Advancing with Vision
What a special opportunity we had last month to video chat with two of our founders, Rev. Steve Wible and Dr. Steve Torgerson! In discussing the future development of SALT, our focus naturally turned to the rapid changes taking place across East Asia. Like some of you, they raised concerns about how these changes are impacting SALT’s ministry.
Yes, we are facing greater and greater challenges, but yes, we are experiencing God’s grace in greater and greater measure. As our Director of Training, Joseph, explains, “COVID has repeatedly broken out in different regions. Prevention policies remain strict and make travel more and more troublesome. In fact, trainers are always at risk of being stranded whenever they teach, because if they contract the virus, they are not allowed to return home.
With unstable weather conditions as well, more dangers are encountered. To be safe, we cannot hold training at the same venue for very long, so we routinely need to switch our locations. Recently, one of our sites was raided. The manager was detained, and our equipment was confiscated. But by God’s grace, everything turned out well in the end, and the manager was released.
What’s more, it has become more and more difficult to procure religious materials. “We cannot easily buy products with religious content anymore, as they are no longer allowed to be purchased online. Fewer and fewer religious materials can be bought via our mobiles now. Meanwhile, various communication apps have been shut down as well,” Joseph further revealed.
Though the environment is unfavorable, the SALT team remains steadfast. “We must persevere and advance with vision. God has told us that our strength will equal our days,” one trainer asserted. It is this spirit that has sustained us.
At the start of 2022, the pandemic hit us severely, forcing us to suspend training for three months. During this frustrating period, we found that God actually expanded our ministry! While the total number of graduates was bound to fall short of last year’s, the pilot Diploma Program was a surprising success. Seventeen students became the first batch of our Diploma graduates. Moreover, we received multiple invitations to train at new sites after courses resumed. As a result, we have already achieved our goal to open two new certificate level training sites, PTL!
These milestones reassure us of God’s grace, which empowers us to keep advancing with vision. It is our hope that each co-laborer at SALT would look forward and put a hand to the plow, never looking back!