Recently the mayor of Chile’s poorest municipality told us that Mission Generation was a courageous organization for taking on the status quo. He asked, “Why does a law exist in Chile that mandates ethics and morals education yet none of the other school book publishers are addressing it? He asked, “If there is an opportunity to teach children about God as part of their standard education, why aren’t other ministries doing it?”
The mayor said the difference between other educational publishers and Mission Generation is the courage we have to fight through the legal and political challenges, squeeze through loopholes in the law, and respond with confidence to questions designed to entrap and incriminate. What he admires most is our ability to defend a spiritual position without excluding any people groups or favoring a political position. In addition, he said our strong stance on righteousness is the reason he requested that all of his superintendents adopt our program for their schools.
In order to provide accredited texts to schools and state-recognized certification to teachers, Mission Generation must comply with rigorous legal requirements. In Chile, for example, we were required to submit a 500-page report on our program and education philosophy. Each grade level textbook was critiqued page by page. There were over 750 observations in the books for 1st through 8th grades. Our attorneys and government experts argued our case lesson by lesson, a process that has taken months, all to allow God back in school.
Even though I like what the mayor said, I think the reason we have succeeded has more to do with GRIT! Our team is passionate about young people receiving the message of Jesus and being discipled in school, and we are in it for the long haul. Isaiah said it this way, “For the Lord God will help Me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:7) With you behind us and the grace of God working for us, we have pressed the doors of utterance, opening ways where there were no ways, to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To God be the glory…
