Audrey Havenor may only be 10 years old, but after completing just three lessons of the Dare To Be A Daniel curriculum, she can already tell a difference in reading her Bible.
It’s as if the words jump off the pages of Scripture.
“Before I would just read my Bible and I would think, ‘OK, I’ve got my Bible study over,'” Audrey said. “But since I’m going through the (D2BD) training, I read the Word and think through it and what it means.
“That helps me to study God’s Word truly without just reading it and being done with my Bible study.”
Audrey and her older sister, Olivia, 14, are two of today’s youth who are finding D2BD training materials to be a powerful tool that strengthens their faith. It also deepens their understanding of the Bible, while encouraging them to share Christ with their friends.
“It’s not just about believing in God,” said Audrey, who is going through the online training course. “It’s about standing firm in your faith and praying and telling others about God.”
Olivia first went through the D2BD materials at age 10 when her mom brought home a training kit. Both her Sunday school teacher and her mom then coached Olivia through the lessons, holding her accountable to learn the memory verses.
Now, several years later, she’s going back through D2BD’s online course.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Olivia recalled the first time she went through the program. “I didn’t think it was extremely difficult, but it helped me read the Bible, like the book of Daniel … I had never thought about it in that way.”
Impacting Olivia to this day were the lessons she learned about Daniel himself.
“It made me think about how Daniel, who was sometimes dealing with peer pressure, stood firm despite what other people were saying,” Olivia said. “There were a lot of ways I’ve had to stand up for stuff in front of other people.”
For Olivia, the D2BD course “helped me see things differently.”
“It helped me want to pray more,” she continued, “to ask God for help in situations like when I wanted to try to witness to people. Instead of trying to think of ways to do it myself, it made me think more of how I could ask God to give me the words for it.”
Since its launch in May of 2006, D2BD has graduated over 18,500 students in the United States and Canada. The training materials consist of the online, 5-week and 13-week versions and has been implemented in small groups, Sunday schools, Bible studies and many church camps across North America.
The target group for D2BD is tweens (ages 9-14) and students like Olivia and Audrey are a testimony that when properly implemented, the material can have a profound impact in one’s ability to share Christ.
“I think it’s a tough challenge,” Audrey said, “but it feels great to tell others about Christ and help them with their walk.”
