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Hello, Friends.

With the trees greening up you may be wondering when do we celebrate trees (since we celebrate so many other things)  here in the United States. The answer is Friday, April 27: National Arbor Day. The National Arbor Day Foundation has a very nice site where you can learn more about the history of this holiday. Your children may have brought home a seedling for you to plant. These trees are a gift from the DNR. You also may see volunteers planting seedlings in the parks over the weekend as a part of celebrating trees.

Looking forward to May, this is one of the greatest months to live in Indiana! We spend our entire month preparing for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing: the Indy 500. The 500 is run on the Sunday before Memorial Day (which is the official kick off of summer), but you can enjoy a lot of fun activities at the track to whet your appetite for the big race! May 12 is the Grand Prix race with practice and qualifications on May 11. Practice for the 500 begins May 15. Check the schedule. If you can't afford to spend the time at the race, these events give you the opportunity to taste what IndyCar racing is all about. Activities aren't just limited to the racetrack; there are opportunities to celebrate beginning May 2 with the 500 Festival Kick Off on Monument Circle in Indianapolis from 11:00-2:00. There are many more exciting events including: Fashion Fridays, an Indian Baseball game, the MiniMarathon and the Parade. This parade is one of two American parades that is televised worldwide! Check the Community Schedule and take advantage of all the fun and festivities around racing in May.

International Bible: Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30
Today we wrapped up the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The final story Jesus told the Jewish crowd that had gathered on the hillside to listen to Him was the story of the wise and foolish builders. He compared people who hear His words and put them into practice to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. Even when rain storms and floods came, and the wind beat against this house, it survived because it had a firm foundation. The foolish man built his house upon the sand, which was a much easier process than digging into rock to lay the foundations. But when the storms came, this house came crashing down.

One of our Bible Study participants just returned from running the Boston Marathon. Our group discussed how there is no way to successfully run a marathon unless a person builds a strong foundation of strength, speed, and endurance through long and constant preparation. It's not enough to want to run a marathon. It's not enough to talk about getting into shape. Words are cheap! There needs to be action! A person must do things to prepare! So it is in God's Kingdom. Jesus was looking for people to believe His message, but He also wanted them to live out their love for God in actions that showed their love for God and for their fellow man. ~Jan Heimann

May 1: We will begin the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus performs many miraculous healings. Please join us!

International Friends: Tuesdays, 10:30-12:00.
We planted our salad gardens. We mixed a lettuce blend with basil, radishes, dill, green onions, parsley and cilantro. We sprinkled this blend in our prepared bowls. Be careful when you do something like this because you will want to add a lot more seeds than the space will allow and the plants may choke each other.

Join us as we wrap up the rest of the year. We have fieldtrips and 
May 1: Pack your lunch and let's go see the cherry blossoms at the Japanese Garden in Carmel. Meet at the church to carpool or meet us at the garden: One Civic Square, Carmel (by the Carmel City Hall).
May 8: Let's celebrate Taco Tuesday at Qdoba to practice ordering in the line. Meet at the church at 10:30 to carpool or meet at the 14490 Clay Terrace Blvd., Carmel (next door to Starbucks). Preview their offerings on their menu.
May 15: Last Meeting of the Year. Let's Party! Bring a dish to share and the recipe. 

Conversation: Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00, upstairs classroom.

We enjoyed some light conversation and learned how to make some practical flashcards that help you to make vocabulary words stick.

May 2: Join us...we will talk about the April Easy English News and the arguments posed in the book Is the Injeel Corrupted. 

English Classes: Thursdays, 9:30-12:00, upstairs classrooms.
It was particularly delicious visiting classes this week. What a great week to be learning English with your friends. As we wrap up the school year, take time to introduce yourself to the teachers and other students that have been with us all year. Sit in on our Writing, Conversation or Accent classes to try them on for next year.

May 10: We will celebrate the end of the year with a pizza party. Pizza parties are the official American way to end a school event or year (we often kick them off with an ice cream social!). This party is included in your tuition.

May 17: Our last class of the 2017-18 school year.

greening up: a Hoosierism for turning green

arbor: a shelter of vines/branches; Arbor Day celebrates the cover of trees

seedling: a young tree

whet your appetite: something interesting that makes you want more of it

indycar: a type of open wheel racing car that was created and refined in Indiana

to survive: to remain alive after the occurrence of some event

foundation: the natural or prepared ground or base upon which some structure rests

marathon: a foot race covering 26 miles 385 yards

blend: mix, combination

choke: this usually means to keep something or someone from breathing, but in this case it means to keep something from growing and expanding

posed: questions, discussion or ideas stated for consideration and discussion

sit in on: attend or participate as a visitor

tuition: cost for classes

The Final Countdown

Hello Friends,

We are in the homestretch for our spring session. Our last class is May 17. We talked about missing each other all summer, so we will have meet ups twice a month on Thursdays at various parks in the area. Families are welcome to join us. Watch for more information. 

