Girls Rescued

Praise & Prayer Report #4, July-Oct 2012

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Dear Friend of God’s Story,

It’s been 96 days since our last report to you!

God’s Story

During those 96 days 7 new languages of God’s Story were completed. Urau-kru, Pareer-(Southern India), Liangmai Naga-njn Rongmei Naga-nbu all for India; Giryama-nyf for Kenya and Dagaare Southern-dga for Ghana. We also recorded, or have out for final approval, 22 other new languages.

God’s Story on solar players, with recorded Scripture, Jesus Film and STS training in oral Bible study is going to countries by the thousands. Nonliterate villagers are hearing, understanding and responding to the Gospel. As well, nonliterates, who learn STS and become storytellers, use the recorded stories and Scripture as a benchmark to help them stay accurate to the Word.

Girls Rescued: Awhile back a gift of 400 solar players went to one of our God’s Story leaders. These players are being used to minister to young Nepali girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking. The rescued girls are loved, nurtured and taught a trade. Most become followers of Jesus.

They go back to their villages with a solar player, and as needed, something with which to continue their new trade skill. Instead of returning home as outcasts, each newly confident girl is perceived now as having value and she becomes a witness in her village.

Simply The Story (STS)

Replication and Bondage Breaking: Consider the implications of this news. In STS workshops in Niger, Benin, Togo, Kenya and Mozambique, Western missionaries were trained by an African staff of 3rd and 4th generation STS instructors!

An African mission leader with a doctorate in theology stated, “In Togo we see tribal animosities disappear as workshop attendees from different tribes study the Word of God along side one another.”

Replication is tangibly seen. Bondages of measuring people’s worth and spiritual capability by their education, age, gender, ethnicity or social status are spontaneously being broken.

Surprise in North East India: An Indian instructor on a training trip to NE India encountered an excited man. “I attended your STS workshop three years ago. We have used the stories to reach Buddhists and we planted a church because many got saved, and now we have planted many churches there because so many are getting saved!”

Pray for Them: “I have m.uslim couple they were my students in STS by calling through cellphone. They live where is %100 the mu,s.lims and they believe STS is the best way to minister the mus.l.ims. Pray for them.”

Drawn in by Radio: “A Mus.li.m man in the Philippines was always listening to my story program on radio. Then he decided to come with Lord Jesus Christ. He contacted to me recently and told me that he wanted to learn more about STS.”

Another Radio Program in an Undisclosed Location: “Hallelujah!!! our God is great. he is working in my radio program because the rebels group they were listening my program. one of them who are very interested and listening in workshop on air, he learned a lot and he share to his people up in the mountainous place which are the most dangerous place because they was having war between government and rebels group.

“God is great and mighty. I do not know that they fellowship together and talking about the story from the bible. most of them they do not know how to read. they called me and asked me to do workshops with them about story telling. they are 27- men and I am going up this month.

Hallelujah what a great part in my life that God allow me to share those kind of people and I see STS is breaking the walls of the darkness who capture the heart of my people for a long time!!”

Post Script to the Invitation by Rebels: Christians have never gone to this region. We at headquarters did not know if this was a legitimate request or a trap, so we earnestly prayed for the instructors who decided to answer the invitation.

The instructors reported that after three days of teaching Bible stories, “We baptized many new believers. These new believers are desiring to plant church in the mountain instead to work in the mountain for war against flesh and blood. now they are the applications of Paul wrote in Ephesians we fighting against the power and the rulers of heavenly realm."

Prayer Needs

Huge Potential: In a few days we meet with a ministry that has planted 100,000 churches. They are interested in the STS way people can go deeply in the Word, yet use oral story discussion methods. Can you pray for God’s guidance in this?

People World Wide Want to Learn: Right now we have teams actively training and setting up STS workshops in Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Togo, Senegal, Burkina Faso, North Africa, Central Asia, Middle East, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Italy, Cambodia, Thailand, USA, South East Asia, Nepal, Philippines, Australia and India (just to name a few!)

Leadership Development: Two advanced trainings that develop leaders through exposure to story and oral communication are being done. One, a week long in India, and just beginning in Kenya is the 6-week Comprehensive STS Leadership Training. This is the 3rd offering of this training. Applications for April, 2013 trainings in USA and Kenya are being taken.

In one meeting an STS instructor told stories to 40,000 people …in a country not his own! Beyond the challenge of the tremendous size of this meeting and that everything was being translated, the fact that most of those gathered had never seen an outsider … and that the outsider had white skin … caused the standard STS style interaction to be stifled.

So this innovative storyteller began using rhetorical questions, pausing to allow people time to recall the story and to think of responses, even though their responses remained unspoken. As well, at times, he asked questions and then would say something like, “Raise your hands if that has ever happened to you.”

He knew that if you give people time to think of their answers to questions, and if you encourage a physical response, people stay connected to the information, remember the story and will make personal applications to themselves.

I asked this storyteller, “Do you think those two stories had any impact on the people, I mean do you think they even understood the stories?” He chuckled. “Well if you think since most of them had tears and many were crying is a measure of impact, I would say ‘yes.’”

Please pray for these 40,000 that their hunger for deeper understanding of the Word of God will be met.

First Oral Bible School Graduation in Ethiopia: Hangeremarian villagers now say, “Eight of our people are graduates!” Imagine knowing and being able to teach 210 Bible stories. Four other people couldn’t complete the process due to drought and ongoing poverty. Those who stayed also experienced hardships, but all say it was worth the sacrifice. Over ten schools have started in Ethiopia (or are due to begin soon). Pray for these motivated, dedicated students and the STS instructors who plant and oversee the schools.

Higher Learning Just Went “Higher” Three added seminaries have embraced STS as curriculum for their students. Pray for many more Bible schools and seminaries to adopt STS. Pray that they will discover the vital usefulness in more effectively equipping their graduates to reach the oral learners they intend to serve.

Drama Story Quiz Answers: Stories in photos from India are The Good Samaritan & The Prodigal Son.

I appreciate your interest in this ministry and thank God for your prayers and support.

In His mercy,

Dorothy A. Miller