Parakou, Benin  ·  March 16, 2026  ·  CIFAC Bible Institute

On the margins of the Africa Sings meeting, Bio stopped in at the CIFAC Bible Institute, where the founder, Pastor Arsène DJOBE, had wanted to discuss whether Bio could help students learn Biblical Hebrew.

Bio agreed to talk. But first he asked a question: did the institute have any curriculum on biblical poetry? On the study of the Psalms as poetry?

The answer was no. Not a gap in their program — an absence. They knew nothing about biblical poetry. A Bible institute, in its second year, with 26 students — most of whom were already serving in churches, some leading their own ministries — had never been taught what kind of literature one-third of the Bible actually is.

Bio proposed that Scriptura could provide that course. The director’s response: “We are open to all course proposals to strengthen the capacity of students.” By the end of the conversation, they had agreed to begin in October 2026.

Twenty-six students who are already pastors and ministers — people who open a Bible every week and speak from it to their congregations — encountering the Psalms as poetry for the first time, with tools built specifically to help them understand what they’re reading. That is a long-term test of the materials. It is also, more quietly, a picture of what happens when the gap gets filled: pastors who will preach the Psalms differently, because someone finally asked the right question.