The Pain of Language Learning - The Curse of Babel

So many people say that learning a second language is an amazing thing to do. They say it broadens your horizons, improves your brain functioning, allows you to connect with new people and cultures, and improves your employability.   But when articles, studies, and people on Facebook extol the virtues of multilingualism, learning a second language is almost never what they’re talking about.  They mean to say it is great to have learned a second language.  Learning a new language is hard, often embarrassing, and frequently painful. 

Instead of having Vacation Bible School this summer, we will host a program for our children from 11:30am-12:30pm on the following Sundays: July 30, August 11, August 18, and August 25. Each week, we will explore a different North Shore mission trip through pictures, games, and crafts. We will learn about Salamanca in Spain, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and the peacemaking efforts of the Baptist Peace Fellowship in Toluca, Mexico. 

By Cheryl Johnson

The week after Easter, North Shore sent a mission team (Celia Rodriguez, Holale Azondjagni, Viola Mayol, and myself) to serve and to learn alongside CMF International’s Globalscope campus ministry in Salamanca, Spain. Thank you for your prayers, your finances, and your gifts of time, which enabled us to represent North Shore in Salamanca.

We continue to move forward in our search for a new English Language Pastor.  ​As we put together our church profile, we have spent the past month soliciting feedback from various groups and individuals in the church. The Search Committee put out a survey at the Annual Meeting and facilitated conversations with Sunday School classes, with participants from preschool age through adulthood. We asked various questions, including “What are the strengths of the church?” “What are your expectations of the church?” “What qualities do you look for in a pastor?” We will also ask for information from community partners and members of our wider American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago family.
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Through this listening process, we hope to get insight about who we are as a church right now and where we hope to go in the future. We will use this information to develop a profile to send to prospective pastoral candidates.  

Throughout this time of transition, our Interim English Language Pastor, Rev. David Gregg, continues to provide thoughtful leadership and caring support.