‘Uncle Clyde’ and O-21 bring ‘Good News’ to Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica — When the Bible Society of the West Indies (BSWI) was looking for someone to co-ordinate its O-21 project to bring the Good News Bible (GNB) into Jamaica’s schools, it turned to the island’s favourite ‘uncle’ – Uncle Clyde.

His real name is Clyde Edwards, but everyone calls him ‘Uncle Clyde’. It is more than just that name that made him the right person to lead one of the most critical projects ever for the BSWI in Jamaica.

“This is an effort to give half a million children access to a Bible that they can relate to,” says Mr Edwards. “When it devised this project, it was looking for someone on the ground who could manage it. I had just started a para-church organisation, so I said I couldn’t come on board as a member of staff, but I was willing for the Bible Society to hire my organisation to manage the project.”

“[School] Devotions used to take place daily, but this is now being cut to two days a week. And it has gone from half an hour to 15 minutes.”

It is under that agreement that he managed the project. But why ‘Uncle Clyde’?

“I carry the title because when I was with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), I was on a radio programme called Children’s Bible Club. Out of that, the name ‘Uncle Clyde’ evolved.”

Before he became ‘Uncle Clyde’, Mr Edwards worked for the Bible Society for seven years as a promoter. After serving with CEF, he wanted to continue his work with children.

“That’s when I formed FLOCK Jamaica (Facilitating Little Ones to Christ’s Kingdom),” he explains. “We are networking with organisations already on the ground, working for the spiritual development of children.”

One of his projects is working in a dangerous area that is home to 30,000 children. On one occasion, they were all locked into their homes for four days during a gun battle.

“Bodies stayed on the streets for two days, and 27 people were killed,” Mr Edwards says. “If these students carry this experience in their minds throughout life, they will be damaged. There are teachers who are also carrying that kind of baggage. We want to help teachers re-set their minds so they can go back into the classroom to help the students.”

He also cites the collapse of the Jamaican family as a major destructive force.

“In Jamaica, we have the traditional Christian family, we have ‘shacking up’ and we have absentee fathers.”

It is against this background that Mr Edwards merged his love for children with his love for God’s Word in the Bible Society’s O-21 project. Not only is the project critical in terms of the needs of the children, it is also coming at a time when the national school curriculum is moving away from its Christian roots.

“They have revised the curriculum, and what is taught is ‘religious education’, not ‘Christian education’, he says. “There is no slot per se for the Bible. Now it is to be a part of ‘social studies’.”

But he insists that there are still opportunities in the schools, and he believes that teachers and others all across the island should take advantage of the openings they have.

“Devotions used to take place daily,” he says, “but this is now being cut to two days a week. And it has gone from half an hour to 15 minutes.

“But some teachers say they will continue to do what they have always done. And the Bible will continue to be on the book list, so the children will continue to buy one. What we are saying is, ‘Don’t look for the King James School Bibles, look for the Good News Bible!’”

This is a radical departure for Jamaica.

“Jamaica has been historically linked to the King James Version,” Mr Edwards explains. “Many in this country believe that it is wrong to abandon this version.”

He says that, while Jamaica is considered the leading Protestant country in the region, “we have a Bible whose text is shrouding God’s message to us. So we want to find a version that will make God’s mind clear.”

The GNB was not chosen simply because it was produced by UBS, he notes.

“We secured the services of a research company and tested 967 children and 100 teachers on which version they understood the best. Both the children and the teachers said the Good News text was the one they most easily related to.”

Armed with that confirmation, Mr Edwards and the Bible Society began a ‘soft sell’ of the GNB, alerting schools, churches, para-church organisations and youth groups that the changeover was coming.

Ahead of the game

He discovered one group of schools that was ahead of the Bible Society in making the change.

“I visited the Roman Catholic schools to interest them in using the GNB, and they responded, ‘We are already using it!’,” he says. “They are ahead of the game!”

The O-21 project, he says, came at the most critical time imaginable.