Bible Literacy Graduates

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.

Noel 2

Or 19-year-olds in the 2nd grade in Gran Bois, like Damene Joseph.

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 our annual Christmas Catalog, 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, 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.

While the North Terrace Church of Christ team was visiting Gran Bois to do student health screenings earlier that week, we were privileged to see some of the Bibles and certificates awarded early.

Congratulations, Dumancia Auguste!

Congratulations, Jesula Delcer!

Congratulations, 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!

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Trip Dates Available

It's not too late to bring your team to HCO this year! We still have some weeks open in July and October. Recruit your church members and friends to share in this life-changing experience serving God in Haiti!

Email Laura or call 217-778-6950 to sign up your team.

Need Materials for Your VBS Missions?

Growing Hope: A Journey to Haiti is our 5-lesson curriculum that helps children learn about Haiti and the work of HCO. It's a great fit for any main VBS program and can be easily adapted for any learning environment.

Growing Hope includes:

5 short video segments (1/day) that introduce kids to Haiti and different children at HCO schools
Supplemental enrichment activities you can do with your kids that are exciting and easy to incorporate in your VBS

Click here for more info and view sample pages or email Laura to receive Growing Hope!