In planning for your summer studies, you may want to start instituting an action plan for continuing with self study. You will find that you can quickly improve your vocabulary and expand your grammar skills. Your skills can get rusty over the summer since we aren't meeting. Now is a great time to make a study plan and get your habit going! You can use Memrise or Duolingo on your computer or downloading these free apps to your smart phone so you can practice on the go. You set daily goals with either program as well as have reminders sent to you via e-mail. These programs are addictive! Do you want to practice more than one language? Try learning another language but use English as the main language rather than your home language.

Be sure to check the fun camps for your children for the summer. You can find more details on our Things to Do page.

International Bible Study: Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30, room 100.
This week we discussed Matthew 7:13-23, which begins with Jesus warning people to "enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Although this passage at first glance might sound discouraging and exclusionary, we talked about how important it is to choose the path that leads to life, and that includes a fulfilling life right now, as well as enjoying eternal life with Jesus in heaven. That often means making judgments about what God would have us do with our lives, and not "following the herd." We have to enter through that narrow gate one at a time.  It's not a "group project"! We talked about how helpful it is to have the Bible to guide us to the right path.

Jesus also taught that we should judge others by their fruit, that is by the product, result or effect of their actions. What is in a person's heart will show up in his/her actions.

Finally, we discussed this verse, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." While that could sound like Jesus preaching good works as a way to get to heaven, in reality, He is saying that we can't even begin to do any good work until we place our trust in Him alone. He is the foundation, and our good works are the house which God is building on that foundation. Without the foundation, the house will crumble!~Jan Heimann

April 24: Join us when we discuss The Wise and Foolish Builders in Matthew 7:24-29.

International Friends: Tuesdays, 10:30-12:00, room 100.
We took a trip to the Goodwill on Carey Road in Westfield to buy our salad bowls. We had a great experience and found some great finds! Goodwill tags are colored. The color of the week tag means that anything in the store that has that color is half price! Goodwill also has sale days: Wednesday is Senior Day and you get  They had some beautiful crystal bowls. We went to Salsbury Brother's Garden Shop on the South side of 146th Street. We bought a big bag of potting soil and packages of seeds to plant in our gardens. Our bill total was around $30.

April 24: Bring a bowl to plant your salad garden and a handful or two of filler for the bottom. Filler can be Styrofoam packing peanuts, gravel or small rocks or anything else to elevate the soil and allow for drainage. We will divide the cost of the supplies between us (e,g. if we have 10 people come then we each owe $3)

Conversation: Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00, upstairs classrooms

Have you missed coming to this class lately? We have missed you! Come back as we close out the year.

English Classes: Thursdays, 9:30-12:00, upstairs classrooms
Public Education Officer Keith Freer and Doug Dolen of the Carmel Fire Department visited us to explain home safety and fire prevention and safety in our homes. You are welcome to stop by a Carmel Fire Station (there are six fire stations in Carmel) and have a tour. If you have a larger group, call ahead for an appointment. Since firefighters and EMTs work 24 hour days, they live at the fire station and are always on call and prepared to go out and help the community. For any call, a fire truck and an ambulance will come. As you prepare your home for fire safety:

• Be sure to have working smoke detectors in all of the bedrooms, outside the bedroom doors and on each floor.
• Smoke detectors that are hard wired together (if one goes off, they all go off) are code in Indiana.
• There are two types of smoke detectors: photoelectric and infrared. Infrared detectors respond a little faster.
• Have a family plan for a fire evacuation and a meeting point outside of the house in the front of the house.
• There should be two ways to get out of any room in your home. If your house has second floor rooms, have escape ladders to climb out of the windows. Be sure that the ladders can reach to the ground (if you have a walk out basement, you may need a three story ladder).
• Carbon monoxide detectors are also recommended. You only need one of these to warn you against this silent killing gas. Sources include running motors (cars or lawn mowers in your garage), fire places that are not venting properly, gas appliances that are not working properly, etc.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen. To dispose of an old extinguisher or one that has been used, release the contacts out of doors and throw it in the trash.
• You can find smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, escape ladders and fire extinguishers at any hardware store, Wal Mart, Target, etc. 

