Since March of this year, we have been working to respond to a request from our friends in Burkina Faso. We have been involved in this West African country since 2015, completing seven translation projects there so far. In 2019, Clear and Simple Media launched our French website (www.véritésimple.org) in Burkina Faso, and early in 2020, in Togo and Benin.

But for some time now, our team in Burkina has been requesting that we create an online education option for our French site. Nebié Badiou, leads a fellowship of churches in the country. He also teaches at a local university in Ouagadougou. He has been urging us to develop this option, allowing people to sign up for an online course, using our Travel Guide to the Bible as content. Then he asked that we create content exams with the offer of a certificate of completion once the student has finished the course successfully. 

While the travel restrictions that we face because of the Covid-19 Virus have caused us to cancel trips to SE Asia and Canada, the quarantine has given us time to work on our writing projects. 

We have already taken the first steps of adding Learning Management Systems to our A Simple Word site (www.asimpleword.org). We are also creating reasonable comprehension questions based on each of the 70 chapters of the Travel Guide to the Bible. Our end goal is to write between 1,400 and 1,700 questions that will make up the exam content.

After we update the website software and create the course, we will begin field testing the material. Once we are satisfied that the systems work and the content is satisfactory, we will translate all of the material into French for use in West Africa.

To give you a sense of what this project involves, here is a partial set of questions for Chapter 22 of the Travel Guide to the Bible on the book of Esther.

THE OLD TESTAMENT / BOOKS OF HISTORY

ESTHER

• The unusual thing about this book is that:
  1. God is mentioned 20 times
  2. God is never mentioned
  3. The king’s god is mentioned
  4. Mordecai talks about God

• Mordecai told Esther that she had become queen for an important reason.  It was part of God’s plan.
  • Not true
  • True

• What does the book begin with?
  1. A meeting to plan a war
  2. A dance
  3. A party given by the king of Persia
  4. A beauty competition

• What does the story of Esther tell us about God?
  1. He sometimes forgets about his people
  2. He is always at work
  3. He always protects his people
  4. Both b and c

• When Esther became queen, the king knew she was a Jew.
  • Not true
  • True

•  Some things to learn from the book of Esther are:
  1. All of these
  2. God has a plan
  3. He uses human decisions as part of his plan
  4. When we decide to obey God, he will use us as part of his plan

•  What was the first queen’s name?
  1. Esther
  2. Vashti
  3. Mary
  4. Bigtha

• When does this story end?
  1. A few months later
  2. After the king dies
  3. A few years later
  4. About 15 years later

READ ESTHER 1:10-22

• The king wanted everyone to see Vashti because:
  1. She was so tall
  2. She was so short
  3. She had very long hair
  4. She was very beautiful

• The king and all the nobles thought Queen Vashti’s behavior was bad because:
  1. Now all women would disobey their husbands
  2. All the women would hear about it
  3. Vashti did not want to show off her beauty
  4. Both a and b

• The king wrote a special law telling women to respect their husbands and sent it to every province in all the languages of his people.
  • True
  • Not true

• How many experts in law and justice did the king consult?
  1. 14
  2. 5
  3. None
  4. 7

Special thank you to our friend, Sandra Day, who crafted this set of questions. Sandra is an experienced ESL teacher with a heart for missions. She volunteered to assist us with this project and we sincerely appreciate her willingness to help.

Please pray that God will provide the stamina and the needed funds to complete these projects. And pray for those in various parts of the world who will be using the websites in the days ahead.