Is our world view biblical?

With great privilege, the SOFJ has spent the last two weeks receiving
teaching and inspiration from Landa Cope, Founding International Dean
of the College of Communication for YWAM's University of the Nations. She is highly sought to speak to politicians and business leaders around
the globe about the Bible's practical applications in all domains of
society.

Landa brought a challenging word to the students, encouraging them to
gain God's perspective as it is revealed in Scripture. She also taught
the importance of asking good questions and being bold in the
proclamation of Truth.

The week prepared the students for writing their first big assignment
over the weekend. Each student focused on an issue of their choice and
brought a Biblical worldview to the piece, while still writing for
mainstream media. Topics such as prostitution, Sharia Law, farming,
and human trafficking were all explored in the light of God's word and
His principles.

We look forward to continuing our study on news-worthiness this week
and meeting with the God of Communication!

Building Globally

The SOFJ is in full swing! Eleven students representing nine nations have come together to dive into the field of journalism and share hearts and visions for communication in Africa.
Here are two of the inspiring stories that brought students to this course:

Emmanuel
Petauke, Zambia
DTS 2006 in Zambia

Admiring a number of the BBC correspondents, such as former Focus on Africa editor Robin White and columnist Steven Sacker, Emmanuel was inspired to become a journalist through contemplating the genocide in Rwanda and realizing media's influence. He says, "I would like to acquire all the necessary skills for front-line reporting. I feel like doing it from those areas that are hard hit by war or natural disaster."
As the first to move out of Zambia, he is supported by a proud family who expect great things.

Marie
Boras, Sweden

Born and raised in Sweden, Marie (pictured above with desk-mate, Lydia) joined YWAM in 2004. After her DTS she staffed several schools in Australia and led Discipleship Training Schools.
Following her heart for writing, a recommendation from a South African friend and a stirring for Africa, she came to the school to gain practical skills and learn more about the African countries that have interested her for so long. Marie says the most challenging part of the school will be putting everything into practice that will be learned during the three month lecture phase.

Other students include:
Solomon, Nigeria; Rivka, Venezuela; Micah, United States; Cristian,Argentina; Darcie, United States; Xesha, Zimbabwe; Lydia, South Africa; Nicolas, Nigeria and Agnes, Uganda.


--
Darcie Nolan

Building team around communication

One of the highlights of Week 1 of the SOFJ was the team-building events. Bec Gibbons, from the EuroCom team, happened to be in Cape Town for a few days on vacation and she agreed to come and facilitate some activities with her friend, Linda. It was great to get the school off to a good start and to observe the different communication and interaction styles of staff and students.

We have 8 different nationalities represented on the school, which makes for some interesting cross-cultural communication! The team-building times provided a safe environment for some of these differences to show themselves, and an opportunity to process together. Sometimes the classroom might not feel quite so safe, so this was great.

Not only do we have a new student body, but our staff team needs to bond too. Five of our school staff have worked together as part of AfriCom but four are new to the team. Bec and Linda spent an afternoon with us as staff and we had a lot of fun, observing our differences and commonalities.

Relating well is all about communication!

School of Field Journalism begins!

Today saw the official opening of the School of Field Journalism that we are running as part of the Communication faculty of the University of the Nations. We welcome 10 students from places as diverse as Venezuela, Sweden, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

As part of our first day of vision casting for the school, we were thrilled to have Landa Cope join us. Landa is the founding Dean of the College of Communication and she was instrumental in designing curriculum for the original School of Journalism. It was great to hear from 'the horse's mouth' how this training program came into being and how she sees its future.

Landa will be with us this week teaching on '360 degree thinking'. It will be a challenging week of recognizing how little objective or biblical Truth we can claim to know - about the world or about ourselves - but it will be a rich week of learning and processing. She is also with us next week to continue teaching on issues relating to a biblical worldview.

For those readers who would like to support us in prayer, we have a special request: in Week 3 of the school we hope to host Veronica Schaab who pioneered the School of Journalism in Argentina. Although it will be very strategic for her to be part of our training program, both she and us are struggling to raise the finances for her plane ticket. Please pray for financial provision - thanks!