Graduations & Special Announcement
Prayer & Praise Report #4, June-July 2018
An Exciting Announcement!
Our soon-‐to-‐be new European Directors just completed an STS training in the Netherlands. This young couple has served with STS for several years in amazing ways. They have assisted Bryan and Ami on multiple trainings, helped me explore avenues with refugees in Germany and Syria, and are currently part of the strategy team for our website development. We are super thrilled to welcome them to this next step.
Bryan and Ami are handing off the European Directorship so they can take on the role of Global Ambassador Team Leaders. They look forward to this new and exciting opportunity to raise country leaders. As our Global Ambassador Team Leaders, they will spend a couple of months learning from our Ethiopia / East Africa Director, John. John’s experience planting STS Oral Bible Schools, raising leaders, overseeing God’s Story languages and much more, serves as an incredible training ground for teaching our Team Leaders in their new role.
Please pray for all involved. This is a new position and will hopefully fast-‐track raising leaders in multiple countries. Already, we have several regions asking for this help.
What Might Excite Missionaries Returning to Guatemala?
Earlier this year we had a workshop in Guatemala. The national STS instructors in the region are growing and one instructor, a former missionary to Guatemala, reported being “really blessed and affirmed” by the ongoing impact of STS. This instructor observed that at a church, where
STS is being used, the members are “strengthened by their understanding of God’s word and unusually confident to share [the Word] using STS.”
This instructor wrote, “STS continues to be a way we draw near to God and He to us.”
The Bible school students that were taught by this missionary instructor team now lead this church in the rural mountain community. The instructor wrote, “The Pastor of the church realized his aspiration to offer the STS training to his congregation and three other instructors came alongside to help.”
The missionary instructors returned from Guatemala recognizing that Bible storytelling should be a priority for learning and serving with others, and also used to encourage the development of those who lead in their homes and in all walks of life.
STS workshops were also conducted in Mexico recently. Pray with us that, by the end of the year, Oral Bible Schools will have started throughout Latin America. Our leaders have been working diligently toward this goal.
Amazing God’s Story Language Progress
We thank the Lord Jesus for the upcoming dedication of 14 completed God’s Story languages in West Africa.
Two God’s Story languages were also dedicated In July in Côte d’Ivoire.
Please pray for the XXX Naga language recording in a key country in Asia. The recording was recently postponed
because the narrator started having trouble with his eyes and could not see well enough to read. We are praying this recording will be completed in August.
Really? Teens Interested in Bible Stories?
One devoted instructor wrote our office about presenting the Zacchaeus story to teens. The instructor saw how the story answered some questions that the Jr. high kids were asking like “How do you have a personal connection with God?” and “How can I get bigger for Him?” “How big is God in my personal life?” “What are new steps I can take to get closer to God?” One girl said, “Maybe I should do something about those people I’ve offended.”
The group talked for about an hour even though the instructor was told the teens only had an attention span of 20 minutes. Our instructor wrote, “We could have gone longer.”
We continue to receive updates from a woman who faithfully serves the homeless community in Southern California. She shares cookies and Bible stories, a healthy spiritual and a yummy physical combination. Please pray for this woman and her ministry.
God’s Goodness After Training
In the UK one couple has reported sharing several stories with colleagues since their recent training. They wrote our director in Europe saying, “We’re marveling at the Lord’s goodness to us and others.”
Freedom of Choice in Central Asia?
An STS leader in one of the “-‐stans” who continues to train people in the STS process recently wrote to our headquarters. While teaching 7 people, one person “popped in” and asked to have help training the Sunday school teachers at her church. This woman had been translating downloaded Western curriculum into Russian and felt that STS would be a better fit. After the next meeting, this leader wrote, “It was so encouraging to see each person in each session grow a step closer, improve their skills and dig into the Word.”
One woman’s mom was the cook for the first workshop in this country. Although this cook could not attend everything, she attended as many sessions as she could. This mom helped to translate documents, and became really excited about STS. For the 2nd workshop, she attended the advanced training and even led a small group! Was this cook a Mary in Martha’s clothing?
Thailand and Singapore STS Leadership Growing?
Helping the Thai church has been both a blessing and a challenge. The STS leadership in Thailand has had to make adjustments over the years. Recently, one leader shared that an STS workshop at a new church in southern Thailand was very successful and the church is asking for more training.
We also welcome two new Thai people to the leadership team reaching both Thailand and Laos with Simply The Story.
As a result of an advanced training in July, the very first tree Oral Bible Schools have started in Bangkok. More training continues in various parts of Thailand thanks to a devoted team.
We are excited also about the distribution of God’s Story in various languages of Thailand. Conservatively, we believe 30,000-‐40,000 copies of Thai languages have been shared!
We praise the Lord for a recent advanced training in Singapore that had people attending from 20 different churches.
TGSP All Across Africa!
Earlier this year we finished the God’s Story Ma’di language, spoken in Southern Sudan and Uganda. This language was immediately used in the Sudanese refugee camps with a
few thousand, on average, watching at each showing.
A team working in parts of West Africa recently shared about the impact of STS in their region. Here are few excerpts:
“This past dry season we were able to hold workshops in French, Bxxx, Mxxx, Kxxx and Bamabara languages, both in xxx and in xxx. … God has begun to use this method in several other language/people groups that surround us there….”
“We started training the pastors, evangelists and lay leaders of other language groups
because there are many churches already planted in several language/people groups that surround us. …. One pastor said, ‘its been 19 years since I graduated from Bible Institute and I’ve never had the opportunity to attend further training or to learn new ways and ideas. I am so encouraged and can’t wait to begin “Story-‐Telling” to share God’s Word in a way they can always keep it in their hearts and they too can share the stories.’”
STS OBS graduates – Congrats! 296
“One lady was the leader of Women’s Ministry for her church. She said, ‘Now I have something very exciting to teach the women of the church and we can begin using Simply The Story among the women of the village who are not believers’. The director of a Kxxx Language Bible Institute in xxx took our workshop and he said, ‘this is so encouraging I am going straight back to our board of directors to ask if I can incorporate this into our first year curriculum. I want every pastor that graduates from our Bible Institute to have this method of evangelism in his pocket when he leaves our school to begin his ministry.’”
STS Oral Bible Schools in Uganda Refugee camps
We recently graduated several Oral Bible Schools in the refugee camps.
The schools are visited every couple of months by some of our STS leaders and are progressing well. Our leader shared that the “old generation is producing a new generation. Lives are changed, but millions have not been reached yet. We still need more work and more laborers.”
Our office received an email recently from a student at a Theological Seminary in Africa. He shared that our STS Handbook is being used in a class as a model for evangelism.
Grateful to the Lord,
Andrea
Executive Director
& The whole staff of The God's Story Project (TGSP)