One of the great needs here in Nicaragua is education. Our
schools function very poorly. The reasons for this are broad, and not quickly
solvable. Our spiritual training in the churches is also an area of weakness,
and shares many of the same challenges. It has been easy for me to become
discouraged, as I see sooo many needs I don’t know where to begin. So many
people send materials or offer help—but the challenge of matching the help
that’s given to the abilities and needs of the educators is a truly daunting
task.
But now we have a plan.
It is only a beginning. But it is an exciting beginning.
A major inspiration came from John & Elma Clark’s
various adventures in creating reusable materials for Joy Bus and
Bible Hour programs. We saw a real challenge in our local churches feeling
dependent upon styles of instruction that rely heavily on consumable materials
which they just don’t have the resources to replace.
Additionally, many groups that have come to work have brought or
sent individual Bible lessons to present during their time here, but there was
no effective way of equitably sharing those limited materials with a couple of dozen congregations.
Our beginning? We’re creating a Bible class curriculum
library.
Using the special donation provided by the Deming Church of
Christ’s “Yard Sale for Nicaragua” we purchased simple things like paper and
tape and photo copies, which allowed us to organize the materials we had on
hand that were not being used effectively.
We are creating packets of materials that are organized by
their “scripture address” in the Bible. We hope this will make the materials
flexible, easy to add to, and will help us avoid creating a curriculum that
runs for a year and subsequently needs to be replaced. Teachers can use this resource
chronologically or by themes and topics, and hopefully will come to see
themselves as capable of creating their own programs and not dependent upon a
set of lessons provided externally.
Check-out systems of various kinds have had challenges in
our region. We have no public or private libraries of any kind in our
department, due to the challenges of maintenance and management. For this
reason, we have been piloting the curriculum library with select groups for
about 3 months now. Last month we opened
it for the first time to all the congregations we work with. We know there will be challenges in learning
to share and manage these materials, but we are excited by the potential and
the positive reception the plan has received from all the users.
This is only the beginning. We finally have a strategy—we
are organizing the odds and ends of donated materials into a useable, flexible,
accessible resource. But now we see how much more we need!
You can help. We need your help.
Many of our Bible class teachers have virtually no
experience or training with teaching methods, and some have very little Bible
knowledge of their own. Many are young teenagers trying their best to provide
something for the kids in their congregations.
One of the types of materials most effective for our
purposes are illustrated Bible stories. With some pictures to show the
children, we can print the Bible text from a Spanish Bible and provide our
teachers with an easy to use, effective, re-usable tool for their class.
So: has your congregation got some old flipbooks or posters lying
around that aren’t being used much? Do you know somebody who does? Can you
print or color some Bible story pictures for us? Have you got some great ideas
to share? Do you know someone who might? Have you got an idea for a way to raise some cash for storage cabinets or printing, or lamination? Do you have a group of friends who's just dying to come provide some training? If you are interested in helping and excited about the possibilities this new
resource could be for our congregations, please contact me for more details. coachandsheila@gmail.com
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| interns Amanda Rachel and Jamey help sort pictures |
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| preachers selecting materials for their congregations |
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