Helping grieving young people

The Lifewords team in Brazil are adapting and translating Kid Talk, a faith-based curriculum that helps bereaved children. Working with Geração Elo Christian training centre and Rede Mãos Dadas who work with vulnerable young people, Lifewords hopes that Kid Talk will be used by God to restore children’s emotional wellbeing.

Marking International Women’s Day

In March, on social media, VerseFirst celebrated International Women’s Day by showcasing some of the women of the Bible to a younger, more digitallyled audience. “Often, the words, actions, and lives of the women of the Bible are, at best, skimmed over, and at worst, completely ignored. We wanted to centre their experiences and choices, telling their stories, and showing them as the main characters they are,” said Elizabeth King from Lifewords UK.

“As we travelled through the upheaval of the pandemic, one question stood out for us: what about the children?” says Clenir dos Santos from Lifewords Brazil. “They were considered a low-risk population for the more lethal manifestations of the infection, but childhood grief jumped to the forefront of our concerns.” An estimated 130,000 children lost one of their primary carers to Covid by the end of 2021. In addition, adds Clenir, “Most of the homicides in the troubled urban centres of Brazil involve young men between the ages of 14 and 24. Many of these men leave their children orphaned.”

Kid Talk was created by Mel Erickson, who has been working with bereaved children for many years in the USA. Visit www.kidtalkgrief.com to find out more about the original curriculum.

VerseFirst helps young people engage with the Bible in new and challenging ways as they navigate the ever-changing digital world. Visit www.instagram.com/versefirst to see how we are taking the life-changing words of the Bible to social media and encouraging a whole new generation to engage with them and share them.