Bible studies help steer children
away from gangs

These students from Gambier Village Primary School not only have the advantage of receiving a quality academic education, but they have also been exposed to the Good News of God's Word with the help of the Bahamas Auxiliary of the Bible Society of the West Indies. Nassau, Bahamas. Photo: UBS /Larry Jerden (BHM01DJ-17.JPG)

Bahamas Focus: stories and photographs
by UBS Photojournalist Larry Jerden

NASSAU, Bahamas — In many secondary schools in countries around the world, gangs have become a serious problem, drawing teenagers into a culture of territorial violence, and, in many cases, drugs. Sometimes, the problem reaches down into primary schools, affecting much younger children.

This is the case in schools in the greater Nassau area, where the majority of the Bahamas’ population lives, and children as young as eight are being affected. That is one of the reasons why Bible Society volunteer Brenda Simms began a Bible study class in a primary school in one of the area’s oldest villages – to give the children an alternative to the gang culture that surrounded them, and teach them about Jesus.

Slaves

“Gambier is a low-income neighbourhood sandwiched between two affluent neighbourhoods,” she explained. “It is a very old village, built by slaves from Gambia, and the school building there is more than 100 years old.

“In 1999 I decided to try starting Bible studies at Gambier primary school as an experiment because the Bible Society was promoting the reading of the entire Bible in one year. In fact, the project was called Read through the Bible.”

The class began with 30 sixth-grade students, meeting during their lunch break. “We met every Thursday for a year, doing a Bible lesson each week,” Mrs Simms recalls. “They really enjoyed it. When we began they had to share Bibles because there were only 20 available but by the end, each student had a Bible to use.”

By the end of the year, the students had successfully read through the entire Bible and were very proud of their achievement. The school’s headmaster, too, was delighted, and when the Bible Society offered to provide each of the participants with a Good News Bible, he asked if the Bibles could be presented to the children as graduation gifts as they moved on to middle school.

Impact

“I am sure that this kind of club could have a real impact on the problem of gangs,” says Mrs Simms, adding that teaching biblical values at a young age would help young people to think twice before getting involved in gang activities. She pointed out that churches, too, sometimes give Bibles to young people as part of their outreach efforts, which could provide yet another deterrent to gang culture.