1152 A lamb with wings and a guitar!\nSheep-finding Hong Kong style
austra L asia 1152
A lamb with wings and a guitar!
Sheep-finding Hong Kong style
HONG KONG: 3rd June 2005 -- The imagery is
interesting, and the venture even more so. A lamb with angel's
wings, and no meek little fellow either! It sports
a guitar and is definitely going somewhere!
Hong Kong's Catholic Examiner for this week runs a
story on a new online evangelisation school. It comes in the
context of a 'Year of Evangelisation' recently officially concluded by
Bishop Joseph Zen and reported by various agencies. Amongst other
things, this latter initiative saw the birth of the Hong Kong
Evangelization page at www.evanlife.org.hk/Eng/main.htm
which is worth a look in its own right, especially their
'sheep-finding' campaign.
There is something decidedly youthful about the
Online School of Evangelisation, however, beginning with the chosen
symbol. And sure enough, it turns out that the idea came from a
group of youthful Chinese from overseas Chinese communities for the
evangelisation of overseas Chinese. This group has given
the idea and 'The Friends of Jesus' Passover, FOJP as they call
themselves, has put up the online school.
The venture, which has the backing of the PIME
missionary Congregation, officially began its activities on 15th May,
Feast of Pentecost. What does it offer less than a month later,
on the Feast of the Sacred Heart?
Firstly, it is bilingual,
but in a truly bilingual way - that is it does not see the need to
translate all material into both languages. Language choice
depends on the teacher or consultant at the time - and the student,
obviously. The school is free and requires only commitment;
commitment to a few hours of study a week, to an example of
perseverance, to be active and diligent in sharing knowledge with other
students and eventually to putting one's knowledge to the service of
evangelisation.
The course lasts 24 months and focuses on
evangelisation in Asia. It claims to be 'the first online school
of evangelisation', a rather big claim, but certainly the first online
school of youthful evangelisation, bilingual, Asian-focused....and we
know they have some 40 enrolled at this stage, from Australia, Peru,
Brunei, USA, Malaysia, Canada.
Very definitely a must-see and may seed other ideas in other areas. Go to www.evschool.net to find out more. VOCABULARY
sports (a guitar): colloquial verb meaning
'to carry'
put up: phrasal verb with several meanings
in English. In this context to put a page on the web.
bilingual: able to speak and understand
two languages, actively or passively. Strictly speaking,
sociolinguists use the term of someone equally fluent in mother tongue
plus one other langauge.
seed: here used as a verb; to sow an
idea. 'seed' suggests a single action as distinct from 'sowing'
which is more diffusive.
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