Bold Believers in Central Asian Lands
From SPARK
One-sentence summary
Children's Activity book
Description
A sixty page spiral bound book written to educate and encourage elementary age children to learn about the Central Asian countries. The countries included are Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Children will learn about the few Christian adults and children in these countries who face strong persecution for their beliefs. They also learn about the many who still wait to hear the good news about Jesus. A main goal of this book is to encourage children to pray for these people.
The book's contents include:
- The introduction which explains the political breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) which once included these four countries as well as others.
- An explanation of what countries are considered Central Asia is followed by a brief mention of the problems faced by those few who have become followers of Jesus.
- An activity follows which gives children instructions for making four country booklets.
- This activity depends on a photocopier being available to make copies of the material for each of the children.)
- This activity has a lot of facts and would be difficult for many children to understand.
- This activity takes up twenty-five pages of this book.
- The next section tells about the land and people in each of the four countries. It uses a fictional example of the settlement of America to explain about the ethnic fighting in these countries. This reference to the United States would not be useful for those living in other countries.
- The next section is a word list game that would not be useful in other languages.
- A single page discusses the fact that these countries are in the Eurasian earthquake zone and experience frequent earthquakes. This page may or may not be useful in other languages. This page is followed by a page of earthquakes mentioned in the Bible and asks eight true or false questions. Children who do not have a translation of the Bible in their own language may find this activity impossible to complete.
- The next pages offer information on the different cultural ways of the four countries.
- A number of activities in this section are difficult and would not be useful in other languages. There is too much information packed into each page and it is difficult to follow which country is being described.
- The book ends with a skit (a one-act play) that again is geared to American children.
Considerations
- Some of the information in this book might be helpful but overall it is too disorganized to be of much use. The books produced after 2000 in color are much better organized and appealing for elementary children.
Limitations
- Much of this book jumps around from country to country and includes information from areas not included in central Asia. It will be very confusing because the book is not well organized and tries to cover too much with too many facts.
- The games and many of the activities are geared to English speakers and will not be usable or relevant in many cultures.
Guidelines for Use
- I would not recommend this particular book because it tries to cover too much material and seems to be a hodge-podge of facts geared only for North American children.
Where to Obtain
Link to Producer or Source Organization
Cost
$8.00 (U.S.) as of July 2007
Producer/Owners
Author/Artist/Producer
The Voice of the Martyrs
Current copyright owner
The Voice of the Martyrs, 1999
Other Information
If you are interested in translating this book for a minority language, contact Voice of the Martyrs. Working together, you will make a Creative Commons License agreement.
Reviewed by
Vida, VMS Children's Resources
Date
July 23, 2007
