Ever since my trip to Tanzania this idea has been bouncing around in my head. I have talked with a few of you about it already but I am very eager to get feedback. I finally put some of the thoughts down on pixel. Its not polished but let me know what you think. The great need: affordable and accessible training and education for communities, church members, and church leaders in third world countries I envision thousands of training centers in towns, villages, and cities covering the globe. The idea is simple. Churches (or simple buildings) equipped with a satellite Internet connection, a computer, a projector, and speakers (Solar Panels would also be a great assistance in areas where local power infrastructure is unreliable). The church/building would become a training center. Training Seminars would be uploaded onto the Internet and each training center would download and show seminars to the church and community. The training center would also enable local leaders to communicate with other leaders (local and worldwide) through the Internet (e-mail, video or voice conferencing, etc.) making mentoring, communication, prayer, and accountability possible. The following are some suggested details. I am expecting them to change as other methods and ideas which can better accomplish the overall idea are discovered. I also expect details to vary between individual training sites. (I welcome comments and suggestion particularly about the overall idea but also concerning the suggested details of the idea.) Classes: The training center would show various training seminars all throughout the day (e.g. English classes would be held every morning at 8:00 a.m., etc.). Some possible topics would be: Ministry Topics Giving bible studies Servant Leadership Training for Elders Preaching Disciple Making Church Planting Health Evangelism Counseling Small Groups Practical Topics Agriculture techniques English Business principles Basic Computer use Literacy Community Development Health Topics 8 Laws of Health Home Hydrotherapy Nutrition Hygiene Spiritual Topics Righteousness by Faith Baptism of the Holy Spirit Revival Adventist History Discipleship Prayer Biblical Foundations Knowing God's Will I believe the classes will be most effective if systematized into a discipleship process that incorporates mentoring. For example someone could earn a ministry (or health or spirituality) course completion certificate after having gone through certain training classes, having been discipled under a mentor, having begun to disciple someone else, and complete other ministry requirements. Local site coordinator translator: Each site would need a dedicated local site coordinator. Someone who is trained to use the technology, who can translate between the local language and English, and who can be general leader for the site. Some of the training classes could have a very small tuition for taking the class. This would only be charged for practical/business type classes and would be very small but could help to provide a stipend for the site coordinator (a small tuition could possibly also help people value the training more). Satellite Internet Connection: Satellite Internet Connections are becoming more widespread and I believe will soon take off in a similar manner as cell phones (which will mean improved technology and lower costs). A satellite Internet Connection in Africa right now will run $200 and upwards per month. But if this is compared to the cost of running a school/institution it is nothing. Just think, we could replicate a school/training center for only a couple hundred dollars a month. I believe the Lord has provided this opportunity for us to move forward. Schools tend to be centralized and costly making them unaffordable and unaccessible but with technology we can overcome both of these problems. Having a satellite Internet connection also provides several important features: 1. Technical assistance from anywhere in the world using Remote Desktop. Someone located in the U.S. (or elsewhere) would be able to solve a large portion of technical issues us Remote Desktop programming. 2. Not only could the training centers themselves be scattered all over but training resources from all over the world could be made utilized and made available to anywhere in the world. We have so many adventist training resources with our universities, sanitariums, Amazing Facts College of Evangelism, and many others that could easily be made available to others through the Internet. Someone could teach a class on agriculture in Idaho and stream the seminar on the Internet. An African immigrant living in Michigan could translate or dub the seminar from their home and the seminar could be made available to villages all across Africa. Or seminary classes at the University of Arusha (Tanzania) could be made available to swahili speaking pastors throughout Africa. 3. Discipleship & Accountability could happen with Internet communication: this would not only be important for the local site coordinator to continually communicate and be held accountable but also local elders or pastors (or whoever) could be mentored by someone from another locality (e.g. arranging a time when they would video-conference with their mentor once a week). 4. A doctor could go on a mission trip across the world on his lunch break by doing a live web cam medical consultation with someone in another country (the local site coordinator could serve as a translator) 5. .Additionally with a Satellite Internet connection some of the training classes could be taught live with a live question and answer time (questions sent in through e-mail or through video conferencing) Challenges: Obviously there would be major challenges in any endeavor of this kind. I see one of the greatest initial challenges is developing the training resources that would be downloaded by each training site. We have many resources in the Adventist church, so I don't believe we would have to do a lot of developing. The challenge would be getting permission to record a preaching class from Andrews, or a witnessing class from Amazing Facts, or a health class from a sanitarium and then translating that class into different languages and making the resources available on a centralized Internet site. This is a large initial task. But we have resources to be networked that could help in this. How many seminary students at Andrews are there from Africa who might be willing to help record a class or translate it into their own language? I imagine quite a few. Suggested Plan of Action: 1. Pray, seek the wisdom and guidance of others, begin communicating the vision and networking 1. Target a single language as the initial focus (Swahili or French would be good languages to start with since there are several African countries in each of these language groups). 2. Develop Resources within that one language. 3. Set up several training sites within that language group as pilot projects. 4. Set up additional sites within the original language group 5. Branch out to other language groups.
