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Year 2020, COVID-19 outbreak, it spread out to the whole country and everyone was affected; under privilege families took the hardest hit. While they were striving to survive, they had to take prevention steps as well. Fortunately, during these difficult time, there were few groups of people who were willing to stand out to serve the under privilege. Puchong Christian Alliance Centre was one of them. When they saw the need of the under privilege group in their community, without any hesitation, they stepped up to help them.
August of year 2020, Puchong Christian Alliance Centre joined 7979 Holistic Care Relief Network and set up 7979 Holistic Care Station. 2021, 1st of March, they set up Love Companionship Class, focus on serving the under privilege students in their community, by providing homework guidance, meals and transportation of students to and back from the school. SJK (C) Han Ming Primary School is about 6 to 7 km away from Puchong Christian Alliance Centre, it is the school that Love Companionship Class focuses on. Actually there are few primary schools in the vicinity of Puchong Christian Alliance Centre, but due to limited resources, they can only focus on one. When the church submitted the proposal of “Under Privilege Children Companionship Class program” to the school, the program was immediately accepted because of its high feasibility. Henceforth, the school gave Love Companionship Class a list of suitable students for this program. Love Companionship Class ministry was launched promptly after visitations to the relevant families were completed. The Team Precedes Over the Students “Without a team, it is impossible to start the ministry.” Ps. Evelyn Ting believes the key factor of managing Love Companionship Class is a willing and committed team. When Love Companionship Class was found, the work-force was around 10 persons; one fulltime teacher and the rest were volunteers. During that time, the number of students did not even reach ten. Ps. Evelyn hold strongly to the point that the running of Love Companionship Class cannot solely depends on one person or the number of students enrolled. She asserted once again the team precedes all other things, when they can walk together in one united heart, then the ministry will be able to sustain. Ps. Evelyn Ting was a co-worker of HISTEAM, worked under 7979 department, she currently serves in a church. She was encouraging and looking for church members who are willing to commit themselves in Love Companionship Class ministry to join the team. After the team was formed, every co-worker and volunteer was assigned to specific job and role, some were teachers, some were in-charge of meals and some were assigned as transporter who in-charge of fetching and sending the students. Hopefully, as the team serves the under privilege children through Love Companionship Class, the team will take social concern ministry more seriously, and know that they can respond by playing a part in this society. ‘There are people in our team who had been serving since the founding stage, and now they are still going strong.” Whenever, Ps. Evelyn talks about her team, her eyes would be sparkling, the radiance originated from every team member, has reflected upon the whole Love Companionship Class. Did Not Give Up Even During Bottleneck Stage As I walked pass the main classroom of Love Companionship Class, I saw four teachers were teaching 10 students at different corners. The room was filled with joyful atmosphere, some students keep raising their hands to answer teachers’ questions, some were quietly doing their homework with teachers assisting at the side. In another classroom, I saw a teacher was teaching only one student. Looking at its present condition, it is hard to believe that there was once in the past this Love Companionship Class hits its bottleneck… “The process of hiring teacher can be very tedious, at our initial stage, we had a fulltime teacher before, however she left after about a year of teaching. During those days, we were in short of teachers and with no fulltime co-worker. The teachers took turns to teach.” Ps. Evelyn shared that Love Companionship Class experienced about 3 months of bottleneck. During