Changing Seasons

One of congregation gems are our young ones...and we have plenty of them.  We often affectionately say that we have almost 20 under 20 but truthfully, we probably more than that now.  Since we are a foreign language congregation though, there's the important task of making sure that our young ones understand the language that's being used in the congregation. Two years ago, a number of our sisters, most with education background, took on the task of having Tagalog classes in 3 categories, Beginner, Intermediate and Advance.  It was a gem of a program and my girls really do look forward to it.  It was definitely an upgrade to our first class back in the day when all kids were together to be taught by one very patient and very self sacrificing sister.

This year, after a busy summer break, the teachers decided that it's time to retire the program after 2 years running.  Most of young ones are in their teens and a good number can speak and understand the language but not to the point of conversing with it.  Unfortunately, we have gotten used to speaking in English with them as well which defeats the purpose of our hard working teachers. Despite their good intentions and tireless efforts, most of the young ones have shown little or no progress. To learn the language is vital for these ones to have the full benefit of the meetings.  Otherwise, they will just be going with the flow.  Fortunately in our congregation, despite that, the young ones are a close knit group encouraging one another to progress spiritually and reach out for more and more privileges in Jehovah's service.  Most are now baptized and the baptized ones are reaching out for Regular Pioneering.  The youngest in the circuit is now in our congregation at 14 years old.  Hopefully, this will make up for the lack of progress in learning Tagalog.  

Today, the last class standing ended and both students and teacher were emotional.  A great arrangement can only go so far but we are optimistic that maybe someday, when they are ready to better commit, both students and teachers will meet again and the classes can restart with better results.  For now, growth means having to deal with changes and just like the season change, we'll just have to embrace it and learn from it. 

  

Thank you Ate Rely, Gina, Ate Christy, Dhia and Ate Mel for all your hard work!