These last two weeks we have had two snow storms! The kids are very excited to play in the snow and to have several extra days home from school. 

Since September Jubilee has been partnering with a neighboring “community center” called the Pinewoods Library,  in a new and deeper way. Pinewoods Library is trying to support their mostly Spanish speaking and very under-resourced community with various classes and events, legal support and distributions of necessities.

Since we do not have as many hospitality families coming through our doors at Jubilee currently, we recognized an opportunity to share some of our capacity and English teaching experience with the community at Pinewoods. Two of our volunteers were able to start teaching weekly this past September, bringing people from Jubilee as well as several people from Comer along to the classes. 

Daniel taught a computer literacy class once a week for the Fall term, and Stephen has been teaching an English class twice a week to a group of 5-7 students on average. I asked Stephen about his experience teaching at Pinewoods the other day over lunch. He shared that although his group varies in size and English level from week to week, there are several students who are very consistent and determined to learn. A joy has been to see their growth in language skills, as well as to see the growing relationships between the students. Spending time together in the small classroom of a triple wide trailer, surrounded by the next distribution of water or diapers the library plans to do, opens up opportunities for mutual connection that otherwise would not be there. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner together with Pinewoods to support our neighbors.