Post-it Praises

BridgeWay North America, Mexico City, Mexico

I came to BridgeWay late in the year and I slowly started learning about my students' personalities, English levels, and family backgrounds.

Before I had arrived in the school the teacher, Miss Bromley, dedicated five minutes of class to write “thankful notes.” Students were instructed to write whatever they were thankful for on a post-it and then paste it on the board. By the start of my time at BridgeWay, the board was almost completely covered with these small sheets of praises.

One day, I approached a student and began a conversation. He was in 4th grade, his family had immigrated to Mexico from Colombia, and he loved eating waffles covered in caramel. He was sweet, smart, and very funny. I asked him what he had written on his post-it. He said, “I am thankful for my happy dad.” He explained that his dad had recently suffered a stroke on top of being diagnosed with cancer, that his stroke had left him in a coma, but he had recently woken up. The stress of his father’s medical problems reflected in the student’s performance in school. He was behind in all subjects, but we have been pushing him every day to do better.

One day I was working with him and he successfully completed an exercise, a great victory. He came to me after class and said “gracias por creer en mi,” or, “thank you for believing in me.”

He still struggles in class, but every little accomplishment has been celebrated. Please keep our student in your prayers; his situation back home is not the greatest, but we see God’s mercy and faithfulness in his life every day.

Pray for BridgeWay

• Please pray that we would be able to reach out to families in need and share God’s love and support with them.

• Mexico City is very expensive and we continue praying that God will supply enough funds each month to pay for the building we are renting. If you would like to support the work of BridgeWay you can go here: give.teachbeyond.org/support/bridgeway/

• Please pray that we would get enough native English speaking teachers for our elementary and after school program. See all the opportunities here: go.teachbeyond.org/BridgeWay+North+American+School