I have an idea... or maybe its a dream... or maybe its a vision
I think this is a great Idea. I have often thought, when I hear about countries where people are starving and it is a struggle to simply survive, "What do these people really need? What can I do?" I don't have enough money to feed them all. If I went to help, I would just be another mouth to feed. I think what is great about this Idea is that it addresses what is at the root of the situatuions. The real solution is education, and the gospel of course. The second will be recieved much more readily once stomachs are filled and people gain confidence in the "center". Education will help people get jobs, yes, but it will also empower them to make changes in their countries, to influence policies, and to reform their governments. And both together give hope, where there is hope there is change.
I hope that everyone takes just a moment to join in this conversation. If you had a thought while reading it, take the few extra second to type it in. Lets create a big brainstorm and open the door for God's leading.
Dude: great idea, but how do we bite-size it, and are you willing to lead it? Given a dedicated leader, this is doable.
I do like the idea and have the following thoughts:
- What about making the centers temporary? The thing that has killed western involvement in places like Africa is it always leads to dependence on the West. Why not say, "We'll mentor and equip you for 2 years until you have a team discipled, then we'll pack up and move on." This gives incentive to have a sustainable plan. This would obviously save on cost since you can reuse equipment and you could use the internet connection elsewhere. Or perhaps they can take ownership of the project when the team is in place. There's got to be a handing-over of the torch, otherwise it will be abused.
- Remote Desktop doesn't solve everything. Really there's a lot that could go wrong without having someone qualified on the scene. What happens when dust fills up the computer, the fan goes out and burns up the processor? Or viruses (which are RAMPANT in these countries) attack?
- Internet connection. Would it be adequate? I'm living in Yemen and my connection is barely feasible for video chats. Is there some humanitarian fund allocated for this so the church doesn't have to pay for it? You don't want to lose your freedom to determine the contect of the project, but it's worth checking into.
- Content. Obviously you recognize this in your "challenges" section. To have a good program it will take time and effort to create curriculum. You make the comparison between running a whole institution to just $200/mo. for internet. However, you're still going to have a load of expenses. All the support people in other countries will need some kind of compensation unless you have that many folks willing to volunteer like the doc that volunteers during lunch.For that matter, this kind of thing is needed in the west too. (I would love to be able to sit in on an online class dealing with nutritian or health related stuff.) And I suppose this is somewhat available via free podcasts. But you'll need some full-time folks. And unfortunately, to be realistic, I would think most students that volunteer for a year someplace do it for the adventure and chance to travel. That's great for them actually, but you lose that appeal if your whole base of volunteers don't get to enter the culture (which is still important). I think you had the best idea with getting content from schools and institutions. Content is there, it's just getting it to people. (Or being willing to give it away without profit.)
- Small tuition. Love the idea.
- Have you looked at the "one laptop per child" program? Not sure if you can glean anything from that project
- One concern would be that these centers might be used for the wrong purposes. For example, in item 1 above I haven't been a big supporter of that project because I'm afraid it would give spammers the perfect cheap tool to harvest info off the internet. Things like that. Cheap labor (and now combined with the internet), be it in China, India or Africa can be a real curse for people. Fortunately you have education is the main priority which can prevent this.
- Politics. Look forward to fun dialogue with corrupt government officials. They'll want their cut.
I recently watched the AFM video the "May River Story". Inspiring and saddening. Once the missionaries left the churches waned because of lack of education and training (their remote location isolating them from local mission/conference support). What if one of these training centers had been established before the missionaries left? Would the work of God have been able to move forward instead of retreating?
In regards to Christophers comment I am willing to lead this movement/endeavor, if it is the Lord's will. I never imagined anything like this before in all of my missionary daydreaming. I am praying and considering the possibility that this my be the direction God is leading Jade and I (of course if it is, I hope to have some NLD buddies to work with).
