Children of New Hope

Traumatised orphans find healing through Christian schooling

UGANDA — The children of New Hope gather in an excited crowd around the Bible Society pick-up truck while Joseph Sauli ‘plays’ the crowd like a children’s entertainer.

“OK, how many of you have touched a Bible… How many of you?” Up go the outstretched hands and, amid peals of laughter, he hands out books.

From their smiling faces you might never know that these children have been bereaved. They are the orphans of Uganda, whose parents have been taken by war or by AIDS, often before their very eyes. And perhaps even worse, many of them have been abandoned.

Fatherless

But this place is the New Hope children’s centre – and it lives up to its name. “Our purpose is to bring the Fatherhood of God to the fatherless,” says Jay Dangers, the centre’s director. The symptoms of trauma, he says, are clear from the moment the children arrive.

“They cannot look you in the face when they are talking to you. Most have learned to cope with their fears and bury them, but sometimes that makes it harder because we do not recognise the problems immediately - there is just a continuous struggle and we do not know why.”

Children are placed in family units and given a firmly Christian-based education in New Hope’s primary and secondary schools. When they are ready for the world of work they are given training in the centre’s vocational unit.

Hungry

Dan is half Ugandan, half Indian. After his mother died of AIDS he was brought up by his grandparents. His grandfather resented him for being a half-caste and beat him. When his grandmother had to go to hospital, Dan was locked in the house for weeks. He was just seven years old. His aunt found him filthy and hungry and brought him to the New Hope centre, where she was a teacher at the school.

At first, Dan avoided all eye contact. Fearful and insecure, he was quite unable to concentrate. “He was really in a mess in every way,” says Mr Dangers. Within a month, however, they began to see a change and after a year most of the improvements they expected had been made. “Now he has a pleasant smile and is doing much better in school.”

Sometimes the healing can take much longer. Part of that process is forgiveness. “We encourage them to consider their past, to be willing to think and talk about it and to forgive those who have wronged them,” he says. “If a child has been rejected by a parent who is still alive, we try to bring about reconciliation between them.”

The aim of New Hope is, by providing the children with a family and a Christian education, to give them an awareness of the fatherhood of God. Its ministry was inspired by Psalm 68:5: “A father to the fatherless and defender of widows is God in His full dwelling.”

An interdenominational charity, it has its main supporter base in North America. It teaches 250 children in primary school and helps sponsor 270 others in outlying schools. Next on the agenda is to build a school for 120 children in secondary education. The teaching technique at the school is unusual, to say the least. Everything – even maths – is based on the Word of God.

Infinite

“The laws that cause the universe to work are God-ordained,” explains Mr Dangers. “So maths is a reflection of God’s character, and as we study it we understand Him better. For example, the best way to understand the infinite nature of God is to consider the infinite nature of numbers that go on and on for ever. Then there is His consistency: one plus one is always two and always will be - because God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

“The fourth book of the Bible is called Numbers so numbers are very important to God. Not only do we need to learn counting and measuring, we need to master it for His honour and His glory.”

Every subject is dealt with in this way and the centre director is unruffled by accusations of fundamentalism.

“We are not ashamed to indoctrinate the children in the Word of God, because the Word of God is truth, it is authoritative and relevant to every area of life.”

While children who come to the centre are not obliged to become Christians, it is hard to imagine them resisting the dominant culture of the school. A number of children who arrived as members of another faith have accepted Jesus.

Free choice

“It’s of their own free choice,” he insists. “We simply present the truth from the Word of God. We have never suggested it to any of them, but several have taken on so-called Christian names as a statement of their new faith.”

Despite the offbeat teaching methods and an emphasis on lifestyle over performance, school results are good. “We always score higher than others in the area in our primary leaving exams,” he says. Further afield, other schools do achieve better grades but New Hope pupils perform just as well in secondary school.

Character

“It is because of the character we have been working to build into them and the fact that we have prepared them to be responsible, hard-working, honest, conscientious students,” he says. Perhaps not surprisingly, some people in the local community view New Hope with a mixture of envy and suspicion. The rumour-mill, he thinks, works overtime.

“People are glad to bring their nieces and nephews to us when they are young, in need of an education and when they are just an expense and a bother. But when the girls reach 14 years old, they pull them away so they can sell them off as wives.”

Sadness

Twelve girls have been taken out of the New Hope school to be sold into marriage, which has caused great sadness among the staff.

Mr Dangers himself was brought up by American missionary parents in former Zaïre and has been in Uganda since 1986. He was still in high school when he heard the call of God on his life.

“The Lord put a scripture on my mind from 1 John 3: 16-18: ‘We know love by this, that He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with the word or with the tongue, but in deed and truth.’

“That set the direction for my life, to carry the Gospel by actions, not just by preaching,” he says. Not everything at New Hope is deadly serious, however.

Fun

“We have a lot of fun with the children,” he says. “Next week we are going on a camping trip with our secondary school students to a camp site by the Nile and we will have a lot of fun. Most of them don’t know how to swim, so we will get them wet.”

