In
my limited experience, it is almost unheard of to be able to claim
100% victory in any aspect of God’s work. Of course, the day is
coming when 100% of
the human race will bow before Christ and acknowledge Him as Lord of
all...but that day has not yet come.
However,
as of this moment (or at least at the moment when VOICE
Philippines
wrote this) 100% of their written requests to the various Departments
of Education for permission for trained VOICE volunteer teachers to
conduct Biblical Values Classes in the schools throughout the nation
had been granted!!!! That has never been true before! Rejoice with
them and praise our God.
In our last blog we were rejoicing that the Bulacan Department of Education, the province directly to the north of Metro Manila, finally said YES after repeatedly denying such permission for more than 15 years!
Now, a story from the Department of Education in Quezon City, especially regarding Krus na Ligas Elementary School...which you prayed for after our previous blog. All
of the VOICE modules were test taught in this school, the nearest school to the
VOICE office, and values classes
have been taught consistently there
except
for when schools were closed for COVID. However, the current
principal seemed determined that they would not start again. He
successfully
caused
some “underlings” of the
Quezon
City Department of Education office to demand a profile of all
volunteer teachers. As difficult as it was to fulfill, the
volunteers obliged. AND
in answer to your prayers...when
that document was taken to the Quezon City Department of Education,
they met with the Division Secretary herself...and she shed tears of
gratitude that there was such a program as VOICE!! She immediately
gave permission with a request that they include grade 2 (VOICE
classes are designed to start with grade 3 in the Philippines).
Rejoice...God has His people sprinkled around in strategic places! Would
you pray that God will open the eyes of the Krus na Ligas principal to see lasting fruit from the teaching of Biblical values, and use His Word to draw many of those precious students to Himself. Pray also that God will richly bless those volunteers who submitted their profiles and now have an open door to return to doing what they love doing for the Lord. We understand that many of them are already teaching godly values in another nearby elementary school and so this will double their teaching load.
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The following, coming from VOICE Africa, is also very exciting and will encourage you as you continue to pray. Here's a
few testimonies coming from the
Upper Primary test teachers after they taught the newly developed
VOICE Africa module
on Respect:
“As
a Values teacher, the material also convicted me. It was hard for me
to use polite words like “excuse me,” “please,” etc. but now
I have changed.”
"A
classroom teacher said 'Thank you for emphasizing what we have
told them to do.' He also thanked Scripture Union for developing
the Respect module."
“The
administrator was so welcoming. He
told me
as the
volunteer teacher
that the community where the
children live is a slum and full of social evils, which
explains
why the children were very stubborn in the first two lessons. But
things kept on changing as time went by. At first, the kids didn't
know that even property should
be respected. The class teacher said that after lesson 5, he
observed the students
piling
their books and pens properly.”
“The
children confessed that it was difficult to respect people younger
than them, but a turning point came after Lesson 3 which challenged
them to respect people regardless of their age.”
“The
students used to segregate themselves according to their tribes but
later change was seen. The Principal requested that the material be
taught to other classes or during the assembly so that all learn.”
“I
as the Values Teacher was challenged to be respectful
as I was teaching, especially
in my
actions and
words.”
“Lesson
3 is outstanding as it tackles the issue of tribalism. Sudanese used
to sit in one row and refused to mix with the rest, but after that
lesson, there was no more segregation.”
“It's
life transforming material. The children started respecting the
cooks and cleaners which wasn’t happening before.”
“The
Principal asked if the material for Lower Primary is available yet.”
(It is being worked on but not yet ready for test teaching.)
As you rejoice in what God has done, please pray for the VOICE Africa team as they prepare this module for publishing, and continue to develop the Lower Primary and Secondary levels for test teaching. Finances are also needed once they are ready to print.