Mark your calendars for Carmel Public Safety Day, September 15, 2018 to learn more about our police and firefighters and EMTs as well as see demonstrations.

in the homestretch: the last stages of a project or journey; the homestretch on a racecourse is the straight away after the last turn to the finish line

session: a meeting or series of meetings

self study: studying alone

habit: a tendency or practice

on the go: active or busy (e.g. you can easily study English on vacation)

get rusty: be out of practice

addictive: habit forming

finds: discoveries; treasures
handful: a small amount, approximately how much you can hold in one hand
elevate: lift
e.g.: for example
exclusionary: something that blocks an entrance or keeps apart
follow the herd: follow the majority, do what most people are doing

What? Only five more weeks?!

Welcome back from Spring Break, Friends.

It is good to have everyone back together again. We made the count: only five more weeks until the end of our official meeting year! Check out the calendar below so as not to miss any of the fun. We have a lot planned as we wrap up the year.

International Bible Study: Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30, Room100

Matthew 7:7-12 We read the famous "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened" lesson from Jesus. Jesus provides a rundown of what to expect from God and from people: if you don't ask or look or knock how can you get, find or discover. Jesus taught that God is a good father and only gives good gifts to His children. Jesus' colorful examples help us imagine. Would someone ask God if they do not know who he is? Would God help someone if they asked? The answer to the first question was of course someone wouldn't ask for help from a god they do not know. But, the answer to the second question is of course God would help anyone who called for help. Jesus wraps up this lesson with the golden rule: Do to others what you would have them do to you. But there is more! Jesus teaches, "this sums up the Law and the Prophets." God's law and the message that he sent through the Prophets is that people need only ask God and He will show His love and care.

April 17: Join us as we discover what Jesus means when He advises us about what gate to use and about gardening are you intrigued? Me too!

International Friends: Tuesdays, 10:30-12:00, Room 100

Since Mother Nature wasn't cooperating in giving us spring flowers, we hoped to inspire her with some of our own. We met to create flowering branches using tissue paper. Look at the beautiful weather since then. Do you think that our efforts gave her the nudge that she needed? We talked about the Japanese Uguisu and how this bird's call is a sign of spring. In the Midwest we look forward to hearing the House Wren. You can entice these friendly birds to live close with a wren house.

Somehow we got on the subject of craft brews and bourbon. There is a variety of opinion about what are the best, but this list of the Top Ten Craft Breweries in Indianapolis sums up the field. Kentucky is well known for bourbon distillery. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is rumored to be a nice adult field trip. Did you know that bourbon was created as an efficient way to get grain to market? Hmmm. That sounds a little fishy to me!

Finally, we somehow got to talking about mochi. This Sunday from 11:00 until 1:00 there will be a demonstration of making mochi using the giant mallets at One World. For more check out their webpage.

April 17: Let's meet to go thrifting and get supplies to create a "salad bowl" garden. Meet at CLC by 10:30 to carpool/caravan to the Goodwill and to Menards.

April 24: Let's plant our salad bowls! Bring your bowl and we will plant them. Save your egg shells for a foundation and fertilization.

Conversation: Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00, upstairs classroom.

We had fun talking about the difference between accents and pronunciation. Discussions led us to talking about how many accents there are in Iran (10). Interestingly, in Iran accents reflect the other languages that are spoken by the people living in the area. In the United States, accents are regional. In the northern part of the Midwest, you will hear longer o sounds which reflects Nordic languages, The Southern Drawl has many influences and interestingly, the accent of New Orleans is characterized as being close to the accent of New York! And further study shows that some of the eccentricities of the Southern dialect are preserved Old English. 

April 18: Join us and practice your conversational English!

English Classes: Thursdays, 9:30-12:00, upstairs classrooms.

I loved visiting with everyone today. We don't have much time left in the year: only six more weeks. As the year winds up you can count on some more group activities involving the whole school! This will give you a chance to meet more Friends to hang out with over the summer.

April 19: We will have a visit from a fireman! Bring you questions and learn about safety and how the fire department does more than protect our community from fires.

rundown: summary

colorful: interesting, vivid but if someone has a colorful past it usually means they have questionable behavior (what could be more interesting than that?)

wrap up: bring to an end

intrigued: to make curious

Mother Nature: giving natural events personification

efforts: actions

gave her the nudge: to gently move someone or something to act in a particular way

sounds a little fishy: suspicious, not quite right

mallets: hammers

craft brews: beer made in a microbrewery or small beer brewing company

sums up the field: a list that summarizes what is available in a particular area

being close to: like, similar 

eccentricities: unusual behavior

preserved: maintained in the original state

hand out with: spend time