Students in Nestor Gil’s 8th grade Spanish class at Meadowlark Christian School live into the Deep Hope of using language within their community to further God’s Kingdom.

"In Spanish 8, my students were doing the clothing unit and learning what to wear for certain weather. I had just had 2 Ukrainian families from my classes for thanksgiving and I noticed that they wouldn't be prepared for the winter weather in Edmonton. Knowing this, I thought about the other Ukrainian refugees that would be soon experiencing the same situation. I told my grade 8s about hosting a fashion show, where we would gather donations of clothes, and then show it off in front of the students of our school so they could see what was donated."

"I contacted a Ukrainian refugee clothing organization prior to this and told the students the plan. We gathered about 40 bags of clothing to be donated. I wanted to set up a field trip to the store so students could hand these bags in person. When the day finally came, students were able to see the impact they had on this Ukrainian community from all the work they had done."

"Students used their Spanish language to promote the fashion show and describe what their classmates were wearing in Spanish. They then got to see how these Ukrainian refugees who don't speak English benefited from the students' Spanish fundraiser. All of this shows how the use of world languages made a difference in their community."

"For me, my deep hope is Speak God’s Language, because the ultimate language for God is love and you can show that love in English, Spanish, Ukrainian and all the other world languages."