English Immersion Camp 2018

There is no way I could have anticipated what I was getting myself into when I agreed to teach at the English Immersion Camp in Legnica.  What an incredible eight days!!!!  I was completely terrified at the thought of teaching English for a solid week.  It's something I've never done before and while I was equally excited by the challenge, I was so afraid of being inadequate.  Lucky for me, I was paired with a friend from church to co-teach, Ewa, and we were given lower level children ages 10 and 11.  This made preparation a whole lot less stressful and fun because we were able to focus on basic activities.  After a few pre-planning sessions, Ewa and I were feeling a lot better as this was a first for both of us.  What I wasn't prepared for was how much I'd fall for our students.  They were so much fun and by the end of the week, they were opening up and sharing pieces of themselves with me. 

So, let me share in pictures just how much fun we had this week!  Hopefully, you can get a feel for why this week is so incredible.

Students and staff in one of the gorgeous ballrooms in the fabulous facility.

Camp was hosted at the Legnica Cultural Center which has a rich history and formerly functioned as a training area for knights.  Very cool!

Inside courtyard of the cultural center.

 

Each day began with a short group assembly time.

Day 1 - Our class created "Immersion City" complete with roads, a bridge, hospital, shopping center, and other various essential buildings.

During class time we would introduce new vocabulary words which were illustrated by the students and then added to the wall. 

You can see on the wall that we were using a map of the U.S.A. to travel route 66 each day.

We took a break for a second breakfast each day.

Second breakfast was followed by a short message from Pastor Andy.  He did a wonderful job of taking us with him on some of his fun traveling adventures.  He then tied his anecdotes into passages from the Bible.  We took these Bible passages and some questions back to our classrooms to discuss in more depth.

We thankfully had the internet and technology to show videos and pictures all week from our trek on Route 66.

Building the Arch in Saint Louis with toothpicks and marshmallows.  Very tasty!!!

Our class time was followed by one-on-two conversation time.

All the students rotated between four native English speakers each day for 10-15 minute conversations.

Super proud momma was impressed that all three of the older kids led conversation everyday with kids and adults alike.  They began the week a bit shy but really opened up by weeks end.

We had daily song time which included both worship songs and some fun secular songs including "On the Road Again."

Each day we had afternoon activities that took us all over the beautiful city of Legnica.  This was the tour the city activity.

This day we were on a scavenger hunt for treasures in Legnica.

This day we were searching the cultural center for escape clues.

I love this photo of our group running all over Legnica searching for clues.  We look like we are all in even though it's a toasty 95 degrees.

Two nights, students were invited to stay late and enjoy more fun.  This was Polish cultural night where students shared anything they wanted including traditional Polish food.  This was AMAZING stuff!!!

During Polish night, these lovely ladies sang a Polish song for us.  I wish I had a picture of Gabe sharing with us about a Polish book series that he loves.  He did a marvelous job of preparing a power point and sharing his passion for the Polish book series and resulting video game series.

During our first late night, we played group games for two hours.  We laughed.  We sweat.  I slept like a baby!

My "Hollywood" stars and their walk of fame during our last class together.  These kids really are stars.  I pray they continue to shine as bright as they did in our class.

No accident that this gentleman was interning with the cultural center and hung out with us all week.  He was such a nice guy from Turkey.  I think God brought him into our presence to experience ALL that Immersion Camp meant.

We finished the official week with an "easy" hike in some Polish mountains to the ruins of a beautiful castle and the views were breathtaking.

This picture doesn't even begin to show you how steep some of the "easy" climbs were.  Some of us are severely out of shape and by some of us, I mean ME!  

But how cool that we got to poke around at this "newer" castle as one of the students shared with me.  It's only like from the 1800s and has been rebuilt several times over time.  I'm thinking if this castle is newer, I'd hate to think what move in ready looks like!

Some of these photos were hijacked from other people.

Even Melina hoofed it and did well with only a little whining.

The hike ended with Polish kielbasa over a campfire and a picnic with all of our new friends.

On Sunday, we invited our campers and their families to attend a traditional evangelical service.  Bruce Thomas gave the message and we had a wonderful time worshiping in music.  We were encouraged by everyone that attended.

Immediately following the service, we had our closing ceremony.  We were given the opportunity to share something that we learned in our classes during the week.  Our class did the Boot Scootin' Boogie line dance which we learned when we visited Texas on our virtual trip across Route 66.  The kids did a great job and man am I going to miss these kids!!!!!

Without this big group of people, there is no way that this week could have happened.  We had teachers, coordinators, worship leaders, game leaders, translators, conversationalists, Bible leaders, go to people, etc.  There are even more than pictured.  Some of these volunteers have traveled to Poland for two or even three years.  There are meaningful relationships that come out of these weeks both with students and among volunteers.  I'm so thankful for the commitment that everyone has made to what is happening here in Poland.

Thanks for those that stuck with this blog post to the end.  It is my hope that you can see through these pictures the impact and blessing of this week!