(Also available in Chinese as a PDF)
Around 7 p.m. the Mei-Li hair salon on Tyler Street begins to close up shop for the night, giving hair washer Oi-Ping a slim margin of time to rush down Harrison Avenue to her evening ESOL class at ACCESS. Oi-Ping immigrated from Vietnam in the late 1990s, and even though she has lived in the States (first in Washington, D.C. and now in Boston) for nearly a decade, she barely spoke a word of English before this past fall. The demands of working 7 days a week from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Chinatown for a meager income render little opportunity for learning English, even for the most hardworking and well-intentioned. That is, until ACCESS opened an evening ESOL class this past September and launched a full-tuition scholarship program in late May.
Oi-Ping, along with 39 other students, is one of the ESOL scholarship recipients for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. Their presence in the classrooms at ACCESS testifies to the Lord’s faithfulness and mighty work in Chinatown. When this year had begun, ACCESS found itself struggling with a financial situation so bleak that the Board considered shutting down the seventeen-year-old ESOL program. The agency managed to hold a 3-week course on restaurant vocabularies in late January and early February, and a single ESOL class in the spring semester.
In early April, however, when members of the Board gathered together in prayer to seek the Lord’s guidance, they sensed His calling to take a step of faith. Promptly, ACCESS launched the “Adopt a Student/Adopt a Teacher” scholarship campaign to raise funds for the ESOL program. As the staff and Board members trusted the Lord, they experienced His sovereignty and provision in great abundance. The Lord moved many hearts to respond to the scholarship campaign, and in late May, ACCESS re-launched its ESOL program with 5 full classes. Thanks to two grants the Lord has provided, ACCESS has awarded 40 full-tuition scholarships for Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. Currently, there are 5 morning classes and 1 evening class.
This past year at ACCESS, we are reminded of what a privilege it is to serve the Lord and join in His work in Chinatown. He has provided teachers, He has filled the classrooms with students, and as His servants we have gotten to experience Him all over again. Because of the Lord’s faithfulness, students like Oi-Ping can have not only the opportunity to learn survival English, but to do so in a classroom that is filled with warmth, laughter, and enthusiasm. Oi-Ping beams when she speaks of her ESOL teacher and the friendships she has forged in class. To her, not knowing English is as if she were deaf and mute. Needless to say, Oi-Ping treasures the opportunity to learn English. We pray that the classrooms at ACCESS would continue to be places where students like Oi-Ping can come and not only learn English, but even more importantly experience the magnificent love of God!
—Ashley Chow
Would you consider a year-end gift to ACCESS to help support students like Oi-Ping?
