Evangelists Cross Bridge

Praise & Prayer Report #1, December 2010 -  January 2011

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Dear Friends of God's Story,

As we move yet into another year, let me share just a few of the exciting occurrences from November, December of 2010 and January 2011 with you.  

God’s Story, Impact

“We first showed another film in Mali and people kept getting up and moving around. When we showed God's Story, the viewers were transfixed.  They never moved and stayed afterwards to learn more.”   Missionaries in Mali

Will Bring Thousands of Lost Souls
Our India director wrote, “Yesterday evening a group of 10 people came from each language (both literate and non-literate) and to check the two languages we just recorded. Every one was happy and praising God for TGSP and its commitment to bring God's Story into their languages. Two senior Pastors told that ‘God's Story film will bring thousands of lost souls to Christ because it has both O T and N T.’”  

[These two languages have just a small percentage of born again believers.] 

Wouldn’t Play

A US pastor and a team member reported on their church’s most recent short–term mission trip to Tanzania. “We reached a new tribe that is the most primitive we have yet encountered.  Christianity was new to them.  You’ll be happy to know that our entire ministry this trip telling Bible stories and discussing the contents. We spent most of our time talking about creation. They had never heard about what God had done!

 “The next morning we returned to find that the solar player we had given them with God’s Story and Bible stories wouldn’t play. They had drained the machine’s 6 hour charge from listening to it! It had to be recharged. This was our most rewarding trip yet.”  

From a closed country where Christians are not allowed to gather:

“Thanks for producing the new version we recorded. This people are waiting to get the GS. Most of the time they keep contacting me for the GS. Still this people do not have the OT. Only the NT they have. I believe GS will be effective and great for them. Our GS languages is spreading in many places. I am making copies and giving out.”

[This couple reaches hundreds of thousands. They devised a wise networking plan to get copies of God's Story into the hands of willing people who then walk to the villages and play the movie in homes on portable DVD players.]
Photo shows evangelists walking over bridge on way to play God's Story

God’s Story, Progress

The Kuyah God’s Story version for Myanmar was completed and 12 others languages are done and in the field waiting for final approval. Another 12 are in recording soon to come to us for final production. 

About ten more versions of God's Story have recently been streamed on various exotic sites that reach restricted regions of the world.

Mobile Theatres
Reports from the first 500 God's Story flip chart reports are coming in.  Evangelists using them in Africa, India, Nepal and Philippines have become “low-teck mobile movie theatres.”  Evangelists use the charts with children and villagers by playing the audio of God's Story and turning the pages. Then the evangelists are able to stop the “show” and talk about the story with the audience. 

Simply The Story

Doors keep opening for STS. In February alone, vision castings and workshops are set for Guatemala, Slovakia, Moldavians, Sri Lanka, India, Africa, Philippines, Thailand, USA, Jordan, Dubai, Ireland, Nepal and some countries that cannot be safely listed here. Paradigm Shift in Missions

On April 4-10 in a village outside of Nairobi, Kenya, students from 10 schools are set to gather to celebrate the first STS-OBS graduation!  I plan to go and join with mission leaders from many countries who want to measure the depth of theological understanding gained from stories and find out first hand what practical impact the school had on the lives of these students and on those to whom they minister.  Imagine being able to tell over 200 Bible stories and passages and being able to teach from them deeply in a discussion style format.

Needs Help!
In a country, still ruled by communism, an instructor has managed to lead nine STS workshops in two years. "Tourists" join in to complete the staff. The staff disguise themselves, and at times vacate and run when their meetings are discovered.  This instructor shared, "The biggest problem I have right now is that for every workshop I do, we get two more requests to go to two new places! Women and villagers are discovering that they too can learn to understand the Bible."

Africans Train Non-Africans to Do Inductive Bible Study, Oral Style!

Three Africans and one local missionary led a Simply The Story workshop. The workshop was done in French in a N. African country. As a result, one of the non-African attendees, whose organization sends people to N. Africa, wrote our headquarters. The letter asked if we could send a team to a neutral place to train ALL of their workers!!!!!

None of these 3^rd tier African instructors had been trained by headquarters’ STS instructors! In fact, we have never even met these African instructors. All who led this N. African workshop had been trained either by 2^rd tier African or 2^nd tier American and African teams!  All the 2^nd and 3^rd tier training took place in a span of about a year and a half.  Replication of trainers promotes speedy multiplication of storytellers.   

That Girl Called Out To Jesus.

In December, part of the workshop training the Philippines was to do "practicals." The attendees went to a mall in Manila hoping to tell conversational stories to strangers!

Over 40 attendees went out to try.  These are a few of their reports:

Two girls, Lori and Joanne, talked with some guards about Exodus chapter 4. These guards saw in the story of Moses and Aaron how God chose Moses to talk to an evil ruler, even though Moses was speech impaired. God knew Moses could do the task.

H.A. shared with two girls and they wanted to listen to more. He told the story of the Widow’s Mite.

Cecile and John shared the Blind Bartimaeus story to people waiting in line. One lady and husband saw in the story that the person who is blind can see and the ones who see are blind. A girl stated, “I'm one of the people in crowd who is blind.” Then that girl called out to Jesus and gave her life to the Lord.

Jo and Cynthia spoke to two men waiting to go into a recording for a game show. These two students of STS told The Storm story. Then these storytellers went quickly through the Gospel and then back to story. The men accepted Christ!

Many of the Philippine workshop attendees went out expecting most people to refuse to hear a story, hoping that maybe a few would be interested in listening. However, our team reported that ALL listened. These times for practical application of the STS stories greatly encouraged all of the workshop attendees and the STS staff instructors!

Need More Trainings and More Solar Players

Pastor in Senegal says he wants more trainings. “The people who took the Nov 2009 training have been using the stories with their families, friends and communities.” 

Another of those pastors talked about the value of the MegaVoice players he has with God’s Story on them and how much he has loaned them to others.  He said he could easily use 40 of these in his work among the M--lims in his area.

One pastor said he told the Prodigal Son story. The listeners were astonished that the son wasted his father's inheritance.  They were also astonished at the love of the father to accept him back after what he had done.  He told them that is the love God has for us and went over John 3:16.

Before You Came

[An African STS instructor forwarded this report that had come to him from a major Christian leader of a large people group in Ethiopia.]

“I’m so happy about the STS method you trained us in my church. Before you came to us, I had a real struggle on how I could disciple people in my churches of whom most are non-literate. I tried many ways to help in discipleship and evangelism in the villages - as you know I minister in villages - but nothing seemed to work. Actually I was getting a bit frustrated.

“After you trained us on STS, we started using the method almost immediately and within a space of ten months, we have planted three churches in three different villages using STS method.

“Your coming was so timely. Before this, we were discipling just a few people - those who could read-in hope that they would somehow reach and disciple the non-literate. Of course I didn’t expect them to do so, for I myself knew that we had no proper way of discipling the non-literate, but there was nothing else I could do.

“Now the whole congregation is being discipled. People teach each other. Even those I thought they knew nothing, God is using every one to teach each one.  And it’s so simple. You do not need textbooks, black/white boards, chalks or markers or bible scholars. The difference STS has made in my ministry is very visible.

“I’m requesting that you come to train more people in all the seven regions where we have our churches. Thanks to God, to you and the God’s Story team for making this tool available to us.”

So friends, thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support.  As you can see, God is giving much fruit as a result.

Dorothy A. Miller,

 Executive Director of The God’s Story Project