WHITE RIVER – On Saturday, Petra Institute, a faith-based organisation called to serve the Christian community by building capacity for children’s ministry celebrated lives changed over the past 25 years.
Established on April 1 in 1989 in Ermelo with a small team of trainers, the college share God’s desire that lost and broken children be found and restored to caring Christian families and communities, to join Him in transforming society.
From humble beginnings and a small ministry under the leadership of Rev Johan du Preez eager to proclaim God’s grace and care, they have developed into a strong and powerful institution which has already trained thousands of students in 67 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Far East. They work within strategic partnerships with organisations on national level, building the capacity of the individuals but also the organisation.
“God has indeed done immeasurably more than we could ever ask and imagine,” remarks Dirk Coetsee, managing director of Petra Institute.
To date, Petra has developed material that can be used to train persons from low-literate to tertiary level.
The training material has also been translated into Arabic and Russian. Since 2012, the institute has become more involved in a consultancy role in assisting theological training institutions to develop curriculums for children’s ministry.
These include a basic course in children’s ministry, which covers relationship building with children, accompanying children to spiritual maturity, family ministry, tutoring classes, and training the trainers. Also available is the course, Walking with Wounded Children, which is designed to equip Christians working on a fundamental level to help emotionally hurting children.
The biblical basis of walking with these children, understanding and assessing a wounded child, as well as understanding the healing relationship and applying tools for child counselling are covered.
“The philosophy of this training and education is Christian-orientated, relational, contextual and based on facilitating experiential learning. The training is very practical and what the students learn in the mornings in class is put into practice with children in the afternoons.
When we train adults, they organise their own training opportunities in the community and train under the guidance of Petra’s staff,” concludes Coetsee.
