Passing the Baton successfully trained teachers in Indonesia to give the Passing the Baton workshop.
Indonesia is a vast nation of more than 17,000 islands, the fourth most populous nation in the world. Over the last couple of decades Christianity has grown rapidly and now constitutes about 9% of the population. At the same time, though, the nation is becoming more "Islamicized" and Christian groups see an urgent need to pass the baton of godly faithfulness to the next generation.
Passing the Baton's involvement started with our Philippines project in 2006. Through a partnership with the Association of Christian Schools International, Passing the Baton was able to train the teachers in 300 Christian schools, from small rural preschools to urban schools with thousands of students.
Our Filipino brothers and sisters embraced an exciting vision: "God is reaching out to the nations and He is using Filipinos to do it!"
That vision became reality this last week as two of our Filipino trainers (Julius Tajale and Lilibeth Garcia) accompanied Passing the Baton's Sean Bevier, ACSI's Asia director Janet Nason, and ACSI's Indonesia director Ishak Wonohadidjojo to train 12 Indonesian educators to deliver the transformational Passing the Baton content throughout Indonesia.
Over three intense days our Indonesian colleagues absorbed the Passing the Baton training material, framed it in the Indonesian context, and translated it into Bahasa Indonesia, the national language.
By the end of the training our English speaking colleagues were able to listen to the Passing the Baton workshop presented for the first time in a language used by nearly 250 million people. The baton passed to the Filipinos has now been passed to the Indonesians. Get Ready to Lead subscribers have been instrumental in supporting the Philippines project through prayer, encouragement and finances--this is your victory to celebrate!
Pray with us as God supernaturally arranges opportunities for our Indonesian brothers and sisters to train thousands of teachers, and ultimately millions of believers, in how they can be purposeful and intentional in passing the baton of godly faithfulness to the next generation.
Small victories like this are the seeds of mass movements. In our current dour times we must not forget the words of the old hymn, "This is my Father's world, O let me ne'er forget: That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet."