Mukasa Willy,13, is one of the pupils at the school. His father is dead and he has no idea where his mother is. He became a Christian in 1996. “Before I was saved I had some problems,” he says, with some understatement. “Now when the problems come they don’t harm me so much.”

He is a football fan and supports Brazil. He wants to be a pilot and is working hard so he can go to university to learn. “It is good here,” he says. “They teach us good, help us so much in reading and writing, and discipline us so we can grow in the right way.”

Studying

Mu Yango David, 10, is another football fan. He has been at New Hope for four years, since losing both parents. “I like being in a family,” he says. “I like studying and want to be a mechanic. I want a Mercedes Benz because they run very fast.” But that is tomorrow. Right now the kids are having fun with Joseph Sauli of the Bible Society, who is handing out Portions to a forest of straining hands.

Eager for Scriptures

“The kids are very eager to see them especially the New Reader Portions,” he says. “The photographs are of African children, the language is not too hard and the letters are a bit bigger for the learners.” But the Bible Society is not here just to distribute books.

“First of all, the children get to know they are loved,” says Mr Sauli. “When they see the pick-up coming they know someone is caring for them. When they lose their parents, many feel rage. Maybe some have been mistreated. But we come here and show them love, and the Scriptures affect their lives.”

It is Mr Sauli’s fourth distribution run to the school and much has changed. “The first time I came here there were woods as far as you could see. Now there are new buildings. Today, people are happy and you can hear them laughing.” (WR 346/14 - 12.99) [PHOTOS]

Moon Man’s Mission

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — American astronaut Charles Duke was the keynote speaker at the main meeting of an evangelistic mission called ‘Explo 99’ which was held in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in August. The mission was organised by Campus Crusade for Christ International and the Deputy General Secretary of the Bible Society of DRC, Joel N'Shisso Ngoie, was Vice President of the organising committee. The committee distributed 4,200 copies of a Portion entitled ‘Discover Jesus’ to those attending the event. Scriptures were also distributed at various subsidiary venues.

The theme of the main meeting was ‘Walk on the Moon, Walk With Jesus’. Mr Duke, formerly a pilot in the United States Air Force, became an astronaut in 1966. In 1972 he was the lunar module pilot with the Apollo 16 mission and spent three days on the moon. He travelled to DRC from the United States specifically for the mission where he invited an audience of ministers, businessmen, senior company executives and students to commit their lives to Christ. One participant said afterwards that the Portion distributed by the Bible Society was a souvenir, a challenge and an instrument to strengthen those who had attended the event in their walk with Jesus Christ. (WR 346/15 - 12.99)

Breakdown That Led to Soul Repairs

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — There are places in this country where the people may be aware of the Bible, but the last time they saw copies available was during the colonial era.

Maniema is in the east of the country, and far from the nearest commercial distribution point. Aside from extreme poverty, which paralyses the people, if anyone wants to obtain table salt, sugar, soap, clothes, or other basic domestic items like these they have to undertake a journey of hundreds of kilometres.

Hitching a ride from a passing lorry is a common mode of transport for many of these poor villagers – the bus fare is beyond their pockets. One day a villager was riding on a lorry, with other impromptu passengers, on his way to a store some 500kms (305 miles) from his home in order to buy table salt.

As is also quite common with vehicles that constantly travel the dusty and pot-holed roads of central Africa, the lorry broke down. While waiting for the vehicle to be repaired, a man from Kinshasa, who was on his way to visit his parents, took advantage of the delay to read the Bible to the others and to preach.

The villager was so moved by this man’s message that he gave his heart to Christ. It was to be a dramatic turning point in his life. From what he heard he was able to remember just one verse of Scripture. Back in his own village, this man shared the good news he had heard with his fellow villagers.

Everyone he talked to he quoted this verse, but his message proved effective and many villagers became Christians. Ultimately, the people asked him to become their pastor. But without any training, and without a Bible he was severely limited in his preaching.

Mission

Five years later the Pentecostal church organised a mission in this region. Armed with a quantity of Bibles and Scriptures supplied by the Bible Society here, the leaders went to every village preaching and inviting people to become Christians. They were surprised to find a thriving church in one village, and were able to give the villager in charge his first copy of the Bible.

Finally, this village pastor was able to read and learn other verses from the Bible, and this immediately broadened his presentation of the Gospel.

Unknown

“There are many regions like this, both rural and urban, where the Bible is almost unknown,” says Joel N’Shisso Ngoie, Deputy General Secretary of the Bible Society in DR Congo. “The Bible Society is working to make the Scriptures available all over this land, and especially to people who cannot afford even to buy a heavily subsidised copy for themselves. Pray that we will have the resources to reach every village and settlement with the Word of God.” (WR 346/16 - 12.99)

“Take Me To This Pastor”

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The Scripture cassette program ‘Faith Comes By Hearing’ (FCBH) is already having great success in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as it is in many other countries. But the Bible Society here has taken the ministry a step further.

