wfn.org | Word made flesh: PC(USA) volunteers 'talk the talk' in Amity program in China

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7476 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

17-October-2002
02405

Word made flesh

PC(USA) volunteers 'talk the talk' in Amity program in China

by Hugh D. Anderson
and Jerry L. Van Marter 

LOUISVILLE - "Other teachers came and taught, but you came and cared." 

That was the assessment of one of the Chinese middle-school teachers of
English who honed their skills over the summer in the Amity Foundation's 2002
Summer English Program in China. 

For the first time, the Presbyterian Church (USA) sponsored a team involved
in that special ministry.   

The four members of the PC(USA) team represented widely scattered parts of
the United States and a diversity of backgrounds and expectations. 

The team leader was the Rev. Ken Mast, the pastor of First Presbyterian
Church in Mahopac, NY. He had been to China once before, in 1985, when
Amity's program, and its relationship with the PC(USA), were brand-new.

The other Presbyterians were Stan Lou, a member of the Church of the Pilgrims
in Washington, DC, who'd never before visited the country of his parents'
birth; the Rev. Hugh Anderson, a certified Christian educator who serves as
general presbyter of the Presbytery of the Cascades, who used sabbatical time
to participate; and piano teacher Teena Anderson, a granddaughter of China
missionaries from First Presbyterian church in Medford, OR.

The Amity Foundation, which launched its program just after the Cultural
Revolution, has since won the trust and respect of the Chinese people and
government. Its ministry has five divisions:

* Social welfare: Amity operates orphanages for abandoned children in China,
especially those with disabilities. 

* Health: It trains village doctors and has a special AIDS-awareness program.
(More than a million Chinese are HIV-positive.)

* Rural development: It tries to extend to outlying provinces the educational
and advancement opportunities available in urban areas.

* Special education: It has programs for blind and developmentally disabled
children. 

* English-language teaching: Amity provides teachers for two-year stints in
China (17 are on the job now), and sponsors the Summer English Program.

The 2002 summer program included 92 teachers from the United States and Great
Britain who were divided into 24 teams who served in 14 Chinese provinces. 

The four-week program targets Chinese middle-school teachers of English and
emphasizes conversational skills. 

China is changing the way it teaches English, having discovered that people
who study grammar and learn to read the language can't necessarily speak it.

Each Amity team worked with about 90 students, structuring the instructional
day around four one-hour morning classes on various topics. Anderson's
subject was "daily routines"; Lou taught "my country and yours"; Anderson
talked about "relationships"; and Mast addressed "concepts of teaching
English." Three afternoons of each week were devoted to informal "practice"
conversations.

There is a Chinese saying: "If you are my teacher for a day, you are my
parent for life." 

The Amity summer program has enlarged and enriched the PC(USA) family in
China.

Plans are already afoot to send another team in 2003. For information,
contact Carol Clarke of the International Volunteer Office in the Worldwide
Ministries Division by phone at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5849, or by email at
cclarke@ctr.pcusa.org.

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