the period when we were in shortage of teachers, the number of students has increased to 12 persons. Thus, she who does not possess any teaching experience had to put down other works on hand, started to teach the children fulltime, until the present fulltime teacher, Sis. Siew Mei Ling come on board. Although, those days of teaching fulltime in Love Companionship Class were very exhausting. “It is very common to see only two teachers on duties, sometimes three. However, when someone is on leave, then there would only be two teachers to handle a class of twelve students of different standards and levels of understanding.” Praise the Lord, because the teachers serve on the basis of love for the children, no teachers ever thought of giving up on Companionship Class. All Exhaustion Gone When We Learned in Joy
Other than the 5 days in a week attending Companionship Class, some students also joined the Saturday “Grow Happily Class”. Hopefully, through games, activities and talent classes, the children’s character may be shaped, their interest in learning and confidence will increase as well. Ps. Evelyn said many of the students disliked learning when they first joined Companionship Class, now they love learning, enjoy the fun of learning, to them learning is no more tiring and boring. They can also make many good friends from Companionship Class, some who were initially very introvert and had social phobia, did open up gradually and finally able to build relationship with teachers and other students. In order to give the students a platform to showcase their talents, Love Companionship Class organizes graduation ceremony for standard 6 students, all parents are invited to attend and watch their children’s performance. We wanted them to know that they can be successful, with the encouraging applause from the spectators, the students will get the affirmation they needed. Graduation ceremony is an effective platform for students, parents, teachers, volunteers, donors and others to witness the students’ “Learn Happily attitude” and obvious growth in every aspect. “Now I see that every meal that I cook is very valuable; it is not just a dish.” One of the volunteer who is in-charge of meals realized her contribution when she saw the students’ performances. Through Companionship Class, students do not only spread happiness to each other, they successfully transferred it to the adults as well. To sum it up, learning could be a very happy thing, sincere contribution could also be a very happy thing. For these, Ps. Evelyn Ting is willing to march forward happily together with her team. 2020年,疫情大爆发,肆虐全国各地,影响人的生活;弱势群体更苦不堪言:维持生计当儿,也要防疫。幸好,有些社会群体在艰难期,站出来服务弱势群体。宣道会蒲种堂是其一,他们见到当地社区弱势群体的需求,特别是弱势家庭,便毅然站出来,帮助这些群体。 2020年8月,宣道会蒲种堂成为7979全人关怀站;2021年3月1日,成立爱心陪读班,服务蒲种社区中贫困家庭的学生,例如:教导功课、提供伙食和载送学生上下学等。 汉民华小,距离宣道会蒲种堂约六七公里,是爱心陪读班主要服务学生的学校。教会附近也有数间华小,基于各方面资源有限,教会决定锁定服务一间华小的学生。当教会向汉民华小推荐“弱势儿童陪读”方案时,因为可行度高,立即得到校长认同。于是,爱心陪读班请学校转介合适的学生,然后拜访其家庭,爱心陪读班事工就此展开。 先有团队 后有学生 “没有团队,是不可能开始的。”陈雅蒂传道认为经营爱心陪读班的要诀,是有一班愿意与她共事的团队。爱心陪读班成立时,团队约有10人:一位全职老师和其他志工。当时,招收的学生不足十人。雅蒂传道却坚信维持陪读班运作不能只靠一人或所招收学生的人数。她相信先有团队,借由与他们同心、同行,就能使陪读班继续运作。 雅蒂传道曾任7979全职同工,目前就职于教会。她从教会中寻找愿意委身的会友,并鼓励他们加入爱心陪读班的团队。团队成立后,每位同工和志工各尽其职:有老师、有负责膳食,以及载送学生来陪读班的司机。盼团队透过爱心陪读班服务弱势家庭中的学生时,看重社会关怀事工,也知晓自己能为这社会尽上一份责任。 “团队有些人从设立陪读班开始,到现在仍持续服务学生们。”每当雅蒂传道提及团队时,她的眼睛里闪烁着光芒,这道光源自团队每位成员,照耀整个爱心陪读班。 瓶颈期 不放弃 走进爱心陪读班主要的教室,有四位老师在不同角落教导约十个学生。教室内弥漫着愉悦的气氛。有些学生积极举手,回答老师的问题;有些学生安静做功课,老师则从旁协助。另一间课室由一位老师教导一位学生。眼前见到的这幅光景,这间爱心陪读班,竟遇过瓶颈…… “聘请全职老师过程不易,起初有位全职老师,一年后她离开。那时缺乏师资,没有全职同工。老师轮流教导陪读班。”雅蒂传道坦言爱心陪读班曾面对三个月的瓶颈,期间缺乏师资、学生人数增加(约12名)。于是,没有教书经验的她,放下手上其他事务,“硬着头皮”全时间教书,直到新任全职老师——萧梅芩的出现。 虽然,全时间在陪读班教书的日子,令雅蒂传道筋疲力尽。“很常的时候,只剩下我跟另一位老师,有时有三位老师。不是每一天只有两位老师,但每次有老师请假无法教课时,剩下两个老师要应付十二个来自不同年级、程度不一的学生。”但是,基于爱孩子的心,大家从未想过放弃经营陪读班。 乐于学习 乐此不疲 除了每个星期五天到陪读班上课,一些学生在星期六参加“快乐成长班”。盼学生能透过康乐游戏和才艺班,建立良好的品格、提升学习乐趣和增加自信。雅蒂传道说,许多学生在陪读班,从刚开始不愿意学习,变成爱上学习、享受学习的乐趣,认为学习不累、不烦了。他们也在这里交到许多好朋友。有些原本内向、社恐的孩子,渐渐能与陪读班的老师和同学建立良好的关系。 为了给学生一个展示才华的舞台,爱心陪读班为每一届六年级生举办结业礼,并邀请所有家长出席观看学生用心呈献的表演。让他们知道自己能成功,许多人在台下的鼓掌就是对他们的肯定。结业礼,是让所有人,即学生、家长、老师、志工、捐献者和其他人看到学生“乐于学习”和各方面成长的最显著果效。“原来我煮的每一餐,是有价值的。而不是随便煮的。”一位负责陪读班膳食的志工,看到学生的表演后,向雅蒂传道表达她的心声。 透过陪读班,学生不只可以散播快乐给彼此,也成功把快乐传染给每个大人。原来,学习很快乐;用心付出,很快乐。为此,雅蒂传道愿与团队并肩、快乐前行。 Comments are closed.
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