Radical Behavioral Change

 The following is taken directly from a recent Scripture Union Global Communication. Referred to in this article as “a life skills program,” this is the VOICE Africa program and curriculum. Enjoy and praise God!

Global News Update – September, 2024

Stories and updates from Scripture Union around the world

Global News aims to keep you in touch with how our network of Scripture Union teams is having an impact on young lives each month. 

School program changes lives

In South Sudan a life skills program run in schools is having a profound effect on the students.

National Director of Scripture Union South Sudan, Manase Woja Alfred, said that Scripture Union volunteers go into schools to share about life values from a biblical perspective. 

Manase said there was one boy who was quite aggressive, detached and always sitting at the back of the class, totally uninterested and disengaged. He also always referred to his own mother as, “that woman”.

Over the course of the six-week program, this boy started to listen. Week by week he moved further up the classroom, until finally he was sitting in the front row. When the course was completed, his behaviour had totally changed. He had become agreeable, polite, respectful and was volunteering to do jobs around the house without being asked.

Manase said: “The mother was so shocked by the radical improvement in her son’s behaviour that she made an appointment with the school principal and asked what he had done to make the huge turn around in her son’s behaviour. The principal explained it was not the school but the SU program.”

“The mother said she wanted to meet this SU volunteer and when she did, she fell at the volunteer’s feet and said, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’. The SU volunteer said, ‘Please stand up, it was not me, it was the Lord’s doing, all the Glory belongs to him’.”

The Mission Field At Our Doorstep

 Has it ever hit you how small our world is? New immigrants keep coming into my town here in New Brunswick. Counting children, in the last several years, I have met more than 70 Filipinos. A few families have moved on to other provinces or cities with greater opportunities, but other new immigrants fill their place. This influx of other nations provide us with cross-cultural opportunities for ministry.

• A couple of local believers delivered and hooked up a used washer and dryer for two new-to-Canada Filipinos.

• In early summer I completed teaching the Initiative and Courage VOICE Philippines Module on Saturday morning in my home to three middle-school Filipinos.

• This month, a local church invited and even provided transportation for some 18 Filipino adults and children to a Barbecue at their church!

  
  
  

• Earlier this year a South American family purchased a townhouse in my building just two doors away! This week while visiting in their home, I met their mothers (communicating via a translator) who are both visiting Canada for the first time.

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  Last month, Ruth and I were privileged to receive Beth Baleke from Uganda. She brought fresh news from East Africa and was able to personally say “thank you for sending us to Uganda” in Ruth’s home church in Claremont, NH. Later Beth gave updates in a number of our former supporting churches here in southern New Brunswick. As Beth visited my Mom, I reminded her, “God has brought Africa to us.” During Beth’s time in NB, she highlighted a need for printing a Swahili version of the Self-Control Module for Tanzania. God’s people responded to this need, including children in a VBS program. To date over USD $14,000 has been raised for the printing of this Module.
  
  
  

In spite of bad news swirling all around us, God is working behind the scenes and building His Kingdom. As God enables, let us be available and obedient, to reach out and join what God is doing locally and globally.

June, 2024, Road Trip

 Don’t you love seeing God use the gifts and opportunities of His children, all working together to share His Word/Truth with those who haven’t yet heard? While praising God for how He is using the VOICE ministries in both the Philippines and East Africa, we are so encouraged to see/experience how God is using other ministries right here in our secularized Western Culture to present the Truth. That’s what Ruth & I are enjoying right now as we vacation/travel together. Our roles as navigator (Ruth) and driver (Laura) are strangely familiar from past decades, ha. We have rated our Air B and B’s along the way from good to delightful, and especially have appreciated the use of their kitchens in our travels. Being together again has been wonderful and all events thus far have more than met our expectations.

Our first destination was Pennsylvania to take in the Daniel production at Sight & Sound. Wow, talk about using the arts to bring glory to God’s Name and share His Word—an excellent and powerful drama presentation of Daniel’s life, weaving in Daniel’s prophecies which include the coming of the Messiah/the Gospel. Our B&B hosts were committed Christians and the fellowship was uplifting.

