Training Christian leaders
from toddlers to teens

Pre-schoolers at the Colegio Gimnasio Cristiano near Bogotá, enjoy the playground equipment during a recess from their preparation as future Christian leaders. Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (COL01DJ-12.JPG)

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — “Don’t allow Egypt to teach our children!” That was the ‘word’ Pastor Ricardo Pashat Ilium received from God which led him to found a unique school in the countryside near Bogotá four years ago.

The Colegio Gimnasio Cristiano, now run by Mr Ilium’s vibrant Avivamiento Church, aims for no less than the total discipleship of the children.

Victoria de Echeverry is the school’s Christian education teacher and is married to the church’s associate pastor.

“The vision is to raise a generation of young people with a sound theological foundation,” she says.

The children all come from Christian families; most are the children of pastors and other Christian leaders. The children’s own spiritual state is also ascertained, before admission, by means of a letter from their church and a personal interview.

This year there are 128 pupils on the beautiful countryside campus. Next year the school hopes for 250 students, and the longer-term plan is to develop a Christian university on similar principles.

It is the school’s hope that it can produce leaders in all spheres whose lives are based firmly on Christian doctrine and who give a clear witness to others.

“Our vision is that from our school can come a president of the nation, an economist – or, for that matter, a worker – each having clear biblical principles to guide their lives,” declares Mrs de Echeverry.

Central to the school’s goals are Scripture materials provided by the Colombian Bible Society.

“Through songs and stories we teach the children concepts like faith, the identity and nature of God, and talking with God, as well as studying books such as the Psalms,” she explains. “With children from seven to 10, we teach them everything about the Bible, we teach them to love the Word of God and to live it.”

When they begin, the youngest children have two hours of Christian education per week. This increases to three hours for the middle grades and four for the teenagers. In addition they are taught all the usual courses prescribed by the government curriculum.

Mrs de Echeverry testifies wholeheartedly to the importance of the Scripture materials supplied by the Bible Society.

“For me, they are a treasure,” she says. “In the past I had to make photocopies of whatever materials I could find and, in addition, I had to develop a lot of my own activities. But with these materials, I can just take them and use them. And they are not just for me – the other teachers are also very happy with them.”

Take books home

She is also excited that the Bible Society is also providing Scripture materials that the children can take home. She cites a colourful book related to the successful UBS video David as an example.

“The children have already seen the Bible Society movie,” she explains. “But now they can take these books home with them, which extends the experience of learning biblical values.”

A little collection of coins, lamps and other artefacts from Bible times helps bring to life for nine- to 11-year-olds the history of the Bible itself, and the Bible Society provides resources shedding light on its own history.

Since the students are Christian children from Christian families, one might wonder how the effectiveness of the Bible Society materials can be measured. Mrs de Echeverry provides an answer from within her own family.

Recite

Victoria de Echeverry, the Christian education teacher at the Colegio Gimnasio Cristiano near Bogotá, shows a few of the many Colombian Bible Society Scripture products that her school uses to train future Christian leaders. Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (COL01DJ-2.JPG)

“I had never taught my two-year-old the story of David,” she says, “but she saw the video at school and afterwards she could go through the picture book and recite the whole story. She would point and say, ‘This is David’, or ‘This is Goliath, and Goliath does not like God because he is bad and he is far away from God’. So even though she is from a Christian home, this material is having a big impact on her.”

Mrs de Echeverry has also noticed that her pupils are so used to having biblical characters as heroes that they display a quite distinctive attitude to the toys and games favoured by their other friends, such as Pokemon or Dragon Ball.

This kind of effect is important because the children at Colegio Gimnasio Cristiano are assessed not only on what they have learned but on how they are applying their lessons in their lives.

“We recently gave the students some Bible Society Scripture materials at school, and some of them had similar materials from church,” Mrs de Echeverry remembers. “So they gave the extra materials to their brothers and sisters. Sometimes when we distribute materials, they ask for extras so they can share them. So not only do we think the Bible Society Scriptures are valuable and exciting, the students do, too.” (WR 372/1 - 11.02)