Reforming Learning for the French-Speaking World

“I am extremely grateful to the whole eDOT team for their contribution to GBI Online.”
Bob, Director of GBI Online

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Thank you, Tech Team!

“It’s a simple equation: less time missionaries spend with computer problems means more time available for spreading the gospel.”
Eric, Mark Five founder

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“The old eDOT website recruited me to eDOT. I’m excited to see the ways God uses the new website to recruit for His work in Europe.”
Laura, website designer

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“Thank you very much for the Café Pilot you installed.
The number of clients increased twice, and we are working further to improve our services.”
Igor, president of Communitas  in Antoneşti, Moldova

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Location: Southern Germany
Cost: Depends
Length: 1 year to career missionary

Skills needed:

• Good organizational and administrative skills
• Good working knowledge of standard software programs (Microsoft or Open Office) and be willing and able to learn others quickly
• Knowledge of Moodle is a plus, but can be learned
• Be comfortable working in an online environment
• Enjoy working with people, both through email and in person

Are you extremely organized and love administrative tasks?  Contact us for more information.

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Location: Computer with solid Internet connection
Cost: Depends
Length: 1 year to career missionary

Skills needed:

• Editing background, preferably in editing online materials and online courses
• Need to be comfortable working in a completely online environment
• Experience using Moodle is a plus

Do you love spelling, grammar, and style?  Contact us for more information.

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Launching Online Learning in Spain

“We are convinced that this training is essential
to the long-term success of our online program.”
Mel, Director of Online Learning
at Al-Andalus Theological College
in Spain

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When Janet and Paul joined a short-term team for an eDOT computer outreach in Kiev, Ukraine, in March 2007, they never dreamed how God would change their lives! As North Americans, they thought they were going to help people there learn about computers and about God. And they did. They also connected with Pasha who gave them his e-mail address. Since then, through emails and Skype with Pasha and his family, Janet’s and Paul’s lives and values have changed. They’ve begun evaluating their values as Pasha has shared the pain of his family’s past – but more importantly, his family’s life of authentic faith and hope.

Through trials and testings, their family stood firm under Communism – and they learned to live by faith, not by sight. Current challenges with the economy, deceit, and government inequality continue to plague the country. Yet Pasha and his family often share verses with Paul and Janet such as 2 Cor. 7:4 (see sidebar). As Janet expressed, “Their e-mails abound with joy and a genuine concern for us. Their faith and love have changed the direction of my husband’s and my lives. What they have given us defies measurement.”

In April 2008, Janet and Paul again joined an eDOT computer team in Kiev, and Pasha and his sister, Marianna, served as translators. Their friendship deepened. Pasha’s parents invited the team into their home for borsch and torte – as well as singing and prayer. “Jesus’ love, which knows no borders, was evident,” Janet explained. “They don’t have a car, big house, job security, or most of the things we take for granted. Yet their lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving; they trust God with areas of life over which they have no control, living day by day by faith.” Today, Janet and Paul are considering how they can serve God long term in Ukraine. “We talk with Pasha or his parents every week,” Janet shared. “We believe our meeting was God-directed, and we have found kindred hearts in one another.”

Does God use us in short-term missions? Sure He does. But He also uses the people we go to serve to change us.

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The 10 computer Internet Café in Antoneşti, Moldova is the first of many small businesses to be started by Communitas (www.Communitas.md). Communitas is a small group of Christian Moldovans who have a vision to contribute to a social, economical and spiritual transformation in the different communities of Moldova. They purchased the old communist bath house in Antoneşti which is large enough to house several businesses that are needed to help the community improve – the first of which was the Internet Café. Here they not only have open hours where people can come in and rent time on the computers, but there are computer training sessions for those who don’t know how to use the computers, for those that want to use the computers to improve their business and even training for the farmers on how to farm more effectively. Other businesses are to follow including a pasta making factory, a greenhouse, a tailoring workshop, and a mini-bakery.

eDOT is partnering with Communitas by helping them make the Internet Café run more efficiently by installing Internet café control software and Internet filtering, teaching the administrators more about Linux and its administration, and loading appropriate open source software that will be a benefit for those coming to use the Internet Café.

