n Jean-Marc Charles, Principal of Lycée Petio-ville, (right) and student assistant Sydney Jerdo, who found the Book of Life ‘deeply moving’

The Gospel in demand in the public schools

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The impact of the O-21 study materials is not confined to church-run schools. It is also felt in public (or government-run) schools such as the Lyceé Petion-ville, a 4,000-student high school in a large Port-au-Prince suburb.

Jean-Marc Charles, the school’s principal, has been trying to implement an effective Christian education program at the school since he began there in 1993.

“We had no curriculum materials for RE except the Bible – and prayer,” he says. “We have prayer and Bible study three times a week but we lacked materials.

Love, sex and the family

“The three older grades have received the Book of Life books but now all the students would like to receive them because not only does this book talk about the Bible, it also talks about subjects like love, sex, and the family. They feel it is relevant to their lives. All the students would like to get one, as would children from outside the schools. And now the churches have heard about it and they want it because the subjects are so interesting.”

Among the students who have received the Book of Life, few have been so deeply affected by it as 22-year-old Sydney Jerdo.

“I have been reading the book for about two months and I liked it from the first,” he declares. “It was as if I had been sleeping and woke up! Jesus is the best model for people to live by, and it not only talks about Jesus but also about subjects such as love, sex, and the family, and it applies the model of Jesus to them.”

He said that the material is especially helpful in his role of helping one of the RE teachers.