Summer session of Centreville Baptist Church’s Learning Support Ministry starts in July

Centreville Baptist Church is into its second year of reaching out to immigrant families who need academic help through its Learning Support Ministry. Daniel Park, a pastor and Director of Ethnic Ministry, initiated the special ministry after realizing that people are coming to the United States for education for themselves or their children.

“In reality, however, once here they face challenges of the American education system,” said Park. “The parents can’t afford after-school programs and they can’t help their children because they’re working two jobs. They assume their children are doing well in school. The students may be smart but their academic knowledge isn’t fully developed, so they don’t get the higher grades and aren’t able to succeed. They feel frustrated.”

Park, a pastor for 22 years, came to the United States from Korea 11 years ago. “As an immigrant parent, I understand parents’ frustration and children’s stress. It takes two years for children to master English and up to seven to master academics. The children are stressed because they’re always behind and the parents don’t know how to help them. It’s not their fault.”

He said the Learning Support Ministry is a pool of volunteers who donate their time and talents to families desperately looking for friends to help them. Calling them “talent donations,” Park said the volunteers include teachers, drivers and others who want to help.

“We want to have as many classes as possible. We have English, math and special classes like public speaking. One retiree opened an Excel class for those who need it for their job. One young man who is paralyzed and uses only two fingers is teaching people to use a smart phone. Our talent donation includes a driver to get him to the church.”

Park said other volunteers have donated their time for a variety of classes, such as peer to peer violin and piano lessons, English writing class, English conversation for non-native speakers, SAT math and vocabulary preparation, Korean and Chinese, algebra. Depending on the course, classes are geared for elementary students through adults. During each session, students receive instruction with a Christian worldview.

Park said the immigrants’ experiences help promote understanding among the different cultures. “It’s exciting that people bring their children and share their experiences.”

Asked why he started the Learning Support Ministry, Park said, “As a pastor, I believe helping people is [part of] loving God. We really want to care for the whole family. I researched and found this [type of program] is unique within a church building. Helping people in our community helps us express our love for Jesus Christ and we want to practice what we believe.”

The Learning Support Ministry is held in four sessions: the summer session, which starts the second week in July, is run for four weeks, Monday through Friday; the fall, winter and spring programs cover eight weekends. There are currently about 30 volunteers.

“So many people want to share their talents and experience and they’re welcomed to volunteer,” said Park.

For registration and more information, call 703-830-3333, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit cbcva.org/lsm. Centreville Baptist Church is located at 15100 Lee Hwy. in Centreville.