Those who cannot read are taught to teach the Bible

BY THERESA MITTOWER AND SHARON SAMSON

Students act out the story of Noah's Ark

A group of Sunday School teachers huddled behind a pink blanket which represented the door to Noah’s ark.

Outside the blanket, others pleaded to be allowed inside. Despite the seriousness of the story, the women found it hard to suppress their giggles. They were acting out the story they’d just learned at a teacher training session.

Most of these Ethiopian women had only been educated to elementary level, but were learning to use a Bible curriculum written for them so they could teach it to illiterate children.

Sharon Samson, an SIM worker who has served in Liberia and Ethiopia, developed the Hear- See-Do curriculum especially for those who are semi-literate. The curriculum package includes the lesson, line drawings, discussion questions, games and music. The lessons are recorded so those who cannot read or write can use them to teach others.

Writing the curriculum was almost the last thing on Sharon’s mind when she went to Ethiopia to teach Christian Education at Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa. But she soon saw that most Ethiopians who were teaching children the Bible would not become students at ETC, so something was needed to make teaching God’s word accessible to them.

She decided to apply to the Oxford Centre for Missions Studies in the UK to do research for a doctorate and to write a curriculum to fill this need — tasks that would fill the next nine years of her life.

She asked for help from the local church to set up weekly meetings at which she tested ideas for the curriculum. What styles, art, and music would work best in a semi-literate context? While writing and testing the lessons, she trained Ethiopians to use them.

Memory work

Sharon wrote the lessons in English and her staff translated them into Amharic and, later, two other Ethiopian languages. Today, the lessons are available to be translated into other languages as well.

A local artist has produced 2,836 line drawings, and a friend has recorded more than 1,950 songs. By her last term in Ethiopia, she was excited to see the end result: teachers trained and using the curriculum with children. Although Sharon has now retired, she still sends out her entire curriculum in English in digital format to those who ask. It is also being used in homeschooling, ministry to adults, ministries for children, mission trips, prison ministry, and literacy classes. There are nine years of lessons divided into levels for children aged from six to 14.

All the lessons are also provided in a spoken format, recorded by Sharon in English. Teachers can learn the lessons or play them for the students to listen.

For more information visit www. bible4children.org, where you can download a sample lesson, and request a flash drive or SD card with all 31 series of lessons.

The lessons are free but Sharon appreciates donations to her ministry account to help cover postage costs.

PLEASE PRAY

� For the curriculum to be used in many English-speaking countries and translated into other languages

� For those taking the training to feel confident in teaching

� For the Lord to bring children to himself through its use