Reaching into the Heart

At a graduation this summer at Descubre Inglés, a TeachBeyond LinGo, English Language Center in the Dominican Republic, the mother of two graduating students came up to Katie Smith, Director of Descubre Inglés, after the ceremony with tears in her eyes. She pulled Katie in for a hug and simply said, “Thank you”.

Katie had been teaching her two daughters for the last three years and the mother had been intimidating from the beginning. “Her emotional response took me by surprise. Although it was difficult, over the course of several years, we began to develop trust and respect for one another,” she said.

“As teachers, our main goal is to love our students well, and the parents of our English students are seeing the fruit of our efforts. Parenting is hard, so when we, as an English community, demonstrate that we stand with them, it builds a trust that is invaluable. We are not here just to teach their children English. We are here with the mission to show them Christ’s love. We want to reach beyond the classroom and into the hearts of the students and their families,” said Katie.

For more information on LinGo English Language Centers, see https://teachbeyond.org/go/english-language-centers/.