A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about the translation and revision of the Bibletime curriculum. As of this week, we are now ready for the third step: publication!
It seems like it has been a long time coming. However, our translator really has done a fabulous job powering through eight student booklets. And four text-heavy teacher guides! It truly is a blessing to have a translator who is just as committed to this project as we are. Gibson is a believer, and he understands the importance of clearly communicating truth.
Making Bibletime culturally relevant
I’m also thankful for a designer who has been incredibly patient with the unending revision process. He has been very accommodating as we try to make some of the material more culturally-relevant. This involves, for example, putting a picture of a mango instead of an apple. Most kids haven’t seen an apple! Or replacing an all-black crow with a white-chested one, since that’s what the kids are used to seeing.
God willing, we plan to print a small amount in-country (roughly 800) and do a pilot run this year with a few select groups, including our Saturday Bible classes here at the site. It’s important that we test the curriculum out on actual children, so we know if the activities are feasible and the directions are easy to follow. Doubtless, we will also find more errors in spelling and grammar that need to be corrected. Revision is, as I mentioned earlier, an unending process. In fact, our designer jokes that there will be a special corner in Heaven for the Bibletime revisors to continue their work.
Once we have tested out the material (a full year’s worth of lessons), we will submit all the corrections and changes to the designer. After he makes all necessary adjustments, we will be ready to print on a large scale. We are thankful that Revival Movement works with Bible Educational Services to print many Bibletime booklets free of charge. They are, however, limited in what they can print for us as they supply free literature for many other people too. By “limited” I mean “only” able to print over a hundred thousand booklets – a tremendously generous and helpful contribution. But we anticipate that the demand will quickly surpass that amount.
Bibletime – making children wise unto salvation
You see, we have big plans for this curriculum, as the Lord provides and leads. We believe that it will be a very useful tool for grounding an entire generation the foundational truths of God’s word which can make them “wise unto salvation”. With the door to public schools still wide open, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of places where this could be used throughout the country. Please pray even now that the Lord will give wisdom and provide the right contacts to make this a reality. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
We are already working on the translation of the next year’s material (B Series). And we still have another year after that (C Series). So, we will be completing this process at least two more times. Please pray for help to continue making good progress on the translation and revision of the remaining parts curriculum, even as we are busy using this year’s material to teach the children in our community. Above all, please pray for God to use His word to do a mighty work in the hearts of many young people – saving not only their souls but also their lives. Because that’s really what it’s all about.
