February 17, 2012
Although many have encouraged people to use WEI’s teaching website as an evangelism tool, the number of active teachers actually decreased from 200 the last quarter of 2011 to 194 in the first quarter of 2012. This seems surprising because 23 new teachers began taking students and have taken an average of 10 students each at this point. We are not sure of all the reasons, but it does sometimes feel like we are trying to run up the ‘down’ side of an escalator.
Internet ads buy high placement on the Google search engine. Currently, these are shown only to the first 5% of those doing a search for English lessons, so you can see that the number of teachers we have now would be overwhelmed if the ads were run all day.
You can also see enormous opportunities that are going untouched. In the 3rd quarter 2011 report, we calculated it would take 15,000 teachers to handle all the students WEI would attract if the ads were shown all day. Obviously, we are a long way from that goal.
However, we are not downhearted! At least three former students in three different countries are now teaching others. One recently baptized his friend and is thrilled that now he has someone else with whom to worship. Others are excited about learning about Jesus for the first time, and some are very close to making a commitment.
We were recently able to talk to two additional groups, explaining the opportunities available to us, and we know others are doing the same. Several have asked for information on being teachers. God hears our prayers for more reapers. He provided 23 new teachers in the first quarter of 2012, and He will continue to add to our numbers as we bring repenting sinners to Him.
Please continue to tell fellow Christians of this opportunity for them to ‘shine like stars of the universe in the eyes of God’ by teaching others the good news of Jesus. (Philippians 2:15, 16)
