Children’s ministry reaches out to kids of the world
Locally developed training programmes for children's ministry are now being used all over the world.
Locally developed training programmes for children’s ministry are now being used all over the world.
Petra Institute, a faith-based organisation, situated outside White River on the Numbi Road, has been working on continually improving the methodology of children’s ministry and the training of missionaries in this field, since its inception nearly 26 years ago.
Two of Petra Institute’s staff members recently visited Singapore and the Ukraine to help out a fellow ministry organisation. Dirk Coetsee, managing director of Petra and his wife, Taleta, a lecturer at the institute, taught a Walking with Wounded Children course and demonstrated Petra’s training model to staff of Scripture Union in Singapore.
Throughout the years they have developed a training methodology suited to oral cultures, like those prevalent in Africa. This is relationally-, needs- and outcomes-based and students learn through experience and participation with the help of a facilitator instead of in a formal knowledge-transfer way.
As Singapore is a highly developed country and Scripture Union’s staff use mainly electronic presentations, their methodology proved unsuccessful in neighbouring developing countries such as Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. As these south-east Asian countries also have an oral culture, Petra’s training model seemed the perfect fit.
The Coetsees realised during the presentation of the course that children in Singapore did not have the same problems as those in Africa. In Africa problems like poverty and Aids are prevalent but in Singapore, children are constantly placed in stressful situations due to overloaded systems and extremely high expectations that are set for them. If they move out of Singapore to a developing country, they are confronted with poverty and don’t know how to deal with it.
The goal of the Coetsees’ visit was to assist in developing a family programme and to offer a Walking with Wounded Children tutor-training course. “We have been in the Ukraine several times to offer training. Now, however, it was with shock that we realised that the country was in a state of war. Even though the impact of the rebel groups were not seen everywhere, it surely was on everyone’s mind.
Though we were in Kiev, we saw the people’s fear of experiencing that their country might again become part of Russia instead of joining the European Union. This brings tremendous uncertainty,” said Dirk.
The Coetsees helped four trained Walking with Wounded Children tutors in Ukraine, Romania, Armenia and Moldova to develop a process of training others and six new tutors were trained. One of Petra’s aims is to empower strong leaders to take ownership to equip people in their own culture and context and not depend on the institute that trained them.
“Another development is that a postgraduate institute in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) contacted us to come explain the Walking with Wounded Children programme to them. They are very enthusiastic to make it part of their training. They are responsible for 50 000 teachers. The tutors established a forum ‘Help Ukraine’ that will focus on helping parents and children. The government has now approached them to make use of them. The Lord opened doors where, before the war, it was impossible. God’s timing was perfect because, in a time where people are desperate and despondent, a new focus suddenly came as the newly trained tutors realised they can help their own people work through the trauma, and to bring hope to them,” said Dirk. Enquiries: www.petra.co.za, 013-751-1166/7 or info@petra.co.za
