Ghana (MNN) –The illiterate are the focus of discipleship and evangelism in Ghana. OneHope Regional Director of Anglophone West Africa Sylvanus Elorm says reaching them with the Gospel is difficult.
"The rate of illiteracy is very high. Many children are not in school. So, if you give them a Book of Hope, they are not able to read it,"says Elorm. "We have realized that the children know some of the Bible stories, and they go to church, but their understanding of biblical concepts and their lives don't reflect what they know and what they believe in."
Elorm says about 60-percent of the young people in Ghana are illiterate. That makes using the Book of Hope, a harmony of the Gospels in printed form, useless.
Because of the problem of illiteracy, OneHope has started a program called "17 Stories" in order to share the Gospel through storytelling. Elorm says they started "17 Stories" to help kids understand the Bible through pictures in 17 weeks. "On the 17th meeting, they see the big picture of God's creation, the fall of man, redemption plan of God, Jesus Christ coming and dying for us, and the part the children will play in this project."
Each card represents a story. It's told to them in a way that they can teach others and share the Gospel with their friends and family.
OneHope will be implementing this outreach through churches. "We [will be] training Sunday school teachers and church workers to use these cards to tell the stories they already know and to tell the basic lessons in these stories."
Elorm hopes to have all of the materials ready by the middle of April and to begin the project in May. He hopes to reach 8 million children in five years with this teaching method.
If you'd like to help OneHope with this project, click here.
