access for the passer-by to stop and […]
I am, by nature, a shy introvert. It’s not that I dislike people. I wouldn’t want to live out the rest of my days in a cabin on a mountaintop. However, I have been hurt and let down by people. So much of leadership and making disciples rests in the hands of others who have […]
Marty was touring Europe just as they were breaking down the Berlin Wall. Wanting to get some historic pieces of the Wall, he headed for Berlin. Because he found the hotels there beyond his means, he asked a young policeman if he knew of an inexpensive place where he could stay. The policeman told Marty […]
When I was a boy I suffered from asthma and hay fever. Being allergic to hay and growing up on a farm was a tough combination during the summer months. When the air was thick with dust and pollen I would suffer through some sleepless nights coughing and sneezing. I vividly remember my mom enduring […]
Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: “Free to good home. You want it, you take it.” For three days, the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. […]
As fall transitions to winter, CESLM is entering a new season as well. This past year has seen many transitions in our organization. The latest is our new Board of Directors. Some of the faces will be familiar – we’d like to welcome back founders Madeline and Mel Johnson as well as our secretary Dale […]
In the fall of 2016 I sensed the Lord direct me to revisit the conversation that He had with the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter 4. While the disciples went into town to buy lunch, Jesus sat down to rest at the well. Seizing the opportunity for a life-changing conversation, Jesus started […]
One Day Workshop Fall 2017 A year ago, we didn’t have enough registrants to hold our annual Reaching Out With English (ROWE). It was a blow to us at CESLM, since we were proud of our 30-hour training, and saw that it was filling a vital need here in Calgary, training volunteers to start ESL […]
~ Spring Training May 22, 2017 – Ooh la la! What a great time at 2017’s Spring Training Conference that Cooperative ESL Ministries hosted! God is good. It was so beneficial to connect with each other and the speakers were such a big blessing. Our theme was Invited in – The Journey so Far, and […]
About this time of year, we often feel that we could use some new ideas for our conversation classes. Here are four of them. The first, is a great idea I learned from my teaching partner, Cindy Hubert. Adjective + Occupation Activity Cindy handed out a set of cards with occupation titles such as: policeman, photographer, […]
What is Christmas? In many places in the world, Christmas is the most popular holiday in the year, especially for Christians. It is very nostalgic for many people—the sights, the sounds, the smells—and time spent with family and friends. Since Canada is in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas comes in the winter season. Thus, we associate Christmas […]
A FOND FAREWELL TO BEV CHAMBERS We were all sad to hear last spring that Bev Chamber’s husband, Norm, had suffered a stroke, and that Bev had to resign from her position of Administrative Coordinator to care for him. How do we say thank you to Bev Chambers for all she has contributed to CESLM? […]
Sometimes we tell our students not to worry so much about how accurate their writing is, but to just take risks and write. Then we fall into the trip of correcting their grammar or spelling and we wonder, are we sending the wrong message. While many of our students care about writing correctly, it can […]
I saw a quote recently, posted on Facebook that read, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’ (Fred Rogers).” We see a lot of scary things in the news lately […]
Last month, women from Afghanistan, Peru, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Cyprus, Brazil and many other countries squeezed into our church kitchen to season bread crumbs, peel potatoes, baste turkeys and set a table that just seemed to get longer and longer as the morning progressed and we realized just how many people we were going to […]
Sometimes I think the Professional Development (PD) Day means, for me as a teacher, a day to relax and text a bit, while people talk incessantly about the latest teaching fads, or what the government is currently doing, or which way the pendulum is swinging in our field. But I was recently rebuked for my disinterest in […]
I attended an interesting conference recently on Comics and Contemporary Literacy http://werklund.ucalgary.ca/ldlp/schedule . The speakers were all people who write and draw comic books or graphic novels and the purpose of the conference was to raise awareness as to the strengths of comics as a type of literature that has its own unique characteristics.
When we meet with adult English learners, questions around employment are always near the surface. Those who do not have a job, know they need to get one. Those who have jobs, want to move beyond their “survival” job, to one that better uses their qualifications and experience.
Meet our team and learn how you can help Cooperative ESL Ministries support churches as they reach out to newcomers in their neighbourhoods.
CESLM Zoom meeting room link:
CESLM ZOOM AGM
Password: welcome
Meeting ID: 320 746 2586
We hope to see you there!
Contact training@eslcooperative.ca for problems joining Zoom.
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