Prepared by Esther Leung (Project Shine manager)

I praise God for the success of Project Shine 2008 year as He gathered the right people to be in our team and in partnership with. This is a pioneer project under CRRS (Worldwide) Foundation and even though there were challenges, God journeyed with us and taught us how to be humble and obedient to Him. Project Shine was conducted from July 12th – 27th, 2008 in Rongshui, Guangxi. We took a team of 13 young people from Canada and USA to teach English in Rongshui Secondary School. In total we have taught 120 + senior high students (Rongshui Secondary) and 30 local English teachers in Rongshui from various schools.
CRRS had partnered up with CCM for this project as I invited Allen Chan (CCM Youth Ministries Director) to co-lead Project Shine together. He has experience in taking teams for overseas mission, and I had experience in mission and teaching English in China.

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Promotion
Because this was a pioneer project, we’ve decided to promote locally in Vancouver for the first time. Our promotion package include: 3 minute DVD, pamphlet, and poster. I went to 13 local churches/fellowships for presentation of Project Shine. I also represented CRRS to make announcement about Project Shine in the Vancouver Chinese Evangelical Ministerial Fellowship. On air wave I have connected with 3 Chinese radio shows and done interview with the hosts to promote Project Shine, the following are the organization that hosted the shows: Fareast Broadcast, AFC and Fairchild radio show with Dr. Leung. I’ve also sent out posters and requests letter to several churches that were interested.

Application Process

The application process follows the first-come, first-serve policy. The applicant downloads the Application Form from our website and then sends it to my office. After the application form is viewed and discussed by me and Allen we will conducted either a face to face interview (local applicant) or phone interview. A deposit of $200 is charged once the applicant is accepted to secure their status. The applicant must pay the whole cost before July 2008. Basic qualification to apply for Project Shine is that they should be 17 years or older, can speak, write and read English at a grade 11 level, and a heart to serve. We end up having 1 person from USA and 2 people from Calgary joining our team this year. The age ranges from 15 years old to 31 years old. We accepted the 15 year old due to her maturity, experience in teaching children and her role was more of an assistant rather than main teacher.

Cost
We charge early bird – $1600 and regular price 1800$ for Project Shine, the price includes the following:

  • Coordination fees
  • Room and board
  • Medical and travel insurance
  • Training and debrief
  • Meals, curriculum + certificates for students in China
  • Sight-seeing in Guilin (local tour)
  • Home visits to students’ home

Fundraising

Project Shine Team members are responsible for their own international plane ticket and raising their own funds. CRRS provides a fundraising package for them that include: promotional DVD, pamphlets, information sheet about Rongshui and pledge forms. When the pledge forms are filled, they are returned to CRRS office to issue tax receipt for donors who donated towards Project Shine.

Team members are encouraged to raise more money than the basic cost because whatever is left over will be designated to “Project Shine” future projects. This year we have approximately $11,000 credit from Project Shine. This is the amount left over after all the expenses and costs were calculated.

Family & Friends Info Night

One month before we take off to Project Shine, we conducted a “family and friends info night” at the CCM centre. The purpose of this night is for our local team members to have a chance to invite their family, friends and donors who are supporting them financially to see what Project Shine is all about. Each team member shared from their hearts why they want to go to China, Dr. Leung and Rev. Lee also shared about their experiences in China. Financial information and itinerary were provided as well. The night ended off with a commissioning prayer by Dr. Leung and Rev. Lee.

Training + Curriculum

Through a fundraising dinner in USA, Ohana Foundation heard about our ministry and sent us a package of their English teaching material directly to our Vancouver office. They offer to donate the English teaching curriculum for Project Shine, in total they donated 130 sets of course book and work book, and 10 sets of DVDs that is part of the curriculum. On top of that Ohana Foundation sent us 2 sets of TEFL training material (Teaching English as Foreign Language). TEFL is a new English training program developed by Ohana Foundation that is being used worldwide and also in the process of being approved by the University of Seattle. I took this training myself before training the 13 Project Shine team members.

