Learning to Read Using Creole Bibles

As we plant churches, our goal is to train disciple-makers who train other disciple-makers to share the Gospel with others. An important element in this process is giving people access to the Word of God through Bibles.

In the three years since Emmanuel Christian School of Gran Bois has been educating the next generation, we’ve seen that the hunger for learning is not limited to just the typical school-aged children. As our Every Child Sponsors have seen in our monthly profiles, it’s not unusual to find 19-year-olds in the 6th grade, like Noel Dieufils.Or 19-year-olds in the 2nd grade in Gran Bois, like Damene Joseph.

When a first school is finally built in your village and you haven’t had the chance to go to school at the “normal” ages for each grade…well, we are finding many older students are willing to attend classes with their sometimes much-younger peers so that they, too, can learn.

But something we weren’t necessarily expecting was the hunger for learning in the parents of our ECS Gran Bois students. As moms and dads began sending their children to school, homework started coming home. And their children started asking for help.

In beautiful Gran Bois, many families farm and sell items in the market. The mountains are breathtaking and the terraced farms are often full of hardworking family members of all ages pitching in to coax a good crop out of the land.

Many of the moms and dads of our students couldn’t help their children with schoolwork because they couldn’t read themselves. Parents began coming to our school asking to enroll in 1st grade so they, too, could learn. 

What to do?

Teach them to read, of course!

Through #Gifts4Haiti, partners like you have been purchasing Creole Bibles for Haitian families at Christmastime and all throughout the year.

Some of these Bibles are being used in our Bible Literacy Class in Gran Bois. Marie Laure Dominique teaches a 4-month class for adults. She is pictured below in the striped top. The moms and dads learn to read in Creole using the Bible. Upon successful completion of the class, each student receives a Creole Bible and a certificate.

On Sunday, February 22, 2015 the 35 graduates of the most recent class received their Bibles! A new class began the very next day on February 23. All graduates are invited to come back for more classes to expand their learning. Most graduates come to as many classes as they are able.

Congratulations Dumancia Auguste, Jesula Delcer, and Juslene Moncent!

We hope you will join us in praying for our Bible Literacy graduates – that the Word of God will take root in their hearts and minds and that they will be confident in helping their children with homework!

We invite you to #MakeADifference by donating $10 or more to Creole Bibles in our #Gifts4Haiti shop. Each $10 gift will purchase one Creole Bible for a family or Bible literacy student. Help us evangelize and equip our Haitian brothers and sisters who are hungry for literacy -spiritually and educationally!