AERC: An Update

This week’s guest writer is Jan Bentley, the Executive Director of AERC. We asked her to tell us more about what AERC offers to families on the field. Last year, we featured Anchor Education and SHARE Education Services. We want to make sure that you have the latest information about these agencies that offer services for families all over their region!

AERC was formed in the year 2000 by a group of 10 agencies who strongly felt the educational needs of their families serving in Asia. Our mission statement:

AERC will partner with organizations and schools in providing services for Christian worker families in Asia to help them meet the educational needs of their children through a network of information, materials, counsel and support.

We currently have 8 sponsoring agencies and 3 partnering schools.

Our vision statement:

AERC envisions Christian worker families equipped both to meet the educational needs of their children in cross-cultural settings and to prepare their children for life-long learning and discipleship.

One of the main reasons families will return to their passport countries is because of needs with the education of their children. Without the support and encouragement of educators who understand the challenges of living and working outside the passport country, families struggle unnecessarily.

AERC exists to assist families with those needs by providing support through:

• Highly qualified educational consultants
• Testing services
• Resource centers
• Home visits
• Secure website
• Monthly newsletters
• Family Education Conferences

AERC comes alongside parents to assist them to:

• Evaluate educational options for their children and understand their long-term implications
• Choose and use national schools successfully
• Address homeschooling issues and concerns
• Use technology in their children’s education
• Address second language and ESL issues
• Assist students with special learning needs
• Understand third culture kid issues and prepare for their children’s transition and reentry experiences

Some comments from families who have benefitted from AERC:

In response to a renewal query: “Thanks so much for contacting me about this. YES, it is something that I would like to do. I just finished up with a Member Care Training … It was great and I was again reminded of the importance of surrounding myself with resources/people/tools that can help me help teams. So the timing of your email is perfect, because you and your work are an important resource for me.”

The prayer of a second grader: “Thank you for this pizza. Thank you for our friends. Thank you I get to do testing today…”

Email response: “Wow!  This is great!  Thanks so much for all of the information you have been sending…Your thoroughness has been so helpful.  I really appreciate the time that you are taking to respond to my questions and research so many things.  Thank you so much!

On behalf of our family, and many years of received blessings, we want to thank you for all the many ways you served both last week at the conference AND throughout the year to help so many families. Your commitment to help students and families is inspiring, and we have been a true beneficiary of this blessing.

Once again, we have taken away both help in next stages of our children¹s education needs, as well as a general sense of encouragement to ³press on²   in our journey. So, just to say ³thank you² for your gracious, serving spirit.

I am thankful that we were able to connect with AERC and the annual conference – that we were able to identify the appropriate testing for one of our daughters. Having an objective piece of information with weaknesses identified and recommendations has been invaluable. We are thankful for the educational psychologist’s time and my daughter loved his approachable personality. My daughter was anxious about having a male tester – but she enjoyed her time with him

We also enjoyed getting to know different consultants and learning about their expertise. Consult times were great, although I was a bit clueless before what consults were etc…

We found the children’s program folks to be mature beyond their years considering a group of teenagers were in charge of our daughters’ group – they did a great job and their organization/experience really was evident. We came home with game pieces for something planned (but they ran out of time) – meaning they were extra prepared and that was an example for my daughter as she seeks to teach in a Chinese Sunday School setting.”

After I met with the homeschooling group, I heard that one mom reported positively to her husband all that we had done. Her husband’s response was, “I can’t believe there is anyone out there who is just focused on the needs of children and their families! What an incredible blessing.”

“Excellent Newsletter!!! I really appreciate you all tackling this topic.The resources you all shared are great.”

It’s a big job especially since we cover Asia – from India and Afghanistan all the way to Papua; Mongolia down to Indonesia. We currently have 9 consultants and 3 assistant consultants living in 6 countries. Only 3 of us are considered full time. All the rest are connected with other educational ministries, so can only give part of their time to AERC and our families. We are always in need of more dedicated, qualified consultants, with the desire to serve families in this way.

Thank you Jan, for updating us about all that AERC offers families in Asia!

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