Avellaneda Adventist Academy, located in the southern region of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, was inaugurated in April 2023 as a Nuevo Tiempo space. This means the courses offered by the Adventist communication network will be available to students and their families.

"We thought it was a very good idea. This year, it is in pilot phase, and next year, we will surely extend it to other schools in the field," said Rubén Piontek, Education director for the Buenos Aires Conference, referring to the joint work with Nuevo Tiempo Argentina.

Jimena Valenzuela, chaplain of Avellaneda Adventist Academy, highlighted the birth of the project "because of the need for the children to be able to do Bible studies that are not always done in their churches. Although most of the students are Adventists, it is good for them to strengthen their beliefs, and for those who are not Adventists, to learn a little more about the Bible, in addition to the sacred history manuals they already have."

Fernanda Perez, director of the academy, said, "From the management team, we have been supporting the whole initiative because we see the importance of the children being able to study the Bible and have different Bible studies every year that can bring them closer to God so that they can have a spiritual growth, which is our first objective."

The Chaplaincy department proposed the plan to the management "and also to the Bible teachers who were enthusiastic; and so the project was created. Then we talked to Gabriel Darrichón, director of the Bible School of Nuevo Tiempo Argentina, who provided us with the available materials, and we chose the ones that best suited not only the age of the high school students but also the contents they were already seeing," said Valenzuela.

About Nuevo Tiempo's Courses

For Darrichón, "the possibility of working with educational institutions is very beneficial for both because it opens up a world of opportunities to share the Gospel with many families.” He added, “On the one hand, the students and their families can see how broad is the service that the Adventist Church offers to society through the New Time courses, since the materials cover many aspects of the human being's experiences. Teenagers consume a lot of social networks and various digital platforms, and we have the possibility for them to know the world of content that Nuevo Tiempo Argentina has to offer. On the other hand, students are vehicles through which we can reach families with the Gospel message".

The courses offered by Nuevo Tiempo are suitable for all audiences. Darrichón emphasized, "Nuevo Tiempo prepares its courses to reach those people who have spiritual concerns and who do not necessarily have to have a background of biblical knowledge, as a person who has been in the church all his life can have. So, this perspective can be much more in tune with the concerns and spiritual needs of the students of our educational institutions that do not belong to the Adventist Church and, of course, their families as well, so we are very happy to generate these instances of cooperation."

In this sense, it should be noted that not all materials are for all students. For example, the academy chaplain pointed out that "in sixth grade, they are using the magazine Sentimientos because they are older, they are leaving our school, and it is good to give them tools to face the different difficulties they may face. In fifth grade, they are using Apocalypse, accompanying the theme of prophecy. In the first year, we look at materials about prayer to reinforce [why] this [is] so important for the children, and so, in each course, we chose the one that best suited them."

Finally, the New Time space was inaugurated, stimulating the students to strengthen their relationship with God in order to be missionaries inside and outside the school. In short, the objective of the project "is to strengthen the relationship of the students with God and, in addition, to promote this among the families. For this reason, very soon, the families will be able to access and choose which courses they want to take and request them through the institution. And since these are Nuevo Tiempo courses, at the end of the year, all those who have completed them, both families and students, will graduate and receive a certificate provided by Nuevo Tiempo," concludes Valenzuela.

The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Spanish-language news site.