Market

The country is one where open-air markets, crowded with people buying and selling, are part of daily life. And once their business is done, people waiting at bus stops and taxi ranks frequently find that it is an hour or more before they are on their way home.

The Bible Society brought together leaders from churches and Christian organisations to discuss the opportunity that this type of situation offers. The result is that they have started a program called ‘Evangelisation of the Year 2000’. Its purpose is to broadcast the FCBH cassette readings of the New Testament in markets and other public places.

The launch of the program took place in the central market of the capital, Kinshasa, where a local radio station undertook to broadcast the Bible readings to the shoppers. On one occasion a man in the market was so struck by what he heard that he headed straight for the radio station, demanding to meet the man who was speaking. “Take me to this pastor,” he said. “He is not condemning me, he is preaching with love. I want to tell him about my life.”

One of the leaders of ‘Evangelisation of the Year 2000’ met him and offered to introduce him to the “pastor”. “He loves anyone who comes to him,” he explained. “He listens to them and he takes away their burdens.” He went on to explain that the “pastor” was Jesus. “You can meet him by asking him to come into your life and forgive your sins, by giving the direction of your life up to him as your Lord and Saviour,” he said.

Broadcast

The man agreed to pray with the leader and gave his life to Christ. These days when the New Testament readings are broadcast across the market, he listens closely, urging his friends to follow the message too. Occasionally he goes and puts questions to his friends in charge of the evangelisation program. Commenting on this testimony, the Deputy General Secretary of the Bible Society, Joel N’Shisso Ngoie, says, “We are realising that faith really does come by hearing and that what you hear comes from the Word of God.”
(WR 346/17 - 12.99)

Sudan Offers Model for Partnerships

UBS Translation Consultant Jan Sterk looks at the situation in Sudan
and reflects on the marketing process operating there

KHARTOUM, Sudan — How can the Bible Society make people aware that buying and reading the Bible could satisfy one of their deepest spiritual needs? This was the question which Makram Morgos, General Secretary of the Bible Society of the Sudan, reflected on. Underlying all serious human activity was a motivation.

Hajar is a date seller in one of Khartoum’s busy street markets. For him the motive was profit. For the teacher who decides to write a new textbook money may also be part of it, but much of his motivation must come from the students’ need for a new textbook. For the Bible Society, which exists to promote the Holy Scriptures, the motive must be to obey Christ’s ‘Great Commission’ of Matthew 28:19.

Customers

But whereas the market trader need not worry about a lack of demand for dates, can a Bible Society be equally sure that customers will queue up to buy a newly-translated Gospel? Not always, says Mr Morgos. Sometimes, even in cases where a piece of Scripture is published for the first time in a language spoken and read by a significant number of Christians, the sales may be disappointingly low. Hence the question above, to which the answer, he reckons, lies in the programs which precede or accompany the distribution of Scriptures.

Counselling

“Suppose,” he says, “that in a Christian community which speaks a given language there are some marriage counselling classes and the organisers of the classes have chosen to use the Book of Ruth as a kind of textbook. Now if the Bible Society has a good translation of the Book of Ruth ready in time for the classes, it will be in high demand. It will be bought and read and will convey its message effectively.”

The Bible Society discovered that by showing Campus Crusade’s Jesus film this was the simplest and most effective way of preaching the Good News, he says, and it created in people a hunger to read Luke’s Gospel (on which the film is based). This in turn led them to read the New Testament, and eventually the whole Bible.

Seen in this context, the tens of thousands of copies of Luke’s Gospel in Arabic, which are due to be distributed in 2000, are not simply items of stock in a Bible Society bookshop, they are a key part of an ongoing program. The same is true for the revisions and reprints which are being prepared in the Otuho, Shilluk, Dinka, Moru and Zande languages.

Television

As an indicator of popularity of the Jesus film, Mr Morgos cites the fact that it has been shown at Easter on television in Khartoum – not once but twice. In addition, he says that last year alone it had more than 6,000 showings in all parts of the country, and it was seen by nearly 9 million people.

Each time the film is shown, the people attending it are encouraged to make a decision. And there are evangelists trained and organised by Campus Crusade, on hand to counsel and help them. After completing their training, these evangelists (most of them young people) go out to preach the Gospel, usually by organising Bible study and prayer groups

Last year more than 2,000 trainers graduated, bringing the total since 1995 to some 6,000. So far they have been responsible for leading an astonishing 47,000 groups with a total of 365,000 participants.

Impact

The effect that these of evangelists are having is hard to measure, but it is known that the message is having an impact through the film and the Portions distributed afterwards. The rest, one might say, is in the hands of God.

In this instance the work of the Bible Society has been singularly successful. The Society has developed a situation where the Scriptures it publishes are in demand because people have been made hungry for them by the ministry of a partner organisation – Campus Crusade.

Maybe other national Societies should examine partnerships such as this where ‘knowing what is in the Gospel’ prepares the way for Scripture distribution. (WR 346/18 - 12.99)