No Junior Holy Spirit

Prayer and Praise Report #3, June-July 2014 

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Dear Friend of God’s Story,

Ach! Where to begin? The joys and the accompanying challenges keep rising! 

Notice this letter’s theme. The Executive Director of Church and Community Development of Awana and I discussed the value of using Bible stories to teach children. We agreed on how deeply they could go in the Word. He added, “I have never read in the Bible about a Junior Holy Spirit.”

       That really struck me. Of course! Again and again we have seen even very young children drawn to Bible stories and discovering important spiritual applications.

       For awhile, God has been nudging us to provide STS material for children’s programming. Could you pray for us as we tackle this vital area, and also could you select any areas for prayer from this newsletter that God may lead you to remember?  

To see how young children can hear from God, look at the attached moving story of a 3 year old. SimplyTheStory.org web site (right side, home page) has a great 11-min video, “Age 8 Gives Insights.”

God’s Story & Simply The Story Impact

Closed Places-Hard Places

West Africa: African instructors just led STS trainings in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the 3 countries being ravaged by Ebola. As our instructors continue to train in these regions, please pray for their safety and the eradication of this epidemic.

Tel Aviv: While rockets assailed Israel (and most attendees had family in the military), God spoke to hearts in an STS workshop. “One group discussed the story of Saul & David in the Cave (when David could have killed Saul but instead cut a piece off his robe).

       One Israeli guy began to weep because of the way he had treated his authority figure/mentor. The group prayed for and ministered to him. That is what this is all aboutthe Word of God transforming hearts toward healing and shalom.”

Unnamed Communist Country: Anyone caught with even a piece of paper with a Bible verse or Christian teaching on it is thrown into prison. A team of 11 pastors and a few of their wives secretly went to another country to learn STS. They loved learning how to remember Scripture and how to dig deeply into it in a way they and the downtrodden people in their country could understand it.

       At the end of the 5-day training, in tears, one pastor’s wife told those gathered, “My husband has always been timid to speak. I have seen him here gain a confidence and boldness to speak the Word of God. He is prepared now to go back.”

SE Asia: An instructor wrote us: “I just get a short story from one pastor in place where they is not allowed to hold /carry the Bible and say anything about Christ / Christianity. But they use the sts and tell the good news and there one monk and others excepted [Jesus].”

Ukraine: Our brothers and sisters in Ukraine face the threat of a 2^nd occupation by Russia. Should this happen, know that by God’s grace, before a possible outlawing of the Word takes place, we were able to plant the STS way to remember the Scripture and orally share it. We led two STS workshops in 2012 and advanced training in Nov 2013.

Those trained said, “My ministry was incomplete and I was praying about what to do and feel STS is the answer to that prayer.” . . .  “This is a tool to reach out to Gypsies.” . . . “Previously Bible study was superficial, and I was not getting deeper into understanding and discovery.” . . .  “STS is a powerful tool for spreading the Word.” . . . “Before I could learn 9 verses in a week and now I can learn 9 verses in 10 minutes!”. . . “STS has given me a way to get into the Word, where I had struggled to even read the Bible before.”

Ethiopia: “At the moment we are in south Ethiopia doing a workshop in one of the prisons. Yesterday, 4 prisoners committed their lives to Christ.”

Morocco: “One of my dear lady friends that I was visiting almost every Friday passed away a week before I got back to Morocco. I was very sad that I did not see her again. But one good thing happened.

 “Her daughter told me, ‘My mother was listening almost every day to the MegaVoice you gave to her.’ This lady loved to work in her yard and always carried her solar player with her, so she was listening to God’s Story and the Bible in her own language.’”

Niger: “After an STS workshop, a young man followed me for five days to get a solar player. [Player has God’s Story and Scripture on it.] Finally I gave him one. The man later took me around to SEVEN villages where this guy had formed lots of listening groups and people have received the Lord.”

Country Closed to Christianity: “For 2 years I read all of the reports of STS touching lives and multiplying around the world, but I saw very little happening where I serve. I was very discouraged. But now, 34 workshops later, I can say it is catching hold. People are understanding and responding to the Word  . . . and multiplying what they learn. In God’s time!”    

