He Lived Among Us

From SPARK

One-sentence summary

Comic-style story book of New Testament Bible stories and Scripture portions.

Description

He Lived Among Us is a partly illustrated book of Bible stories that has accompanying Scripture portions at the bottom of each page. It was originally written in French but has since been translated into 27 languages and more than 18 million copies have been distributed. He Lived Among Us has 128 pages, 109 of which are graphic pages showing the main episodes of the life of Jesus. The final 17 pages contain James, Romans 1-8, 1 Peter, 1 Corinthians 15, and the parables of the rich man and Lazarus, and the Prodigal Son.

In 1989 a retired Dutch sea captain named Warmolt Houwing discovered the book. He obtained the copyrights, and since then, giving the books away has become his mission in life. Approximately 8 million have been given to children attending Vacation Bible Schools in rural areas. For more details and testimonies on how people have been reached see website listed under Warmolt Houwing.

Considerations

• The story of Christ’s birth uses accounts from both Matthew and Luke.
• The comic-style illustrations are eye catching.
• The illustrations are ethnically correct in portraying Middle Eastern peoples.
• The illustrations are Biblically accurate except for the following:
  1. Joseph and Mary go to the home of relatives and are turned away, rather than from the inn.
  2. The wise men warn Joseph of danger, then the implication is given that Joseph is warned by God, in a dream.
  3. At the wedding in Cana, Mary is said to be in charge of the servants when they run out of wine.
• The book begins with extra-biblical material. Pontius Pilate is sending off a captain of a Roman Legion to check on the man Jesus. The Roman captain finds John baptizing in the Jordan River. Jesus comes to be baptized. Then the story goes into a flashback of events leading to the birth and early life of Jesus. Consider your intended audience in how well the story communicates, since it does use a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, without clearly saying what is Scripture and what is not.
• Some illustrations are in black and white, while others use muted colors. This may cause confusion for your intended audience.
• The black and white illustrations could for some make the people appear to be ghosts.
• In the story of the healing of the woman's son, the boy is pictured on a stretcher, but the Bible script calls it a coffin.
• Many illustrations show only body portions such as heads and upper torsos, which could cause confusion for people who are not visually literate.
• When looking through a Spanish version, at least one page is too blurred to read easily (page 31). The English copy did not have this problem.
• No Scripture reference is given for the final page – story of Prodigal Son in the English version. The Spanish version does give the reference.

Limitations

Guidelines for Use

Where to Obtain

Link to Producer or Source Organization

Warmolt Houwing

Cost

Producer/Owners

Author/Artist/Producer

Current copyright owner

Resource owner and copyright holder: Warmolt Houwing

Since Warmolt Houwing obtained the copyrights and has always given the book away free of charge in third-world countries, he will probably be willing to give permission for translation into vernacular languages. Contact him to obtain a translation agreement using a Creative Commons License.

Other Information

Reviewed by

Durk, VMS

Date

October 20, 2008