eDOT has joined this team in setting up a Mobile Outreach Center in Zaporozhye, Ukraine. That is 8 laptop computers that we will be able to conduct computer classes with. These classes are designed to teach computer skills but as well we will use the classes to draw people to us so that we can share the truth of the Lord and invite non-believers to discipleship classes.
In the next few months we have scheduled two week long computer classes/outreaches in several remote villages. Then in the fall we will conduct the computer classes during the week at the center. We are praying many non-believers will come to these classes; this is a way for us to introduce them to the churches that will be offering the classes.
We also have several of the MOC computers setup in the center for people to come in and use like an Internet cafe. Wednesday evenings we’ve used the center for showing videos (Ones with a Christian theme) and afterwards a discussions time. And Friday evenings are set aside for a game nights using our foosball table, ping pong table and computer games to draw the youth to the center. Saturday evening is our church service time. The center is already a busy place and we are just getting started.
Valuable ministry resources such as Bible courses, discipleship and training materials that have been developed by other organizations are generously made available to eDOT for use in our European context. One such example is the Preaching for Life Change course taught by Pastor Rick Warren and made available to us by Pastors.com. It is necessary to adapt these resources to our European ministry partners’ needs as well as the online learning environment.
Adapting this workshop material into a distance learning course has been my most recent project. I adapted this 11 CD audio workshop by Rick Warren into a culturally relevant online preaching course for use by Bible schools and seminaries in Europe. It was necessary to transcribe the content of the lectures and then put the content into our online course format using a program called Moodle. As with any college-level course, it is necessary to develop weekly lessons, learning exercises, discussion questions, and a discussion forum area where students can interact not only with the course facilitator, but with the other students as well. Our distance learning courses are not offered as a self study program with isolated students sitting in front of their computers, but as an online learning community that works through the material together with discussion and interaction being a very important part of the course.
Most of our partners will probably offer this course in a blended learning format combining the online learning along with a portion of the class that will be face-to-face with either their fellow students taking the class or others in the context of their local ministry. For instance, a student in a class like this one could be taking the course online during the week and then be giving the message they were preparing at their local church on Sunday. Since many of the students enrolled in the various distance learning programs may be separated by many kilometers, a distance learning program greatly minimizes the amount of time needed for traveling to a resident location.
