As we look at the changes in the world these days, we have
enough reasons to worry. We have many challenges to adapt to with technology,
and especially to raise children in this digital world. The impact is even more
severe in Romania as we feel churches and families were not prepared for this.
Our goal as a Ministry is to transform Children in Christ through His Church. Instead of
focusing on the obstacles, we have to find a way to reach our goal. We prayed
to be wise and see the open doors God has for us in this digital age. We
remember that roman roads and the Latin language were the leverages used by the
Church of the first century to share Christ’s message “to the ends of the
world”.
Learning from this example, we started seeing that Internet,
computers, Smartphones and IPad’s can be used as tools to help our Ministry
expand. Technology can help us see transformation produced by Christ in children’s
lives from Romania and from the Romanian communities spread throughout Western
Europe. We started to connect the dots, we already had a Curriculum program
based on biblical teaching, we had many people asking for materials, we had a poor
distribution in Romania but we had a real explosion of the internet and unbelievable
growth of the tablets and Smartphone market. We saw the DOOR – an Internet
curriculum website, where every church and every Romanian can have access to
all the quality curriculum materials produced by Romanian Teachers.
We stopped looking at the way technology was changing as a
threat and considered it as an amazing opportunity. We can now see teachers on
the street or in the buses traveling reading the bible lesson on their
Smartphone, or we see them equipped as they watch the video training on the
display of their laptop or their tab.
In the first two
weeks of its launch, more than 250 teachers have subscribed to this platform.
We expect next year, over 2,000 teachers to use this tremendous resource.
-Marian Zaharia
EGM US Representative - Hungary
