| Presentation Ministry Center |
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Hope you all are having a great summer. You can see we are. Here's a harvest of beets and onions and WEEDS! Big thank you's go out to all the people who helped during the summer to make the garden look wonderful. Barbara Bir, Level 3 ESL teacher, works with her students all year to put together a newspaper. Here is the newspaper for school year 2018-19. There are many good stories about their year--a field trip, interviews with some of our students (including our eldest and wisest student), poetry and more. 
March 28th will be a historic day for everyone in our community to GIVE BIG! You can learn more about the Big Give and support our campaign. double click : www.thebiggivesa.org/organizations/presentation-ministry-center . #BigGive2019 This are the voices of the students studying English at the Presentation Ministry Center! Classes resumed at the Center in September. It was great to see many old faces from the past with this new group. We have several new co-ministers that are contributing much and we are thankful for our returning ministers. Two new programs have been added. Our upper level participants are doing a six week Intensive English Program. The students do not speak Spanish in class and are making remarkable progress. Our Child Care Program is guided by Maria Martinez with the help of Sr. Catherine, Pat Cervantes, Virginia Villareal and Kelly Langford. Child Care has developed a Reading Program. Its goal, with the mother's help is to encourage reading at a younger age. When they go to school they are familiar with books and love to read them. Also the parents are encouraged to read books in English. Our computer teachers, Joe, Ana and Tom have developed a multifaceted program that allows the participants to progress at their own pace and take what they learn to their work environment. Thanks to the PMC participants, Presentation Sisters and Associates who sold tickets at local churches, our Fall Raffle this year was a success, raising over $7,000.00. We are grateful for all who purchased tickets both locally and by mail. The drawing was held on October 25th. On October 25th we also celebrated the participant’s birthdays for the months of August, September and October. Some Presentation Sisters and Associates joined us to remember and celebrate the 300th anniversary of Nano Nagle’s birth. Nano was the Foundress of the Sisters.     The Presentation Ministry Center joins the Big Give SA.  Dear friends,
We are excited to say that we are participating in this year’s Big Give SA. It’s a day to raise funds for the participating non-profits in Bexar County and to exhibit the great work of these agencies. The official Big Give date is March 22, 2018 but the website is open for donations starting March 15th. We need your help in reaching our goal of $5000. During Big Give week, please visit https://www.thebiggivesa.org/organizations/presentation-ministry-center and make a donation to the Presentation Ministry Center, and/or to any of the other great participating organizations in our state. We also need you to spread the word to your friends and family members about the important work we do, and ask them to join us in helping to make a difference. Visit our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/presentationministrycenter . Please “Like” our page and “Share” it for your friends to see. (Click the words “Like” and “Share” under the photo of the Center.) Thank you in advance for your generosity to our organization!  These past few months have been full. Sisters Denise and Agnes and Oscar Noriega have moved on for various reasons. Their input and dedication to the center and participants is missed. We have been blessed by having Linda and Mike Baksic, Dan Fernandez, Sr. Genevieve Cunningham, Cathy Galle, and Sr. Finbarr come on board, Each brings a special gift and talent with them. Our Fall raffle was a success. Participants took responsibility for it and did a great job! We are blessed with having two groups of students from Our Lady of the Lake University with us. The first group is from the Catholic Imagination Class and are volunteering as teaching assistants. The second group has taken on the task of revamping our whole system of registration, class assignment and follow up process. They promise that it will be user friendly. We hope to see the fruits of their labor by Christmas. Nutrition class has been well attended. Arts and crafts are producing amazing things from recyclables. Tejido and costura continue to amaze with their creations. The students are working hard as they learn English. Morning Levels 3 and 5 conversation students have ventured out into the community in a “meet and greet experiment”. Of the five houses visited, three of them were present at our Fall Festival. We anticipate our Advent, Posada and Christmas times to be wonderful events and hope to enfold more of our neighbors into them.  Life at the Presentation Ministry Center is in full swing with four levels of ESL classes in the mornings and evenings, computer classes and citizenship mornings and evenings, zumba, sewing, Tai Chi, and the fun of handcrafts and crocheting. We've begun a fall garden--cilantro, lettuce and beet seeds have sprouted. Broccoli and kale transplants are thriving and we harvested basil this past week. We are delighted to have 3 new citizens, one of whom will vote in this year's election! We are also delighted to have a great helpers in Nano's Kids Room.
Our PMC Board continues to meet and support us. We are grateful for Board Chair Alice Jones who needs to step down at this time, but will continue to be a Board member. We give thanks for Patricia Garcia, Board Vice Chair, stepping into that position and know that we will move forward seamlessly and smoothly.  On May 15, the Presentation Ministry Center had its semiannual Appreciation Meal for Co-Ministers at Ding How Chinese Restaurant. It was a time of fun and fellowship as the Co-Ministers got to share a nice meal and get know one another better. Not all of the Co-Ministers were able to attend, but all of you are appreciated. You are especially appreciated by our participants. During this past semester, one of our participants shared with me that what keeps her coming back to class is the patience and kindness of our teachers. She said she has never encountered the kind of respect from teachers that she experiences here. Edith Wharton wrote, “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Each of you is a mirror reflecting the light of Christ’s love to the immigrant community whom we serve. The patience and respect you show to our participants is making a difference in their lives. The Presentation Ministry Center could not function without the compassionate sacrifice of your time. Thank you for the gifts of your time and your talent. By Judah Leggett  May 5th was National Giving Day. The Presentation Ministry Center was one of hundreds of approved non-profit organizations eligible to receive donations during the Big Give SA.
Thank you for your donation during The Big Give S.A. Because of you, we were able to raise $3,600 (and an additional $640 direct donation to the Center) to support the ministry to our immigrant sisters and brothers! We could not have achieved this without you! The support of generous individuals makes it possible for our organization to exist and to continue providing holistic educational opportunities and fostering relationships in our local community. Thank you again for your support! Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. We have Mary as a model in her openness, obedience, and willingness to accept and act. Though initially troubled by the greeting and announcement of the angel Gabriel, she had the courage to say "I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." She did not fully realize the implications of her 'yes', but she trusted. Perhaps every day since that 'yes', she had to say it over and over again, going through her daily activities with that same trust and courage that enabled her to utter her initial 'yes'. The participants at the Presentation Ministry Center also manifest the same trust and courage that Mary did. Day after day, week after week, they come to learn in spite of all the struggles they may have. The co-ministers too, like Mary, bear "Christ" to the participants at the Ministry Center in their availability, openness, generosity and willingness to act. Together, they make this world a better place because, as they say, "nada es impossible con nuestro Señor." Please check our facebook page at www.facebook.com/presentationministrycenter for more photos of our English students.  |
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