Learning Matters

New student intake is Monday, February 3. Contact us at 667-7712 for registration information. ~Pamela Youngdale Tutor Devotion 1/27/20 A new year and a new decade have begun! Honestly, I have given up on the idea of making New Year’s Resolutions. It seems like a good idea to make a clean start with all the upgrades to my habits and lifestyle at the beginning of a new year, but I have never been good at doing something every day. So part way through January, I start feeling... like a failure and give up. I have more success if I gradually incorporate small changes whenever I can, and give myself the option of not having to do something every day. So one thing I do want to include in my life is more quiet time with God. I am aspiring to this because of something I heard on Emily P. Freeman’s podcast, The Next Right Thing. I’d like to share it with you. Though your soul is important in the decision-making process, even your soul is not the deepest part of you. There is an even deeper well within you, beneath your thoughts, beneath your emotions and all those gut feelings. This is the you that has been made new; where the river of life overflows the banks and, at the same time, where the water is still and calm and soothing. Here is where your life is hidden with Christ in God. Where what you want is what He wants. Where His kingdom always reigns, where your heart beats strong and sure and where you’ll always find the deepest rest and the truest welcome. That’s why we practice stillness and silence: so that we can hear that living water rushing beneath the surface, to remember our deepest reality, and to access the inner knowing that comes when we remember in Christ we are loved, we are safe, and we are free. Wow! Who doesn’t need to remember that every day? Every time I read this I am transported to a place of refreshment and renewal. And we are reminded in several passages in the Bible to be still. Moses encourages the Israelites as they are being pursued by the Egyptians in Exodus 14:14: The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still. Psalm 37:7a says: Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him Psalm 46:10a : Be still, and know that I am God Zechariah 2:13a Be still before the Lord, all mankind As we begin a new year of tutoring and our ministry here at Learning Matters!, I encourage you to make time to be still before the Lord, to experience His refreshing love and freedom, to receive His truest welcome, and to be renewed in Him. Beth Kirkpatrick

Tutor Devotion 12/ 5/19 So I broke my foot. It fell asleep and I stepped on it wrong. (Sorry, foot, but you’re the one who fell asleep on the job.) So now I have a Darth Vader boot, a knee scooter, and I can’t drive. I have done no shopping and my son-in-law’s parents are going to be with us for Christmas to enjoy our new grandson, Noah. (I had to squeeze that in there.) So priorities. My older daughter has already volunteered to help decorate the house a...nd do whatever she can, but she told me to make an A list and a B list. Must dos go on the A list and if we have extra time, we’ll get to the B list. So, I have been thinking about what should be on the lists. At first I felt stressed out about trying to get everything done, but I realized that this year we would have to simplify and that’s okay. Really the most important part of Christmas -- the celebration of the birth of Jesus is not impacted one way or the other by whether I can do any baking or decorating or shopping. Those are all things that I have added in on my own, and while they are part of long-held traditions, they are not necessary. What is necessary is for us to remember why we hold this holiday in such high esteem. Our God sent his Son to earth as a baby to become the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Taking time to appreciate that amazing miracle of love should definitely go on my A list. And also, just enjoying my time with my family. People are coming together from different states, and even different countries to be together. This year I won’t be able to be running around the kitchen, I will just have to spend time loving my family an A list activity for sure. So what about you? Chances are you have already begun working on all your holiday traditions, but I encourage you to think about whether there is anything you can move over to your B list to make more breathing space for yourself and more time to contemplate God’s amazing love for you. As I look back on this year, I can’t help but be thankful for our tutors and students at Learning Matters! I love hearing the stories of the connections we are all making in the name of Jesus. We don’t always know or understand what God has in His master plan, but we are willing to be a part of this ministry that He has given us. I’ll close with this Christmas blessing: May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the Magi and the peace of the Christ child. Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bless you now and forever. I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year! :) Beth K.

