Bridge Builders

About a month ago, one of the newer members to Old Guys, our men’s Bible Study at Faith Lutheran asked for help.

Deacon Steve Arnold was praying for ways that he could respond to another crisis facing our world. He had a solution but wanted our guidance whether to move forward.

He wanted to teach English as a Second Language. Sounds great, right? To Ukrainians. Awesome!

In Ukraine. Wait, what??? Seriously. Thanks to new technology, he found an opportunity to teach classes via Zoom for eager Ukrainian students looking to build their conversational English skills.

With the constant threat of bombing from the Russian invasion, these students are craving normal interaction and opportunities for development.

Foreignteachers.org, a 100% volunteer organization, seeks ESL teachers to lead classes at least once a week to students in Ukraine.

Arnold heard this call and, after deeper discernment, decided to go for it.

“[As a deacon], I’m a bridge-builder,” said Arnold. “It’s important for me to reach out and connect with people. This is a wonderful way to do it.”

His application was accepted and he taught his first class in mid-April.

“I ended up having four [high school girls] in the class and they were delightful,” said Arnold. “[They] live in Kyiv and they are very good English speakers that want to expand their vocabulary and practice pronunciation.”

I asked him what they talked about. He chuckled. “Surprise, surprise, they all like to play video games and hang out with their friends,” said Arnold. “The girls all grin when I ask if their little siblings annoy them. They’re just normal teenage kids living in the midst of an adult world that can’t get along.”

Scott Carroll, one of the directors of the Foreign Teachers Org Ukraine English Program, has taught English abroad for over 9 years mostly in Asia. He currently lives in Toronto.

“We were going to go to Taiwan [with this idea],” said Carroll. “But when war broke out in Ukraine, we were in the right time and place.”

There are a lot of charities providing food, relief, and transportation. There’s a huge unmet demand for education.

They aren’t accepting donations, so the partners they work with also believe in the mission.

“We got very lucky finding Crystal Clear ESL to provide curriculum and worked with [Crystal] to figure out how we’ll provide that for teachers,” said Carroll. “Booklikeaboss.com reached out and gave us their premium platform [to book classes] at no charge. Some of their staff were in Ukraine, so they really believed in the mission.”

Currently, there are 15 teachers and 80 students, but the demand for classes is high and Carroll is looking for more qualified teachers.

Carroll is one of them, in addition to teaching online and bartending to pay the bills. 

His organization is not accepting teachers without experience. “We don’t need Harvard professors,” said Carroll. “But people need to be able to handle a group class of children online.”

Despite the challenges of getting teachers onboard and set up to teach, the experience has gone well. “I’m so proud of all of the teachers,” said Carroll. “They’re so highly qualified and amazing. We’re building the team slowly.”

This is just the beginning.

“After this works out, we’d love to get students from [other parts of the globe], like Afghanistan or Syria,” said Carroll. “I have a vision, hopefully not too naïve, of having students all over the world come into a classroom together.”

Using conversation to unify people across countries and cultures is an inspiring aspiration. It’s what Arnold was looking for.

“It’s my goal to be a vision of hope for [these students] that someone out there cares,” said Arnold. “Because their parents are literally fighting for survival.”

If you have experience teaching ESL or know someone who does, visit Foreignteachers.org to apply.

Pastor John wrote this article for the April 28, 2022 issue of the Forest Lake Times