Thriving Turtles Training is a new initiative to equip front-line gospel workers with the knowledge and skills they need to be effective cross-cultural gospel ministers. Thriving Turtles Training offers short modular courses that build on each other to extend training in basic cross-cultural ministry skills. Our facilitators have extensive experience in cross-cultural ministry and the courses are provided as eLearning through our online Moodle classroom. The courses are highly interactive and include extensive discussion through online forums.
We run courses at various times throughout the year as needed. If you have a minimum of 4 people and would like us to run a course for you please contact us via the contact us page on this website.
Next course dates: 20 – 31 January 2025
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Helping your Friend Thrive in China
Foundation level course. Each year thousands of students from China go overseas to study. Some of them will respond to the gospel. Two out of three will return home to China within five years. Sadly 50-80% of those who become Christians will studying overseas will abandon their faith within a year of returning. This course will examine the issues that cause returnees to believe that Jesus has no place in their lives in China. We will look at some strategies to change this as well as some practical things that can be done. This course should take around 6-8 hours total over a two week period. This course does not include live video conferences or webinars. It contains a variety of other activities including (written) discussion forums. You should plan to do some work on the course each day, but you are free to work in your own time. There are no real-time components to the course.
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Course fee: Early Bird $45AUD Regular $50AUD
Discipling People with a Chinese Worldview
Intermediate level course: We spend a lot of time sowing the seed of God’s word into the lives of students. We want to see it take deep root, build a firm foundation and change lives. However, so often we find that things get lost in translation. We struggle to know how to apply scripture in a way that brings deep conviction and life-changing understanding. This course builds on the culture values and distance course to unpack key aspects of traditional Chinese thinking, religion and worldview and consider ways these can be addressed in ministry. This course is 10 hours over a two week period. This course does not include live video conferences or webinars. It contains a variety of other activities including (written) discussion forums. You should plan to do some work on the course each day, but you are free to work in your own time. There are no real-time components to the course. This course is at the intermediate level so we recommend you have taken a foundation level course or have some previous background before taking this course.
Course fee: Early Bird $45AUD Regular $50AUD
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Culture Values & Distance
Foundation level course: Our values are based on what we believe is good or best in the world around us. Most of our behaviour flows out of our values. Different cultures have different values and the difference between our home and host culture is called “culture distance”. In the Culture Values and Distance Course we explore some of these values, consider what makes up our home values, and discover the values in our host culture. The Culture Values and Distance Course is a ten hour interactive, online course that is run over a two week period. This course does not include live video conferences or webinars. It contains a variety of other activities including (written) discussion forums. You should plan to do some work on the course each day, but you are free to work in your own time. There are no real-time components to the course.
Course fee: Early Bird $45AUD Regular $50AUD
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Millennial Mindset
Intermediate level course. China and her relationship to the world has changed a lot in the last two years. Young Chinese going overseas to study have a very different mindset and the China they will return to is very different to what it was five years ago. In 2020 the impact of Covid-19 on student ministry has been the greatest concern, but changes in the Chinese world will have far reaching influence on ministry to Chinese people in the years to come. This short course will unpack and explain some of the context and underlying issues that influence the worldview of those born around the year 2000. This course is based on a consultation we ran in January 2021 and is at an intermediate level, so we assume you have some background and understanding of cross-cultural ministry in a Chinese context. This course is 3-10 hours over two weeks. This course does not include live video conferences or webinars. It contains a variety of other activities including (written) discussion forums. You should plan to do some work on the course each day, but you are free to work in your own time. There are no real-time components to the course.
Course fee: Early Bird $20AUD Regular $25AUD.
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Culture Types and the Gospel
Foundation level course: Whether aware or not, people read the Bible and understand the Christian message through the ‘lenses’ of their own cultures. Three commonly recognised cultural paradigms of guilt-innocence, honour-shame and fear-power can help us understand the values and motivations of people from other cultures. In this course, we explore these culture types and how to present the gospel in a way that is better understood accordingly. (This course is an updated version of our previous 3D Gospel course.) Estimated time: 10-15 hours.
Course fee: Early Bird $45 Regular $50AUD.
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Communication and Contextualisation
Advanced level course: Anyone who has engaged in international student ministry knows how hard it is to communicate ideas clearly across a cultural divide. This advanced course examines the process of contextualised communication and considers ways we can be better cross-cultural ministers and Bible teachers. The course is made up of readings, podcasts and group discussion forums. This course is 10 hours over a two week period. This course does not include live video conferences or webinars. It contains a variety of other activities including (written) discussion forums. You should plan to do some work on the course each day, but you are free to work in your own time. There are no real-time components to the course. This course is at the advanced level so we recommend you have taken a foundation and intermediate level course or have some previous background before taking this course.
Course fee: Early Bird $45 Regular $50AUD.
Course dates: Sign up for our newsletter above to hear of next dates.