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.
* * * * * * * *
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.
