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Bible For Youth Education
Aim of the project:
To reach young people with the Word of God which will put them at the right way at the beginning of their lives.
Project summary:
Belarus has entered a new millennium with a highly developed system of education. According to the Human Development Report, education rate of the youth of Belarus is 99.8 %, one of the highest rates in the world. Some 500,000 young people study at the universities and colleges.
For the students of 62 higher education establishments, a new course of history and culture of Middle East is introduced. To be successful in doing their homework, the students need to have access to historical books, books of reference and other literature analyzing biblical times and exploring biblical texts.
The BS realizes that apart from contributing to Christian education in church-based Sunday schools, it is very important to prompt the students of secular education establishments to work with the Bible directly, and thus promote the Scripture Engagement policy. The Bible Society also sees the importance of supplying the libraries of the universities, colleges, and schools with the Christian books. Unlike central libraries, where Christian literature is available, however in small numbers, the educational establishments-based libraries have no such books at all, and the BS intends to fill this gap and supply the libraries with the books on biblical history, culture and geography, reference books etc. Many young people show interest in the spiritual issues nowadays, and we seek to help them so that they might learn to apply to the Word of God in search for the answers to their questions.
There are more than two millions of children under 18 in Belarus today. The standard of living of the children in large cities considerably differs from that of the country children. Countryside children are more inured to physical labor, but there are no wide opportunities to culturalize them. In villages, children often suffer from their parents' alcoholizm, and it is not uncommon that the children start trying alcohol at an early age.
In most villages, it is impossible to find a single copy of the Holy Scriptures, and we seek for supplying the country schools with the Bibles and other Christian books, so that the pupils might get acquainted with the Book containg the message of a new life with Christ.
In large cities, children are keen about computer games, and have no clear understanding of the difference between religiosity and faith. At the same time they are inquisitive, eager for knowledge, and it will be easy to quicken their interest in biblical history, geography, archeology when holding lessons in Christian culture. The books of the Bible Society contain interesting facts on various biblical topics, and, using these books, school teachers will be able to get this information across to the pupils in an absoring way. These books will be of great help in both secular schools and church-based Sunday schools, and hopefully thanks to these lessons children will discover the Bible - the Book of true life with God- for themselves, and God's fear will stop a boy from trying drugs, and a girl from premarital sex or having an abortion.
The Bible Society receives letters of request for help from the administration of the libraries of education establishments. Their stocks are filled with books on various topics, but there are sadly no Scriptures among them. Religious study lessons are introduced, but the libraries are scarce of the books of a kind, and so the students can't prepare properly for the lessons. It is a bright opportunity of reaching the young generation with the divine message, and this opportunity shouldn't be missed. This is why we think it is important to supply the education establishments' libraries with the books on biblical topics.
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