(Dec. 2, 2011 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) It’s official: Janine Rembas and Spotlight English Clubs have been assigned to reach out with Christ’s love in the virtual realm.
The announcement in November came from Curt Cole, an HCJB Global vice president who spearheads the ministry’s social media efforts and oversees the Sub-Saharan Africa Region. But what does it mean for Rembas and the Spotlight team who have offered English audio, scripts and other learning resources via the Internet in recent years?
The number of English-language learners receiving weekly electronic mailings of Spotlight program scripts, for instance, has swelled. There are 5,000 subscribers in Latin America alone.
Since 2000 Radio Station HCJB has aired “Spotlight” in Ecuador, later adding it to ALAS, the mission’s Spanish satellite radio network in Latin America. Spotlight has since been adopted for use by stations in Spain, the U.S., Burkina Faso and possibly elsewhere in the world. Some of these stations are operated by HCJB Global ministry partners.
Last month the Spotlight team (with members from ReFrame Media, Words of Hope and HCJB Global-UK along with representatives from the mission’s Asia Pacific and Latin America regions) gathered in Ecuador. For several days, team members sat in the same conference room—people otherwise separated by distance but united in the purpose of sharing Christ via English-language learning. During the rest of the year, Internet usage keeps them all on the same page strategically. Tasks are carried out online.
Audio program segments for example, are voiced in different locations, then exchanged via file transfer protocol (FTP) sites. While Spotlight is now increasing its Internet presence, the team has for years run its off-microphone activity on the Web. Since taking the Spotlight English Club learning model from just one Quito club to several dozen that have sprung up elsewhere in the world, Rembas has adopted various Internet tools: initially email mass mailings, webpages and digital file caches.
In doing this, she has complemented Spotlight audio programs that seek to deal with subjects of interest to a young adult audience. Based on a Christian worldview, the programs include explicit Christian content, using phrases such as, “Christians believe ...” or “the Bible says….” Both the program and the clubs are intended to offer people an English-speaking opportunity and the chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Through the English clubs, people have opportunities to discuss program content more deeply. Club volunteers have led people to relationships with Christ in these settings.
For Rembas, her setting first changed a few years ago when she transferred from Ecuador to HCJB Global’s Asia Pacific Region. In Thailand, she has started 10 traditional Spotlight English Clubs, even while heading discussions with other language learners via video conferencing. Assigned to the virtual realm, she will work across various regions.
English learners from around the globe have joined Rembas at prearranged times to converse in English on such Internet sites as Skype or Google.
So it could be argued that the November announcement about Rembas’ new assignment reflects a shift to virtual realm ministry already being used. Even as Rembas continues a learning model that seats people face to face for conversations, these chats are increasingly occurring via video connections over the Internet. Casual contacts become friends in far-flung locations.
Throughout the course of the past year, Spotlight’s website has attracted nearly 1 million visits from more than 400,000 visitors in 215 countries speaking 160 languages, according to Spotlight Productions. In the digital age where new information and another website experience are just a click away, these visitors stayed for an average of nine minutes, a veritable eternity in cyberspace. The language learners are both staying on the site to listen to programs and/or downloading them to their computers or mobile devices such as cell phones, iPods and MP3 players.
In Quito the Spotlight team discussed Spotlight’s Facebook accounts, also addressing media themes such as search engine optimization and mobile applications. They also met with some of the program’s listeners to better learn how to adapt the program to their language learning needs. Those conversations occurred in what has long been a more conventional way—they chatted together face to face.
Source: HCJB Global
Photo credit: Katy Blake
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