From there, we drove to northern Kentucky where we are as we write this, to take in the two attractions put together by the group, “Answers in Genesis.” Yesterday we spent about 8 hours trying to take in as much as possible in the Creation Museum. How encouraging to see God’s truth presented in creative and dramatic visual ways being passed on to the next generation. Evolution and humanist lies are being exposed in powerful and convincing ways. We have both wished for greater capacity to comprehend and retain the excellent content we have been privileged to enjoy.

At the entrance of the Creation Museum

Today (Sunday) we joined a nearby wonderful Bible-believing/preaching church for an excellent Father’s Day sermon which was easily applicable to all of us.

Plans are to spend most of the next two days at The Ark Encounter, focused especially on the undeniable evidence that there was a world-wide flood that changed our world in such dramatic ways. No doubt, we’re in for more mind-boggling presentations of God’s truth! And then we’ll begin the long drive back to New Hampshire, where, Lord willing, we’ll pick up Beth Baleke at the airport.  A couple days later, I (Laura) and Beth will drive back to New Brunswick for a full time of visits and ministry.  Ruth will begin helping in a week-long VBS at her home church.

He Is Alive!

 

The Easter music and message reminds us that the Saviour has conquered sin and death and brought hope into our dark world. Because of the cross and resurrection, lives are still being changed by God’s power and truth. We recently received the following two testimonies as additional proof rejoice in what God is doing.

VOICE Africa: Earlier this month we received word that after being taught the Module of Truth, a Ugandan student testified “I used to tell lies to my parents when I had done something wrong because I feared being punished. After the second lesson, I always told the truth and they forgave me. I know this makes God, my parents, and me happy. The truth sets you free.”  

 

VOICE Philippines: After a Philippine local church taught Values in a nearby school, they visited their Values students' homes and shared the Gospel. The church then invited the students to come to their Church Youth Fellowship. The parents encouraged the youth to attend and they were joined by siblings and cousins! Now a significant number are coming to Worship services and it all started with teaching Values in a nearby school.

 

100% Victory!!

 

 

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.
  
  

 

God’s Specialty – Bringing Good from What We Consider Bad

VOICE Philippines sent us a Christmas greeting, including a video of a group gathering saying in unison “Merry Christmas from VOICE Philippines”! One part of the greeting included three praises coming from 2023 and three prayer requests as we head into 2024. What really caught my attention were the 2^nd and 3^rd praise items:

 

“Great interest and enthusiasm of churches to teach Godly values after the lockdown. Average attendance in teachers’ training jumped from 33 (2019) to 55 post pandemic. The second highest number of churches were also trained.”

 

“Per reports, 4 churches were planted during the pandemic, values students came to know the Lord, dozens of them were baptized, at least two values students became pastors and some became values volunteer teachers.”

 

Wow! Not one or two...but four churches planted...only God! God certainly deserves our praise and our continued trust even when what we consider unfortunate or bad things happen...He is at work!

Biblical Values Impacting Students and Teachers Alike

 The September VOICE Africa Report had several news items that made our heart rejoice and perhaps will do that for you too, as our prayer partners:

• VOICE Africa has a new Scripture Union Uganda volunteers on their team—Jackline!

• Upon the invitation of a church/school in Nsambya, southern Kampala, some of the VOICE Africa team went to conduct a one-day conference focused on Moral Purity attended by 150 teens. The administration explained that their community was particularly wracked by immorality. Using the Purity Module, the team shared God’s loving and wise plan for sex as well as His warnings of dire consequences if ignored. The Gospel was also shared to which 87 teens responded by making a profession to trust Christ as Savior. The VOICE team is asking prayer for the administration as they followup these professions and also plan/prepare for ongoing/weekly Biblical values instruction.

• (During our time in Uganda, without doubt, the most memorable testimonies of impact came following the teaching of the Forgiveness Module. Here’s one that happened recently.)
  
  Joy, one of 25 participants in the early September VOICE Training which focused on the module of forgiveness, was assigned, as are all participants, a lesson to demonstrate the following/second day of the training. As she was sharing the content of that lesson, she broke down in tears and loud wails, confessing to those in her small group, “I have long held a bitter grudge against my stepmother for her cruel treatment of me and my siblings during childhood.” She was now choosing to obey God’s command to forgive. As evidence of change, she promised to visit her stepmother the following weekend and reconcile with her.