Do you have a group of people that could help teach a basic computer skills class for a week? Are you familiar with Linux and would like to share your skills? Want to help with the construction of the other business initiatives in the bath house? Talk to us about how you could get involved in helping Communitas work in Antoneşti and other villages around Moldova.

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Location: Southwest Germany
Cost: Depends
Length: 3 months to career missionary

Skills needed:

• Adobe products such as Photoshop/Illustrator and Flash (desired)
• Ability to work with the restrictions created by some CMS (WordPress) and other web applications on which we may base our sites
• Most important – a creative mind

If you love to design websites and like the challenge of working in a cross-cultural environment, contact us for more information.

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Location: Southwest Germany
Cost: Depends
Length: 3 months to career missionary

Skills needed:

• PHP/MySQL (preferred)
• CSS,  HTML/XHTML
• Flash (desired), Actionscript (desired)
• Javascript (desired)
• XML (desired)
• Python (desired)
• Understanding of API’s and how to work with them
• Ability to develop for various browser types including cell phones/handys
• Most important – a creative mind

If you love open-source technology and creating interactive websites, contact us for more information.

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Location: Computer with solid Internet connection
Cost: Depends
Length: 1 year to career missionary

Skills needed:

• Administrator knowledge of Moodle (preferred)
• Able to follow documentation and familiarity with administrating web applications on the application level (not the server level)
• Do not need to be a technical guru, but need to be comfortable working entirely online

If you like working online and following procedures, contact us for more information.

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Location: Southwest Germany
Cost: Depends
Length: 1 year to career missionary

Skills needed:

• Strong knowledge of Linux and basic knowledge of Windows Server (preferred)
• Understanding of networking, firewalls, VPNs, etc.
• Basic understanding of virtualized servers (required)
• History of successfully developing creative solutions (desired)

Do servers obey your every command?  Contact us for more information.

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Some of the courses we need are:

• AutoCAD
• Excel
• Movie making
• Outlook
• Photoshop
• Web design
• Using the Internet
• Setting up and using email

Location: At your computer
Cost: Your time commitment
Length: Variable
Dates: Flexible

Skills needed: Depends on the program you would like to write for us.

If you’re able to serve God in this way, please contact us for more information on the type, length, formatting, and other specific requirements of the courses we need.

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Computer outreaches are an excellent way to:

• provide people with this valuable training
• share the love of God and the truth of the gospel
• provide local believers with new opportunities to connect with non-believers in their community

Location: Currently Ukraine. Possibly other Eastern European countries in the near future.
Cost: $950 – $1075, plus airfare from your departure airport to the airport closest to where you’ll be ministering.
Length: 10 – 15 days
Dates: Flexible

Skills needed:

• must love people, enjoy working with them, and desire to share Jesus’ love with them
• must possess at least basic computer skills (typing, Microsoft Word, email)
• at least two team members should be able to teach in front of a classroom
• must be willing to be flexible and trust the Lord

The dates for these trips are extremely flexible.  If you’d like to join us on a Computer Training Trip as an individual or you would like to coordinate a team to come with you, please contact us to start the process.

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After finishing her training as a medical assistant, Ira was happy to find a job in Poltava, two hours from her home.  Like many other young Ukrainians, Ira moved into dormitory-style housing to help keep her costs affordable.  She shares a bedroom with her roommate, Tanya, and they share kitchen space with others in the building.

Ivan also lives in the “dormitory.”  He works at the evangelical church one block away and invited Ira and Tanya to a computer outreach at the church.  Eager to increase her computer skills and meet the Americans coming to conduct the outreach, Ira attended the week of classes.  She enjoyed her discussions with Sue, one of our eDOT missionaries, as well as other team members who had many opportunities during the week to share their testimonies with Ira and answer questions such as What does God mean to you in your daily life?  At the end of the week, Ira attended the closing ceremony, her first time in an evangelical church service.  There again, she heard the gospel.

