Bible Colleges in India

Numerous Bible schools and seminaries throughout the world have invited STS instructors to introduce oral strategies and Simply The Story to their faculty and students. The invitations to lead week-long workshops in these institutions of higher learning continue to come to us.

Here and there, STS is being woven into curriculum and being offered as a course. We are prayerfully on the lookout for academicians and those skilled in curriculum development to assist in formatting the existing teaching material of STS into a standard curriculum style.

Included here are two reports from Bible Colleges in India.

A number of years ago the South India Bible College first used STS in a summer ministry outreach in the slums. They saw such an excellent response in the slums that the school director decided to included STS as a full class.

As they saw deep impact on their students, the school asked us to lead a training in the seminary. By God’s grace, that training went very well and both Bachelor and Master’s degree students at South India Seminary showed great interest in learning STS.

Grace Bible College, the largest Bible school in India, now uses STS as part of their curricula.  

Their staff state has reported, “Our graduate evangelists are seeing greater responses to the Gospel and growth of the village believers than ever before.” What’s more, “the evangelists themselves, who have been trained in and use God’s Story and STS, show a deeper walk with the Lord and better understanding of the Bible than our previous graduates.”

Dramas in a Book Store

We did a training with 18 to 24 year olds in Louisiana just before Christmas. In most of our workshops, we take the attendees into town for an opportunity to gain experience sharing stories "in the wild." One group from this workshop decided to do dramas in front of a bookstore. One of our instructors asked the store owner if it was possible for the group to do some dramas of Bible stories in the children’s section of the store. The bookstore owner was happy to have them do this. Our instructor roamed around the bookstore while the group did their drams. She looked over and recognized that they were doing the story of David and Goliath because one guy was sitting on another man’s shoulders portraying Goliath. The children loved the Bible storytelling dramas so much that the bookstore owner asked the storytellers to keep coming back and do more stories. 

Faith & Insight

We asked a friend of our ministry to share experiences she has had with her children when using STS. This is what she shared.

Well, my favorite experience would have to be last year when I was learning the story "Jacob becomes Israel," to tell the children at church, the Holy Spirit prompted me to practice telling it to my three year old, so I did. Here's my FB post from later that day: 
 
"My sweet little girl said a sweet little prayer today (after listening to me tell the Bible story of God changing Jacob's name to Israel). She asked if we could pray, and said, "Jesus, please be in charge of me," which we translated as her inviting Jesus to be her Lord.
 
Then, on the way to church tonight, her older sister wanted to listen to "In Christ Alone." As the song is playing, Marirose pipes up "See Mommy, I told you that God died!" I laughed and asked her if she knew why. She shook her head, so Abigail and I got to explain what it meant that Jesus was also our Savior. She affirmed that she believed the story of His death and resurrection and that this morning she had been inviting Him to live in her heart.
 
In short, it was a beautiful day with my beautiful girl 💖."

My other favorite is that one time when my oldest was not listening to my instructions, I quickly pulled out the story of Moses striking the rock and not being able to enter the Promised Land. She listened politely, but when I got to the part of the story where Moses' consequence was dying, asked innocently, "But Mom, wouldn't going to heaven be better than going anywhere on Earth?" I had to laugh! She had a point. I was trying to teach her something about how to treat authority respectfully, but she helped me see the enormity of God's grace in a whole new light. Sometimes, God uses the foolish things of this world to confound "the wise."

Seniors Enjoying a Fresh Approach to the Bible

A couple who leads an STS study at a 55+ community shared these comments from the group they lead. 

The average age is 70 with a mix of participants coming from decades of Bible study to never really hearing the Word of God taught. A new participant said that he never really discussed his faith, but felt comfortable enough the first night to talk about the Bible story and share about his faith. 

Another said that they never liked formal Bible studies with homework and written questions, but easily understood the stories, freely joined in the discussions, and remembered the story. Another said that throughout their church upbringing they were never taught the spiritual and historical truths that they discovered when discussing these stories told orally. 

Note that eventually everyone has something to say. No one feels put down by what they say or opinion they have. The storyteller respects everyone and their comments and encourages all to engage.

Reconciled to the Church

Earnest is a believer who was having problems with one of the leaders in the church. As a result, Earnest decided to leave the church. This resulted in him straying from the faith. Earnest tuned into the STS radio program in East Africa and listened to the story from Luke 15:11-32 about the prodigal son. The Holy Spirit used this story to transform Earnest and his entire family. They forgave the church leaders and returned to the fellowship.

Faith and Healing

In response to radio broadcasts of Bible stories presented using Simply The Story, people have been sharing how God is at work in their lives. 

A woman called Antionette testified that she had been using herbs for her protection. However, one day after a story presentation, she gave her life to Jesus and immediately threw away the herbs

A brother in the Lord whose name is Diego, after listening to our story presentation, called us for prayer. When Diego called, his legs were paralyzed, he was unable to move or stand up. I prayed for him on the phone. A week later Diego called and shared that he could move again and was up and active. He is now a regular listener of our radio program.