Lebanon | Recent Update from the Field

Youth Bible Curriculum is focused on providing Christ-centered teaching materials for children in Lebanon, providing teaching manuals for religion teachers and equipping teachers and religious leaders with knowledge on how to use the curriculum.

“World Vision, I encourage you to continue with very specific partnerships with the church, like this curriculum for our children,” said Catholicos Aram 1 as he proudly held the Armenian version of the curriculum. Catholicos Aram I is the leader of the Armenian Church of Cilicia, whose seat is located in Beirut and was the Moderator of the World Council of Churches, a post he held for seven years.

Much work has been done to develop and provide new teaching materials and children’s books of good quality. Key partners have been the Greek Orthodox Church of Lebanon and the Armenian Apostolic Church along with World Vision US and World Vision Lebanon.

In April, age 8, Part I was printed in Arabic for and age 12, Part I, along with the teacher’s manual was printed in Armenian. The printed books with the Armenian Church have been made available to all church parishes for use during their children’s meetings. For the first printing, all books were divided for free as a tool to advertise the curriculum. With the Greek Orthodox Church, the books were distributed during a meeting for priest from Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan for them to take a look at. In Lebanon, this project is still in the beginning stages so not much has been done with the children. With the Armenian Apostolic church, they started using the books in their Sunday school classes with children. On the other hand, with the Greek Orthodox Church the books are not yet being used by children.

In June the YBC project manager along with two representatives from the Greek Orthodox Church and two from the Armenian Apostolic Church participated in the Training of Trainers in Cyprus. Directly after this TOT, the project manager and two representatives from the Greek Orthodox Church and one from the Armenian Apostolic Church participated in the teachers’ training in Cyprus. These trainings helped equip the local teachers with the tools needed to be able to teach the kids the curriculum, as well; they introduced the new project manager to the training program provided to the churches.