After the team left Poltava, Ivan continued to share God’s truth with Ira.  Two months later Ivan wrote Sue to let her know that Ira had decided to follow Christ!  Several weeks later Ira made a public profession of faith at the Franklin Graham Crusade in Kiev.  Since then Ira has written to Sue to say that she is attending church every Sunday.

Ivan gave Ira a Bible which she calls the “interesting, instructive” book.  Sometimes what she reads is hard to understand, but three new friends are helping her grow in her faith and grasp what she is reading and what the pastor is saying during the sermons.  One thing Ira says she knows for sure though, “I understand that life is better and quieter when you are near to God.”

When someone becomes a child of God, usually many have had a part in the process.  Ivan invited Ira; the team from the U.S. came to Ukraine for the computer outreach, and friends supported them in prayer and financially; Sue shared her testimony; Ivan followed up with Ira; and now Ira’s friends at church are discipling her.  Praise to God who is the One who bears the fruit.  And may we each be faithful in planting, watering, and harvesting fruit for the furthering of His kingdom.

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A team of four from the First Baptist Church of Bryan, Texas helped the Central Baptist in Kharkov, Ukraine share God’s love and truth through a computer outreach in May 2008…hear about it from Jason, one of the team members:

I had been on missions trips in the past, but I found out early on that this was no ordinary trip!  Our plan was to teach computers as an outreach event in Ukraine, and our eDOT leaders knew what we were up against. They had prepared a thorough, online training to help us with adjustments to the culture, team building and testimony preparation. There was also a curriculum to be learned and high expectations for the quality of the presentations that we were to make.  The eDOT group works hard to deliver meaningful training along with sharing God’s plan of salvation.

Whenever you organize a mission trip, there will be hurdles to overcome.  I have come to realize this is how God shows his power to us.  In our particular case we had many obstacles to overcome.   Our team was small—six adults; but the day before we left, two of our team members had to cancel due to serious health concerns with their father. One night during the outreach all of the electricity went out at the church. God showed his power by enabling us to complete our entire class on the batteries of the laptops.

We taught two 3-hour lessons each day; the lessons seemed to be very basic however, they were right on target for the level that our students needed.   As the week went on, the computer lessons became more involved and the Bible lessons became more focused until on Thursday we asked if anyone would like to pray for forgiveness and ask Jesus into their lives.  Several of our students reacted very emotionally and shared their faith with us as we had opportunity to talk with them during breaks and after class.

On Sunday, after our first week of classes, we had a graduation during the regular church service.  To my surprise almost all of the students showed up and they each wanted to share with the church about their experiences!  One couple shared that they had made a decision to follow Christ and one repented of her sin and asked for forgiveness.

While the mission trip was one of the most difficult jobs I’ve ever done, I wouldn’t trade one moment of the experience.  The pastor of Central Baptist Church invited us to come back again next year.  He shared how grateful they were to find a way to bring people into the church and show them God’s love.  I’m considering making the trip—but if I can’t go, can you go in my place?

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Posters placed on fences and personal invitations by church members announced the coming of a team from the U.S. to teach computers at the Birth of Christ Church in Kiev in April.  The response was, as always, amazing.

Forty students joined the team of eight from the Washington, D.C., area to crowd around eight desks during two classes each day for a week.  Some came curious about America and wanting to practice their English.  Others came though they’d never touched a computer, realizing the importance of new job skills.  Delight spread across their faces as they experienced the magic of cut-and-paste and the creativity of developing a colorful graphic design based on Christ’s empty tomb or John 3:16.

Often in a classroom setting, students remain strangers to each other and never talk personally with the teachers.  But the U.S. team found most of the students open and responsive, perhaps due in part to the many great needs in their lives.  One teenage girl was the oldest of 11 children, all of whom lived in one room with their alcoholic parents.  She began bringing her younger siblings to the classes; they loved decorating cakes in a computer game but really ate up the hugs and conversations with the teachers!  A young man who walked into the class using a cane bore scars of a near-fatal drunk-driving accident.  We learned that God had used his brush with death to reclaim his life and heart.

