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| Tiffany (middle), five, prays out loud among other children from a deprived area of San José during a party organised by the Bible Society at the children's club, Nofetin (Hebrew for ‘beehive’). The club, set up in 2000 and supported by Opportunity 21, organises games and activities for street children and deprived families and teaches them about the Bible, encouraging them to share their faith with others. San José, Costa Rica. Photo: UBS/Dag Smemo (CRI03DJ-392.JPG) |
They are here at the invitation of the Bible Society of Costa Rica, which, through its children’s club, Nofetin, is reaching out to streetchildren and children from deprived families. Funded through the Opportunity 21 project In the Hands of God, Nofetin, which is the Hebrew word for ‘beehive’, brings the children and their parents into contact with the Scriptures in fun and engaging ways, and then encourages them to share their faith with others. They are also provided with Scriptures to hand out to friends and family, thus taking the ‘honey’ from the ‘beehive’ out into the community (see World Report 357/06 for a fuller report of the project).
Today, these children from troubled and poor backgrounds are laughing. They particularly enjoy it when the Bible Society clowns ask four parents to come forward and become children – based on Matthew 18:3, where Jesus says, “If you don’t change and become like a child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven” (CEV).
Prays out loud
When Hector the Clown asks the children
to pray for the adults, a five-year-old girl called Tiffany shuts her
eyes tightly and prays out loud with great compassion. She is also the
first to respond when Hector asks for somebody to sing a solo –
she jumps up and sings confidently into the microphone.
Tiffany and the other children are full of smiles when, at the end of
the afternoon, they are given Scriptures: the younger children are given
Scripture colouring books and pencils, while the older ones receive
Children’s Bibles.
Very poor
Today’s gathering is typical of the kind of events that the Society regularly organises in poor communities. In Barranca, a very poor part of Puntarenas – a town on the central Pacific coast west of San José – there are huge social problems and a high incidence of domestic violence and child abuse. The Society has not only held Bible-based activity days there, through Nofetin, but has also trained local people in how to start a local children’s club.
Sunday School children in San Carlos, a poor community of Alajuela – a town north-west of San José – thoroughly enjoy it when the children’s club participates in services. The club mascot – a person dressed in a giant bee costume – is particularly popular, and the children listen carefully when he tells them about the importance of taking the ‘honey’ of God’s Word out to the rest of the world. The clowns and mascots of Nofetin, as well as some young volunteers, have also appeared in the international mall in Alajuela, sharing the Gospel story with passers-by. The club also operates in rural communities.
Within San José itself, the club is involved in outreach in several communities, and has become well known among local authorities and other organisations working in deprived neighbourhoods. The Municipality of San José, which holds an annual Christmas celebration for deprived children, has now started asking the Bible Society to organise the day’s activities, particularly asking them to bring along their ‘giant animals’ – Nofetin’s mascots.
Local police
At the celebration in 2002, held in the community of Barrio México, the local police force worked with the Bible Society in organising this event, because it wanted to “bring hope to the children of this community”. Police officers helped run the activities and served food to the children.
Other activities the children’s club has been involved in include organising Bible competitions for patients in the children’s hospital, and participating in a ‘No to violence’ parade, during which it distributed a Selection called Derechos y deberes de los niños y las niñas (‘The rights and duties of boys and girls’).|
Letter from a young girl who has benefited from the In the Hands of God project: 3 September, 2001 |
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