International (MNN) — Education is a powerful tool that shapes lives and cultures. It can even make a difference for eternity.
By training and connecting educators to provide quality, values-based education to underprivileged people groups, TeachBeyond
is prompting both personal and spiritual growth. According to the
organization’s president George Durance, more people than ever are
requesting this type of education, and not because of anything
TeachBeyond is doing.
“To be really honest with you, we’re not going around, cultivating a
sense of educational need, or a need for a values-based education,”
Durance says. “And the other organizations with which we work
collaboratively, they would say the same thing. It’s just an astonishing
movement of the Holy Spirit around the world, prodding and probing, and
the result is we have this outburst of interest in education.”
Durance says in the past, in many developing countries, most parents
haven’t been afforded the luxury of thinking about establishing a
long-term Christian culture. Rather, they have desired quality,
values-based education as a way to give their children a leg up in
society. Now, Durance says, they’re beginning to view this as an
opportunity for the Gospel.
“I think the parents themselves in much of the world, they haven’t
really fully understood the values component, but they have understood
two other things, and that is they can use this highly desirable thing
called quality education to be a testimony and witness in their
community,” Durance says. “And so they can use it as a doorway into the
neighborhood, and it brings respect, it brings a certain appreciation
for the church.
“The other thing is they really want…the transformational component.
They want to see their children and their societies holistically
transformed. I see that as slightly different than at least our Western
idea that we can dust off the sort of negative things in our society by
giving our children a good, values-based education. It’s got to be more
than that for most of these people.”
Durance says one reason why people are desiring this type of
education so much is because of its potential for great impact.
According to Durance, believers are realizing it’s a powerful way to
transform their community in multiple different ways, specifically for
Christ.
“When we talk about education as an attractive option, a Great
Commission method, I think part of it could be folks just sitting down
and thinking logically,” Durance says. “I’m thinking of one particular
individual in a country where we have a great deal of work now. He’d
been very involved in the communist system, and when he became a
believer, he had this same desire to see his country undergo a
revolution, but now it was a Christian revolution. And for him, because
of his training as Communist, it was clear that the way to change the
nation was through education.
(Photo courtesy of TeachBeyond)
“So it wasn’t a kind of breakthrough, inspirational moment. It was
just a clear-headed, logical decision based on experience and what he’d
seen around the world, that if I bring in a transformational message
through education, I can change my country.
“This is what is shocking us, is we’re finding these catalytic
individuals in many different countries who have this vision, and so
even if the parents in the church are more concerned about immediate
issues, which is, ‘I want a leg up for my children with a good education
that includes some English so they can have an international
opportunity,’ and so on, those people align comfortably with the
visionaries, and we have this wonderful open door the Spirit has given
us.”
Durance says it’s encouraging to see the way God is working around
the world through education, and comforting to know that the church is
not on the defensive. He says the next step is for Christians to ask God
what this means for them personally, understanding we can participate
in God’s global adventure by being an agent of change wherever He has
placed us.
If you would like to learn more about TeachBeyond’s work around the world and how you can get involved, click here.
Source: Mission Network
News
Topic: Desire for values-based education grows around the world
