West Africa (MNN) — Book of Hope's Sylvanus Elorm has been working in West Africa for six years. During this time, he's helped distribute approximately 15 million copies of the Book of Hope. He has seen 70,000-80,000 people come to Christ as a result of the Book of Hope and The GodMan film.
BOH works in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and along the coast of West Africa. About 90 percent of their distributions are done in schools with the permission of the government. At first, they were skeptical about going to Muslim schools. Islam is a growing religion in West Africa but has not been an obstacle to their work. Elorm says instead, in many places, "They right away invited us because they heard there are these wonderful books all the children were excited about, and their children, too, were excited. And so they said they wanted to see the books. They saw it, and they said, ‘Oh, even though there's the
religious aspect of it, there's a social aspect of it, too.'"
The books include social issues like HIV, choosing friends, abstaining from sex before marriage, and how to take care of the environment.
"A lot of children are coming to Christ. Even their parents are coming to Christ," said Elorm. This is especially happening during their showings of The GodMan film which they show at night in villages. Entire villages come to the showings.
Book of Hope currently uses four versions of The GodMan film which they show in different areas of West Africa. They will soon release two more language versions.
Elorm says they want to make The GodMan an interactive event. "What we say is we 'do' The GodMan, we don't show The GodMan. When we 'do' The GodMan, we want a certain kind of response from the people. So we are trying to come out with a program whereby when we show it on national television, we could follow-up and see what has really happened."
Funding for air time is needed in order to put The GodMan on national television. BOH is concerned about piracy, and they ask that you pray that it will not become an issue. This year they are also trying to determine the impact of their work starting in Ghana. "[We need to] see whether we need to do something better, or strengthen something, or change something, or have a new product or whatever, so that we'll be able to be more effective and achieve our mission."
BOH will go to the children, the government, teachers and parents to determine the real issues confronting youth. This will help them focus on the most important issues facing the children and better affect the destiny of the children, said Elorm.
