Spotlight on Jan Dormer

"To whom much is given much shall be required." These words were often cited to me as I grew up, a missionary kid who had moved to Brazil at age 10. I came to realize that I was rich in Christian heritage, in educational opportunities, in cultural and linguistic experiences, in potential, and yes even in finances, when compared to 90% of the world. How God has led me to use my "riches" has proved to be a joy-filled journey.

My early love of teaching came from years of watching my mother's skill, though she hasn't graduated from college, in teaching Sunday school. It was only natural that after graduating from high school in Brazil, I should pursue a career in education. I majored in Elementary Education at Asbury College, and became the first student from there to do student teaching abroad at the Alliance Academy in Quito, Ecuador.

After two years of teaching at the elementary level, in Brazil and in the U.S., I knew I wanted to go on for my Master's in TESL. My goal was to become a missionary English teacher. However, towards the end of my graduate program at Ball State University in Indiana, I met a certain Canadian seminarian who re-directed my mission field focus from Asia to Canada. Though it was hard for me to give up my dream, love prevailed.

As always, God knew what he was doing. It was in Canada that I became active in my profession, teaching at Brock University and Mohawk College, and getting involved in TESL Canada. This was invaluable experience for me. I could not have done what God knew I would need to do on the mission field, had I not had this time to become an experienced teacher, learn from my colleagues, and get grounded and secure in the field of TESOL.

After almost nine years in Canada, God nudged us to an international mission field. We discovered a school for missionary children in Indonesia (CJIMS) that was in need of both an ESL teacher and dorm parents. I found great joy in my ESL work there. Though the school was established primarily for English speaking children, many other foreigners, the largest group being Korean, also placed their children in CJIMS. Consequently the school was about one third non-native English speaking, and in dire need of good ESL programs. I was able to develop an elementary pull-out program, and a one-year intensive academic prep ESL program for 7th-12th grade. It is a joy to hear from former ESL students who are now successfully enrolled in colleges in the U.S. and Canada.

We had only intended to go to Indonesia for one year, thinking we would give a tithe of our time for God's work. We ended up staying three years, and at the end of that time, we weren't so sure anymore that God wanted us back in Canada. Unmistakably, God led us--back to what had been my home as a child, Brazil. We are now career missionaries with OMS International and have been here nearly two years. We have discovered that Brazil is ripe for ministry, including ministry which involves TESOL. The Brazilian Christians with whom I work are excited about developing new programs, initiating new ideas, evangelizing in their neighborhoods, and reaching out to the world. This is heaven for a visionary person like me!

Consequently, we have more exciting ESL ministries here than I can handle.

An English language institute associated with the seminary. These classes serve the community (both Christian and non-Christian students) and help bring in income for the seminary (which is trying to become self-supporting). We use New Interchange but we are also creating supplementary Christian materials. The high quality of teaching and the unique curriculum has already attracted students and the program grew from 14 last semester when it was started to 60 this semester.
The English program at a Christian elementary school associated with the seminary. The school eagerly accepted my challenge to launch a five-year plan toward becoming a Portuguese-English bilingual school. Parents are so eager for their children to learn English that a bilingual program adds extra appeal to the school (which also helps support the seminary). To that end I've begun an English Club for 3rd - 6th graders at the school, and my absolute favorite part of each day is when I can be found baking imaginary cookies or doing the hokey pokey with my English Club kids. They are enthusiastic and so eager to speak English!
A Portuguese as a Second Language program for missionaries. We started this program because the setting is perfect: the missionaries study Portuguese in our seminary, and their children attend the Brazilian Christian school in the same building, learning Portuguese in a sheltered immersion system in which they have private translators as needed.
A content-based EFL class in "Missions" at the seminary. This class will give students with advanced English proficiency the chance to learn more about missions (and get seminary credit) while they improve their listening, reading, and writing skills in English. We want to equip Brazilian missionaries. Some will need English on the field as a means of communicating with the international missions community. Others have the potential of teaching EFL themselves, which could enable them to work in Muslim countries otherwise closed to missionaries.
English through churches. Our goal is to get people through the church doors and establish relationships between church members and non-Christians through English classes and English Bible studies. Our model is to have local believers trained in evangelism studying in the English classes along with the seekers, and have short-term missionaries from North America come in as teachers. I'm teaching one of these classes, but more churches are waiting, and we could use lots of teachers!
Teacher training. In order for all of these programs to go forward, I must be able to adequately train Brazilian English teachers. A lot of my current attention is going to the teacher-training course. It's not always easy to navigate cultural waters, uphold standards, and maintain positive relationships all at once.

Fortunately, God guides. He provides wisdom about when to push, when to wait, and when just to love. One of my biggest concerns is maintaining professional TESOL standards in all that is done in the name of English Ministries on the mission field. But I remind myself that I don't need to worry about that. No one wants quality more than God, and if we let him lead, he will guide us into all truth. He created language, and knows it better than any of us. And he is putting into place resources such as the Christian Educators in TESOL caucus to help with this.

I have been given much. As I give back, following God's commands, I have discovered that this is not duty, but joy. Joy to be able to pray with a hurting student after class. Joy when a third grader says, "English Club is my favorite subject!" Joy when a teacher says that the idea I gave her worked well in her class. I can't think of any way I'd rather spend my years on earth.