Day 4

Sharing from student Qin Chuan 
I came here in March in 2019. I learned four and a half years English in China, but just learned some easy words and grammar, so when I came to the US, I didn't know anything, I believed that many people had the same difficulty with me. At first, my parents always looked for After School Class for me, then we found one, they wanted 300 dollars every month. At first, I thought I could learn many things, but there I couldn’t learn there, because students didn’t learn anymore there. After a month I switched to an After School Class, it was UBSC. This After School is really good, I learned many things here and I made many friends, teachers were friendly and the homework was easy too. We could get tickets there, and the tickets could exchange many things, like pens, and snacks. We just need to give them 300 dollars every season, it was really good. However, our cram schools are short of funds because of the low fees. We need everyone's help. If you can, I hope everyone can lend a hand to help us. thank you very much    我是2019年3月份来的美国，之前在中国学了四年半的英语，说是学了英语，其实只是一些简单的单词或者语法，所以我刚来到美国时一点点都听不懂，相信许多人有过和我一样的困难。刚来到美国时，父母一直在给我找补习班，后来终于找到了，一个月就要三百多的美元，我以为能学到好多的好东西，结果那个地方就只是帮你做家庭作业而已，而且那里一点学习氛围都感觉不到。所以我仅仅去了那个地方一个月就换了补习班，而后来我去的补习班就是现在的补习班“志上学习中心”。这个补习班不仅让我学到了英语的知识，我还在这认识了许多的朋友，老师也很友 好，布置的作业大家也都会，在那里回答问题能得到一种红色的小票，而当你集齐足够数量的票后，你就可以兑换小零食或者一些文具。我之前去的补习班一个月三百多，而这里一个季度（ 春，夏，秋，冬）只要三百五十元，真的十分良心。但是这么一个良心还负责任的补习班因为学费收的少而缺乏资金，希望大家可以伸出援手，给我们补习班捐一点小款，献出一份爱心，当然我们也不会忘记你们的恩情，谢谢大家。

How did we end up at this location…? By Ellen H Sam

Back in 1989, while Christine Mok-Lamme was working as a substitute teacher at local high schools, she shared her concerns in serving local students and was encouraged to explore ways to serve these students. She recruited me to help transport students between Alhambra High School and FEC San Gabriel church twice a week for classes.

Although attendance wasn’t great but we were convinced the ideal setting would be a place where students can walk to after school and be free to leave when done. Despite financial difficulties, we started to scout around for available spaces near the high schools.

One afternoon I saw a for lease sign next to Hallelujah bookstore and learned that owners attend the Glendale church. What a pleasant surprise! In fact, some of them were in my fellowship group. We were fortunate to land a short-term lease as commercial lease usually requires minimum five year commitment. Fast forward to today, who would have imagined we are still here thirty years later? 
We started out asking people to donate some old furniture: two sofas, a couple of dividers, desks etc. and moved in. By word of mouth, students just kept coming. We also recruited volunteer tutors from our church. It was a hectic time.
The one concern we had was the parking spaces – would the city grant us the conditional use permit as a tutorial center with so few parking spaces – at that time, there were a beauty salon and supermarket besides the bookstore. We picked the name Upward Bound Study Center and incorporated it as a non-profit organization. Meanwhile, we petition for conditional use. The manager of the owners group walked through the whole process with us. 
It went smoothly.
Clearly, God’s hand was on this ministry from the get go. We were never short of money – of course as our tutors were volunteers. A lot of things have changed, but God’s favor and mercy been the same. Praise be to His Name!