Schoolchildren in Accra eager to receive Scriptures
from the Bible Society of Ghana [photo: BFBS/Brian
Dacre WR412/4 GHA07DJ-13]
GHANA — “They were almost knocking us over in their eagerness to receive God’s Word,” says Brian Dacre, Head of Supporter Relations at the British and Foreign Bible Society. This is the enthusiastic response that Mr Dacre encountered when he went with staff from the Bible Society of Ghana to distribute Bible-based booklets at a school in Accra.
It is not surprising that the Scriptures are such an exciting discovery for many children living in Ghana today. Back in 1965, the government ordered that 500,000 RSV Bibles be distributed free of charge in the country’s schools. Since then, though, no government has made Bibles available for distribution to schools. The Bible Society has not been able to undertake any significant free distribution of Bibles to schools either, although visits like the one witnessed by Mr Dacre, at which a booklet entitled Jesus: who is he? was distributed, have brought at least part of the Scriptures to some school communities.
Flourishing
The Society’s flourishing Youth Impact Project (YIP), launched in 2003, has also allowed many children to gain access to God’s Word. Hundreds of children write to the Bible Society each month to request a Bible. Each child is enrolled in a three-stage scheme under which he or she receives, at various stages, free copies of the Gospel of Mark, Acts and the New Testament. If they successfully answer a series of questions, the children can even ‘earn’ a full Bible.
Children at a school in Accra with
Scriptures from the Bible Society of
Ghana [photo: BFBS/Brian Dacre
WR412/4 GHA07DJ-31]
Success
Encouraged by the success of the YIP, the Bible Society decided to launch an initiative that would combine Scripture distribution to children with a commemoration of the 50th anniversary this year of Ghana’s independence from the UK. Under the banner ‘One million Bibles for junior secondary school children’, this project aims to distribute 30,000 copies a month of the Good News Bible for the next three years to children aged around 12 and 13. Following the formal launch in Accra in May, it will eventually, in collaboration with partners including local churches and the Ghana Education Service, cover all parts of the country, with particular emphasis on schools in rural and deprived areas. “Through this project,” the Bible Society says, “we will give pupils the opportunity to experience the lifetransforming power of God’s Word. We aim to raise future leaders whose lives have been impacted by God and are willing to live lives of integrity in service to humankind.” This report refers to project 76923x.
For an earlier report about the Youth Impact Project, see World Report 380/7. (WR 412/4 - 06.07)[4 photos]