Several students specifically mentioned that they came to upgrade their job skills since computers are becoming more commonplace in Ukraine.  But teaching computer skills is not the primary course objective in a computer outreach.  The team came to Kiev to show Jesus Christ to a community through their love, service, and words.  At the beginning of the week, one student started openly arguing with the men who gave the gospel talks during class.  At the closing ceremony he asked for the microphone and spontaneously expressed his gratitude “not only for the opportunity to learn computers, but also to learn about Jesus.”

During the last class the students learned how to do e-mail.  Several of the students and their teachers have already found a very positive application:  they continue their new friendships – by e-mail, of course.

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Janet was part of a team of Americans who came to do a computer outreach at the Svyatoshina Baptist Church.  Here is her story:

In Kiev, incomes average $300 a month, yet a small apartment rents for $800.  Though computers are not yet in common use there, technology is spreading in Ukraine’s cities, with great potential for computer-literate people to improve their careers.  This is one reason our team came from the Washington, D.C., suburbs to Kiev in March: to teach basic computer skills at the eLearning Center (eLC) at the Svyatoshina Baptist Church.

We also came because eLCs bridge churches to their communities.  Advertisements and personal invitations brought many nonbelievers into the church classroom. We gave them basic computer instruction as well as the good news of Jesus Christ.  Relationships that began between church members and other class participants continue to develop in a weekly computer lab offered by the church.  Believers also benefit from the instruction, both in job potential and in learning how to use eDOT’s eBible courses.

At first I wondered how we could reach people with whom we could not converse.  But our genuine concern was shown by smiles, tone of voice, handshakes, hugs, patience, and gifts.  They felt God loving them through us, transcending the language barrier, connecting our hearts.

The students were spellbound as we shared spiritual truth and testimonies.   During our computer outreach, one young woman took a translator and me aside and asked, “How do I get connected with God?”  As we talked with her, we saw she was deeply affected by the truth she heard and the love she felt.  Another woman, who continues to attend the weekly lab, said she is now reading the New Testament which we gave her at the “graduation service.”

Indeed, we were more blessed than they were!  We knew we were working with God there.  We were touched by the sincere, open hearts of the students and church staff.  I think we all look at our American lifestyle differently since we glimpsed the Ukrainians’ hardship.  Now we are asking God how we can raise funds for more eLCs and to get ourselves back there again to be Jesus’ hands and feet to the Ukrainian people.

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My name is Judith, and I have just completed the most amazing three-month missionary experience as a volunteer with eDOT in Müllheim, Germany. My time began at Greater Europe Mission’s Annual Conference in Hungary last August.  I came to the conference to serve with eDOT’s Tech Team which helps GEM missionaries with computer concerns. I attended with the intention of blessing others with my computer skills, but God had a greater plan.  As I “threw out” blessings to others, more blessings came back to me!

At the conference, missionaries brought their computers to the Tech Center where a team of technicians offered software solutions and training. Others worked with hardware problems.  Seeing the missionaries’ relief and joy when their cleaned-up computers were returned was so rewarding!  It was a service they obviously appreciated more than words could say.

After the conference, I began working with eDOT in Germany, transferring an online, interactive course called Educational Foundations to their new course delivery system, Moodle, and standardizing the formatting of the course. It is an incredible course, and Larry is an inspired teacher. Working with the eDOT team was a rich learning experience!  I brought back so many new skills to implement at my home church. Dana, Sue, and Courtney were especially helpful in teaching me Moodle skills.

Recurring Internet issues hindered me from completing the whole course before I left, but I have continued working on it from home via the Internet.  I thank the Lord every day for giving me this unique opportunity to work for Him through partnership with the eDOT team.  The experience gave me a magnificent glimpse into the window of God’s unlimited resources as I watched God work in and through the missionaries’ lives.  Faith has become more than a five-letter word to me – it has become real, renewed, and revived.

God touched my heart and spirit in a very personal way during my time in Europe.  The trip left me with a passion for missions that has inspired me to become more actively involved in several mission projects at my home church. All of us want to find a way to make a difference for God in our world. I am so grateful for the opportunity God gave me to make a contribution in Germany and would challenge you to consider how you might be able to use your technical abilities to make a difference in Europe.

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