In a simple room in Nigeria, children sat on a dirt floor watching the story of Jesus unfold on a screen. The room had cinder-block walls and a metal roof. There was nothing elaborate about the setting. But as the children watched Light of the World, an animation retelling the life of Jesus, something happened that the ministry behind the film says it will not forget.
In a scene, young John, the main character, knelt and led his father in a prayer to begin a relationship with Jesus. Then the children in the room began to kneel too. According to the ministry, 60 children responded to the invitation to follow Jesus during that screening.
The number comes from the ministry's account of the screening, but the scene itself captures what the creators of Light of the World hoped the film could accomplish when they set out to tell the story of Jesus through the eyes of a child.
It was one of four locations where Pastor Monday Edoziem showed Light of the World in Nigeria during the same weekend after receiving access to the film.
Edoziem is a pastor and Executive Director of the Nigeria Children’s Ministers Association, an organization focused on ministry to children across the country. For him, the film offered more than something for children to watch. It provided a way to present the story of Jesus in a format designed to capture a child's attention and imagination.
That is at the heart of Light of the World. The 2025 animated film tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of John, portrayed as a young person who encounters Jesus and becomes one of his followers. The filmmakers deliberately chose this perspective as a way of making the biblical story accessible to a younger audience.
The film uses traditional 2D animation and follows Jesus from the beginning of his ministry through his crucifixion and resurrection.
The approach gives children a character through whom they can experience the story.
Rather than beginning with a distant historical account, the film places viewers alongside a young John as he encounters Jesus, his disciples and the events surrounding Jesus’ ministry.
That child-centered approach has also shaped the resources developed around the film.
The Salvation Poem Project, which created Light of the World, provides churches with a free seven-week children's ministry curriculum built around scenes from the movie. The material includes teaching plans, videos, Scripture memorization resources, activities and lessons designed to help parents continue conversations with their children at home.
A church can use a scene from the movie as the starting point for a lesson. Parents can continue the discussion at home. Teachers and ministry leaders can use the accompanying material to connect what children have seen on screen with the biblical account.
The ministry says the film and its resources are being made available to partners around the world, with the film now available in 32 languages.
Nigeria has one of the world's largest Christian populations, while children and young people make up a substantial part of its population. Churches and Christian ministries therefore have a large audience of children to serve. But the resources available to those ministries can vary greatly, particularly between large urban churches and smaller community settings.
The setting of Edoziem’s screening is a reminder of that difference.
The children were not sitting in a cinema. They were gathered in a modest room with basic surroundings. Yet the same story presented on a large cinema screen could also be shared in a place with little more than a screen, a projector and a group of children willing to watch.
That accessibility is central to the project's stated purpose.
The film’s official ministry resources include free materials specifically created for churches and children’s ministries, allowing leaders to use the movie alongside lessons and family activities.
And for ministry leaders such as Edoziem, having the resource available without a cost creates another opportunity to take that story into places where children are already gathering.
Light of the World was made with a simple purpose: to give people an opportunity to encounter the story of Jesus.
In Nigeria, one weekend showed what that purpose can look like when the film reaches children not in a theater, but in a simple room, where they watch, listen and, in the words of the ministry's account, get down on the floor and pray.
