Children in a country in West Africa are getting the chance to know Jesus through the Bible in their languages.
If you grew up going to church, do you remember any Bible stories you learnt, verses you memorised or songs you sang in Sunday School? Engaging with God’s word at a young age can be an incredible gift – a first step towards following Jesus.
In a country in West Africa which is troubled by ongoing conflict and insecurity, a team has been developing Sunday School materials and training Sunday School teachers. This is helping hundreds of children to engage meaningfully with the Bible in their own languages.
‘In our region, the biggest challenge that we face in Sunday School is that most of the teachers have no materials and they have received no training,’ said one Sunday School teacher.
This is the situation in large areas of the country. Existing Sunday School resources – from the 1980s – have been available in the most widely spoken language in the area, but they are out of print and difficult to find. Nothing was available in other languages.
Now, however, the team has adapted some children’s materials from Cameroon, which are based on Luke. A member of the team first adapts the French version of the materials for use in the local context. They can then be translated into five languages, with translation into two more languages planned within the next couple of years. The team works hard to ensure that the resources are suitable for this particular context, while also maintaining accuracy and faithfulness to the word of God. At the moment they are working on another series, based on Acts, and hope to write their own series on the Old Testament in the future.
‘I used to think my job was to teach children’
Since travel around the country is difficult, the strategy is to train people who can then train others, and so the work will multiply. So far, the team and their partner organisations have trained Sunday School teachers from 113 churches who speak five different languages.
After a training event in April, one teacher described a transformation in her approach: ‘I used to think that my job was to entertain the children so that they do not disturb the adults during the sermon. Now I have understood that I can use the time to teach them the word of God.’
This is already making a huge difference in these churches. Sunday School teachers report that the children in their classes understand quickly and are excited to take part in activities. The children at one church now know lots of stories from Luke. Their teachers say: They remember them well enough to answer questions – even about the lessons they had several weeks ago.
‘I heard them singing in the street’
‘I have taught two lessons now,’ says Timothée, another Sunday School teacher. ‘When I taught the first lesson, some of the children were absent. But the second week those children came – lots of them! Afterwards I heard them in the street, singing the songs that we had taught them and the memory verses.’
Since they are starting in Luke’s Gospel, these hundreds of children are getting an overview of the life of Jesus from His birth through to His death, resurrection and ascension. For some of them, that will make an eternal difference. At one church, a few weeks after they started using the materials, they held a special event and seven children from the Sunday School class gave their lives to Christ.
Please pray for the Sunday School teachers, and for all of these children who are getting the opportunity to know Jesus through the Bible in the languages they understand best.