Lesson Plan – I designed a 10 day lesson plan according to the Ohana Foundation English curriculum with various activities inserted in between. I’ve also obtained the permission from ELIC (English Language Institute of China) to use their English teaching materials for our lesson plan. I have developed 3 separate lesson plans for the following levels: Grade 10 level (Junior 1), grade 11 level (Junior 2), and for local English teachers.

Team members were required to receive their training in Vancouver, 4 days before the actual trip. We used the CCM centre for the training and team meeting. During the training we teach the English teaching materials, made posters and charts with English words and fellowship with each other. We also invited Emmanuel Leung to speak about Chinese Contemporary history and sharing his own experiences teaching English in China for 9 months.

going to school

Project Shine Itinerary (July 12th- 27th, 2008)

We have arranged our flights and insurance with LTA Holidays Travel Agent through Herbert Tsang and we’ve received a special rate for plane tickets. For each member we have purchased 80.00$ insurance plan for medical and emergency, for a period of 15 days. Team members are not covered if they travel elsewhere after the Project Shine trip.

 

 

 

7/11 – Flight to Hong Kong (Leave Vancouver)
7/12 – arrive Hong Kong (stop over), arrive Guilin
7/13 to 7/25 -Rongshui
7/25 – 7/27 – Sight Seeing in Guilin
7/27 – Back to Vancouver

Daily Teaching schedule is as follow on Monday to Friday

8:00 – 8:45 am – breakfast at hotel
8:45am – bus pick up teachers from hotel
9:00 – 10:30am – English lessons
10:30 – 10:45am – break
10:45 – 12:00pm – English lessons
12:00 – 1:00pm – lunch at school
1:00 – 3:00pm – afternoon break (bus transportation)
3:00 – 5:00pm – English lessons (English corner, activities)
5:30 – 6:30pm – dinner at school
6:30pm – leave school, back to hotel

  • We have a team meeting every night for debrief, sharing and prayer.
  • Our team members prepares the lesson at night for the following day

 

Special events – Project Shine began with a joyful Opening Ceremony and ended with a closing ceremony full of tears and memories. During the weekends or weeknights, we conducted a few special events for educational and relational purposes.

Cultural nights – we’ve conducted 2 cultural nights in which our Project Shine team members introduces several western cultural festivals such as: Christmas, Easter, Wedding. We used skits and songs to involve the student to be part of the cultural nights. At the end the Rongshui students also performed for us some traditional Miao Tribe dances. And then we danced together!

English movie night – We watched the movie “Prince of Egypt” for English movie night and we also treated everyone ice-cream for the room was very hot.

Home visit – We visited one family in a nearby village for 2 hours. This particular student is sponsored by CRRS, but she cannot make it to the English training due to responsibilities at home. She have to help her family harvest.

Closing ceremony – local student and Project Shine team delegates made speeches and shared from the bottom of our hearts with thankfulness. We ended off with singing songs to each other.

last goodbye

Academic Result

Both the oral and written English skills of the students we taught improved dramatically through out the 2 weeks. The students were required to write an essay every other day on topics such as “my hero”, “my family…etc. The essays were marked out of 6: 2 points for grammar, 2 points for writing style, and 2 points for content. In the first couple days, many essays were only given 2/6, but by the end of the first week, the same students would receive 5/6. By the second week, our teachers have to mark the essays harder because the students were improving dramatically.

Orally we noticed the same dramatic improvement in a short 2 week trip. Everyday in the afternoon we have “English Corners” where the students must speak English to each other in discussing various topics. In the first week many students were shy and fearful of speaking English because they have never spoken to a foreigner before. But by the second week students were speaking English to each other and to our Project Shine teachers more fluently.

Looking Ahead – Project Shine 2009

We have decided to go back to Rongshui Secondary for Project Shine 2009. The Rongshui Secondary principal Lee was very supportive and helpful in their arrangements for Project Shine 2008. We want to continue this partnership.

Recruitment will begin in January 2009, expecting a total of 20 team members.
10 spaces are open for Vancouver, and 10 spaces are open for Toronto.
I look forward in serving Project Shine 2009 with new insights and new revelation from the Lord.

With thanksgiving,

Prepared by Esther Leung
Project Manager of Project Shine 2008

  • Summer Trip
  • 2008