We are happy to celebrate the accomplishment of Olesia, a former student at LearningQuest - Stanislaus Literacy Centers. Judith Ranheim, from Good Shepherd Lutheran, tutored her from 2011-12. Olesia earned her High School Equivalency and then went on to graduate from college. As of September 2019 she is an official United States citizen. Judith and our ministry, Learning Matters, are very proud of you, Olesia! ~Pamela Youngdale Tutor Devotion 10/3/19 Do you like to do jigs...aw puzzles? I like lots of different kinds of puzzles, including crosswords and sudokus, but I especially like working on a jigsaw puzzle. But for me, there is a certain order of working the puzzle. First, you sift through all the pieces to find the edges and the corners. As you are doing this, place the pieces right side up on trays. Then assemble the edge (hoping you have found all the edge pieces and corners), and then you may begin the center of the puzzle. If someone starts putting inside pieces together before the edge is completed, that is obviously the wrong way to go about things. As long as the edge is only missing a piece or two, it’s okay to start the middle. Continue putting pieces together until you place the last piece with a satisfying snap. I was scandalized to find out that one of my daughter’s friends just jumps right in to finding pieces that go together without assembling the edge first. That is a definite breach of puzzle protocol in my household. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Of course, there are no laws about how to put together a jigsaw puzzle, but I have a way that I like to do it, and I would be disturbed to try to operate in a different manner. But my daughter’s friend found out she enjoys puzzling without boundaries. That’s the way she likes to do it. When it comes to working with our students, we are challenged to put aside some of our comfortable ways of doing things to try to find out how our students enjoy doing things. Melding our knowledge with our students’ learning styles may come easily, or it may require some trial and error. We can’t assume anything about what our students know, but we do know that we need to be as gentle and respectful toward them as we would wish someone to be toward us if we were learning something new and difficult. When one of the teachers of the law in Jesus’ time asked Him what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied in Mark 12: 29-31: The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second one is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. As we continue to move forward in our literacy ministry, my hope and prayer is that we will all use all of our strengths to love the Lord through serving His people with creativity, gentleness and respect. ~Beth Kirkpatrick See more

Have you seen our new banner at the corner of Main St. & Minaret in Turlock? Thanks to Linda Buie at Lighthouse Creates for helping us to attract students and recruit tutors for our ministry, offering hope through learning. Here's Beth's August devotion . . . Tutor Devotion 8/29/19 Quite a few years ago, when my daughters were in high school, I went with them to a National Lutheran Youth Gathering in Florida. Mike Lewis, an artist, was there and painted during several of th...Continue reading

It's so exciting to see our students progress not only in their knowledge and skills, but also in their confidence. Norma has two Learning Matters! tutors, Lyn and Beth who have "planted seeds" of confidence and untold blessings. We thank God for the privilege of being a part of our students' stories. ~Pam Youngdale Tutor Devotion 7/29/19 Summer is in full swing and one of the best things about this time of year is all the amazing produce at the many fruit stands around the... valley. Really there is no comparison between a vine-ripened tomato and one picked green to ship to the supermarket. And a ripe melon, fresh from the field, is a sweet treat dripping with juice and loaded with seeds. The Bible is full of references to seeds and sowing, and even though farming practices may not be a part of everyone’s daily life, I think all of us can relate to the feeling of excitement in watching a plant grow and flourish. In 2 Corinthians 9: 6-8, Paul reminds us of the importance of generosity through the illustration of the seed: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. When I think of all the time and effort that you and all our tutors have given over the years, I am reminded of these verses. You have generously and cheerfully donated your time and energy to this good work. And we cannot know what the result of all these efforts will be. As the saying goes, you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can’t count how many apples there are in a seed. As Emily P. Freeman puts it: We know that seeds need to bury down deep in the ground, sometimes for a long, long time. Eventually, those seeds will break open and take root. But first they have to settle into the darkness. Still that seed carries within it a narrative of hope. It just hasn’t lived into the whole story yet. Our ministry here at Learning Matters! has reached many people. Not just the students who have passed through our doors, but also their families. Not just the students who have come for tutoring, but everyone who has learned about this group of people who want to help others, and thought about doing something similar. We can’t know where all these seeds have been planted or what the outcome might be, but it is an exciting blessing to be a part of this story! As we continue to enjoy the many bounties of summer crops in our area, I will keep giving thanks for the wonderful volunteers who are part of this program and I hope that everyone will keep praying for the seeds that have been sown through Learning Matters! ---they haven’t lived into their whole stories yet! ~Beth Kirkpatrick See more