So if this is God's leading how do I (we?) start. Once again I think that developing the content would be the major hurdle to start with. I think Christopher's question is a good one. Can this be broken down in to bite sized chunks? I think that the unit of measure we are talking about here is time and money. Can the initial development be broken down into many small chunks and worked upon by many individual volunteers (as oppossed to dedicated paid employees)? If so coordinating this seems like a big job not just a side hobby. Would I be willing to take the plunge and quit my job to start such and endeavor even if there is no guranteed support? I pray for faith to follow the Lord where ever He may lead.
In regards to funding and resources it is easy to see why having a sponsoring organization could be a tremendous asset to an endeavor like this. Would an organization like AFM, Global Mission, or Gospel Ministries International be willing to take us under their wing? What are the advantages and disadvantages to this? Of course David Gate's philosophy of moving forward even without funding in hand always appeals to me. (But even if this endeavor did go forward by faith alone with no sponsor organization I would still want to team up and share resources with other ministries as much as possible).
More questions to think about. Let's keep dialoguing.
Sponsor organization? No Less Days man! We're a community -- after God's blessing, what more do you need? We've been looking at going NPO, so we could be a route for financial support -- but that's the least of your concern. On the other organizations you've mentioned, you'll probably have a boat-load of red tape, except probably with GMI. I get the impression GMI's not concerned about being GMI as much as they are concerned about work. This is a good thing.
We need to all pray until you get an answer on what you should do. Then you need to be prepared for the faith roller coaster--you're gonna be tempted to wonder if you did the right thing. Of course doubt accomplishes nothing, hence I suggest being prepared to counter it.
One other thought: I think there is a huge temptation, when starting any project/organization, to impose too much uniformity. Management can be made easier by making everything uniform, but it also stifles inspiration and productivity. You need to strike a balance, which I believe is a long ways away from uniformity. I suggest you move into this thing without too many ideas of how things should go, but your eyes fixed firmly on the goal. Everything else will work out.
Also, look for as much as possible that is already done. What materials are already available? If we get a pilot started somewhere using material that is already available, it will be much easier to encourage others to get involved.
Ultimately, you are talking about a community effort. In a sense, I think it's kind of like No Less Days. The purpose I see for this site, is to pull resources together -- support, ideas, labor, love, songs, stories, you name it -- from many people, to be shared with many people. So, if you thought of these remote sites as NLD satellites, then we'd be expecting the trainees to, not only share with their communities, but to contribute back to the larger community. As these folks begin to think and learn, they'll have contributions the rest of us will grow from. If we can encourage this spirit among the satellites, I think this would help deal with the impression that everything comes from the west -- because it wouldn't any more! :)
I like your thoughts. I am all about it being a No Less Days thing if that is where the Lord is leading. I believe the No Less Days philosophy is one that God can bless. I also agree 100% on the danger of uniformity. We must trust God to be in control of each individual project site. Our goal/purpose should always be uniform but methods must adapt and change in order for the gospel to reach people effectively. Individuality among the project sites would also be a tremendous asset to the "community effort". If each satellite is a "cookie cutter" then the community at large will not be able to benefit from the individual project sites. But as each site seeks to adapt and work in their own culuture they could share their individual success and failures with the group as a whole allowing the community to learn, grow, and encourage. I also believe that overhead should be avoided like the plague (how do you avoid the plague anyway?). That's what I love about the idea of community, growth takes place at and among the grassroots. Sattelites could be enouraged to plant and disciple other sattelites instead of making everything dependent upon a big expense organization based out of the west.
There is an extravagance of resources out there (I am primarily speaking about educational resources here, Bible, Health, literacy, life skills, community development, etc.). But unfortunately human apathy, selfishness, and deisre for control has quarantined the majority of resources to a privileged few. I agree resources don't need to be developed as much as made available (and adapted to local culutre/language).
I was looking back on the comment that Shannon posted about becoming a NPO. I liked what she said about having a NLD gathering. Here's what I am thinking. What if we had some "gatherings" where people could pray & dialogue together not only about this idea but also about the future of NLD. The gatherings could be internet chats, phone conferences, or maybe even a weekend retreat where we sought the Lord's direction together.
How about a weekend retreat in El Salvador? I know a beautiful place. . . :o)
Isn't Loveland, Colorado the midway point between the east coast and El Salvador and California?