By Charles Gardner —
Bible stories are having a transforming effect on children’s behavior in a West African school.
Even the healing power of Jesus, which the pupils hear about in regular Open the Book sessions, is being experienced among them.
Open the Book is a Bible Society program originating from Bedford, England, in which children listen to and sometimes take part in dramatized Bible stories written especially for them. The ministry has spread throughout the UK, filling regular assembly slots, and now also thrives in nine African countries including The Gambia.
One of the pupils dramatically affected by the program is 13-year-old Florence who experienced the healing power of Jesus over an evil influence in her life.
“I was walking home one day when I heard a voice of something like a devil,” she recalled. “It made me very scared.”
She was 12 at the time and had been attending Open the Book at her school every week where she learned about Jesus and his miracles.
So she asked her French teacher Madame Teteh, who leads the program at her school, to pray for her, especially after seeing the results of her prayers on some of her peers.
“After she prayed, I never heard the voice again,” said Florence (pictured). “I’m free, and I’m not afraid.”
Madame Teteh often prays for children who are troubled. “Some of them have been possessed,” she says, “falling down and screaming, some unconscious. We tell them that Jesus has the power to heal.
“Before we started Open the Book, the children were violent. They would fight each other and curse, and so many were troubled or possessed that I thought, we have to do something.”
So they started the program, and five or six teachers began gathering each morning to pray that the spiritual attacks on the children would stop.
“Since then, we haven’t seen any accidents. No broken arms or legs, no children falling or possessed. I love Jesus so much! He has power!”
Florence adds: “I encourage my younger sisters to come with me to Open the Book. I tell them, ‘We need the Bible’.”
It should be said that although the program is also hugely popular with pupils in the UK, teachers and visitors here do not have the same freedom to exercise direct prayer with them.
With grateful thanks to Noel Amos of Word in Action, Bible Society’s supporter magazine. See Word in Action
