How Old?

Prayer & Praise Report #4, June-July 2016

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India

Our leader in India sent an email recently in which he shared about an 87-year-old woman who trusted in her high caste position to get her to heaven. Our leader's wife and her friends minister in the hospital weekly, but this high caste woman wanted none of the ministry. 

However, this woman received God's Story on a solar player as a gift for her birthday.  She quickly learned the player was not a cell phone to talk with family and friends, but instead was an audio player that would only let her listen to the message.  She listened day and night.  When our leader's wife returned to the hospital, the 87-year-old asked to see her and gave her life to Jesus.  We share the photo with our new sister’s permission.

Who’s Willing to Die for the Gospel?

A missionary using God's Story in Asia wrote the following in his newsletter about a conversation he had with a new believer.  The team had visited a "J-sus meeting" in this new believer's village (one of more than 45 groups started in the past 2 years by this team).

The new believer said, "Even if they shoot and kill me, I will still follow J-sus."

The missionary shared, "I heard these words from a new believer. As we talked about bapt--m, I asked, 'When they come to your house, beat you, arrest you and put you in jail, will you still follow J-sus?'”

The new believer added, “I will bring many others with me!”

The new believer shared that at night he lies on a cot in the middle of his field and listens to his J-sus Radio. As he listened to the Good News over and over at night, God caused the seed of faith to grow.

Children Understand at a Young Age

A young mom reported that her 3 year old loves to watch God’s Story with her.  The little girl was telling the mom who the characters were, occasionally asking about them. The little girl would remember what the mom told her.  The interesting thing is they were watching the DVD of GS in Mandarin and the little girl does not speak Mandarin!

What Can Happen in 4 Weeks?

We praise the Lord for His grace. We just finished 4 weeks of Comprehensive Leadership Training (CLT) with people working in at least 7 countries or regions of the world (North, West and East Africa, Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and USA). 

We experienced going deep in the Word, as well as sharing Bible stories on the streets using Simply The Story (STS). People were trained in specialized situations, such as telling Bible stories to children and doing STS style Bible stories on radio. We increased our STS instructor skills, and learned from children leading Bible stories! As well, we had great fellowship and amazing food.

One attendee shared, "Thank you all for an amazing two weeks.  You all showed me so much grace and kindness.  And I learned so much and began some new friendships.  I hope to keep learning from and working with you all for many years to come for the advancement of the Kingdom."

We had several opportunities to minister on the streets. At one point, 3 of us prayed before going into a coffee shop. When we finished, a man yelled from across the parking lot, "Hey, are you real Christians?"

I yelled back, "What's your definition of a real Christian?"

It turns out we passed his test of being real Christians and this homeless man shared a bit of his story. He had cancer and some other problems, and he just wanted prayer. We tried to give him food and he did not accept it.  People had told this man if he was right with God, he would not have these problems.  So we shared Mark 4:36-41 where Jesus and the disciples were in the storm.

Our friend discovered that even the disciples, though obedient to Jesus by getting in the boat, were in a storm.  This homeless man was so encouraged, and we prayed for him. 

While dialoguing with our new friend, a man yelled for us from the coffee shop.  It turns out this other young man was homeless too and saw us in the parking lot and wanted to give us water. Both these men heard from the Word of God.

What Happens In Africa Blesses Many

Our leader in Côte d'Ivoire shared these testimonies from a recent workshop.

"In the Fall in the Garden story [Genesis 3], I realize how like Adam and the woman [I am.] I accuse others for my own choices. I need to assume my bad choices and forgive my parents today."

Another man said, "Now with STS I'll not waste my time forcing people to believe what I'm telling them, but sharing Bible stories and have nice discussion with people. During the outreach in Pangouin Village, I've seen how people are ready to listen to our stories and share when they can say what they think and we listen to them, I've seen people give their lives to Jesus after sharing simple stories from the Bible. It was amazing to experience how STS is working simply. Thank you for bringing STS to us.”

A third participant said, "STS has impacted me greatly through the stories. My desire is to go back home and share with the young people in my village. I used to beat the drums to call people to come and listen to me share the Gospel, now I'm equipped with STS to go meet the people where they are and share stories with them."

One happy person shared, "I was afraid of sharing the Gospel, in fact I didn't know how to do it, and I was afraid not to be able to answer to people questions. Now I'm confident that I can share stories with people as I did at the outreach. Thank you God.”

One non-reader shared, "... STS has washed my shame, yes it was shameful for me to not be useful to God because I could not read. I've learnt many stories here and I'm able to present them, and my life has changed here as many stories have impacted my life like Martha and Mary one. I'm a new person, I'm blessed. I long to learn more Bible stories” 

Our leader reported to me that even a group of blind people say that STS is for them and they want a workshop for themselves!  One blind man uses the solar player with God's Story everywhere and people want it.

Please continue to pray for our leader in Burkina Faso who returned with these amazing impact reports from Côte d'Ivoire. She is hosting and co-leading the very first French Comprehensive Leadership Training mid-August through September.  The people plan to come from at least 5 Francophone (French speaking) countries in Africa, including 1 or 2 blind people, a missions director, and a Bible school teacher.

USA

An instructor in the USA meets with several people each week and recently sent us this praise from someone in his group.  "... it has left me with the hope of being able to do something I never thought I had in me.   I have never felt, I had any gift of teaching the Word, but today I started to see, that these tools have the power, thru deeper meditation and its revelation, to help facilitate that very ability, even in me.  The stories and story tools stand on their own as teaching tools.  I am convinced that with these tools, treasures in the Word of God can be discovered even by those who don’t necessarily believe in God, or believe that the Word of God IS from God.”

Sudan

An STS team from Africa just conducted a training in Sudan.  They planted new house churches that the Sudanese are leading. By investing in the people these past couple of years, the Sudanese are now leading the training.

The leader reports that believers are multiplying disciples as a result of developing good church planters and instructors in STS.  Along with this, 6 new STS Oral Bible Schools opened in different areas.

Pray for this ministry in Sudan, they lack Bibles in the North and need them. Even though the government says they allow freedom of religion, Bibles sent in large numbers are stopped at the border. 

Could STS Add to What Seminary Students Learn?

A few months ago, a team taught STS at a seminary in the Philippines.  One student recently wrote to an instructor.

"Sir, our class for story telling has help me to be more effective in preaching and teaching. I have used the technique for preaching and it was very good to me and the congregation. This is helpful for all ages of people."

We continue to be grateful to the Lord,

Andrea and the whole staff at TGSP
Executive Director
The God's Story Project