Togo: “Chad,” we will call him, is a church planter whose father was an animist priest. Chad was praying for his Dad for 15 years. His Dad was his first enemy when Chad gave his life to Jesus, and denied him as a son.

One day, after all these years of prayer, the father called and asked for Bible. Chad gave him a solar MegaVoice player and his Dad began to listen the moment he received it. Isaiah 43 came to him one night, and he came to Chad to have his questions answered about the Bible, including for help with Isaiah 43. His father then said to Chad, “I gave you life but you are older than me.” The son understood that his Dad was giving him supreme honor by saying the son knew more than the father. His father then responded to the Gospel and was crying and crying at the time of prayer/repentance.

Central Asia: In this Muslim country “A few youth now believe in Jesus, others are seeking. Christians had tried doing a Bible study, but it didn't really work” I was invited to try a story. “I told a 10-verse story of a paralysed man who was lowered through the roof. I asked for a volunteer to retell it. One of the seekers said he would. He told it far better than I had, and didn't forget hardly any of the details!  Everyone said, ‘You must have heard it before,’ but he insisted it was new to him.

 “Later, as we talked about the scribes in the story who were sitting there, the volunteer concluded, 'Well, if only God can forgive sins and Jesus forgave his sins, then Jesus must be God.’  It was a good moment. I believe that discovery of truth was a result of the Holy Spirit's work in his life.”

Bahrain (Arab Peninsula): Attendees use STS in prison outreach, ministry and witnessing. The Bible Society in Bahrain devoted their whole newsletter to STS. They wrote, “Thank-you emails congested our email accounts & “STS is an unprecedented, cutting-edge and phenomenal Bible Engagement tool.”

North Africa: One believer’s Dad is a respected Muslim leader, and he heard God’s Story on the solar player several times. He decided to share it with friends. More than 60 people came to listen. Lots of questions were being asked so his Dad said, "I will ask my son." Next they had 200 people listening.

Over 15 years, the father has moved from wanting to kill his son, to making him a slave, to years later apologizing to his son for the rejection, to now saying, “Jesus is God’s Son.” But, even though he travels all over the region and plays, “this true story” for older men as they sit and drink tea, and he started attending church, he has not yet said, ”Jesus is my Saviour.”

North Africa: A church planter got to answer a lot of questions when his "cousin-brother" came to his house one day and discovered the planter’s family having devotions. He asked the planter afterwards, "How sure are you that Jesus is Son of God?" The man asked for a book to read. Instead of a book, the planter gave his cousin-brother a solar player. He listened to it for three days and then came back.

 At first he was asking the planter questions, but then he started crying. Then, before the planter had finished talking to him, the guy kneeled down to pray and receive Jesus. As a result, the man had to leave his family and family home, fleeing for his life and for a time moved in with the church planter.

Guinea: “We finished the workshop by the grace of God. We had 65 participants on the last day. God did mighty things in the lives of participants. The last day they wanted me to continue till night. I saw joy in the lives of the participants. The pastor openly said that ‘It has never happened in the history of the church that after a seminar or conference that the members were so happy like this. Most workers in the church were before hostile to each other, but STS has helped us be together.’

“There were so many testimonies at the end that I wept heavily in front of them all whilst giving my final speech. I saw love, happiness and appreciation in their faces.”

Easier Regions, But Still Needy

Taiwan: “This is the most people I have seen that have gone out during the workshop and shared a story with strangers. I saw God really move. One lady told me, ‘I have been studying the Bible for 40 years and just saw things in the Bible I have never seen before.’”

Guatemala: Email from a user of STS on short term mission trip. “The pastor has been having me do stories at every service (about 3 times a week). He loves the story telling process. He noticed that his people stay awake when I tell a story, but they fall asleep when he preaches! He has also noticed how much they interact with me-even the kids answer questions. He says, ‘They never talk with me about the Bible.’ He told me last night at supper, ‘This story-telling process is much more effective for my people than what I learned [in seminary].’ He's 72 yrs old and would love to learn to tell stories!”

West Africa: In 2014, the Lord widened and deepened the impact of Simply The Story (STS) and God’s Story. Many large ministries are asking STS instructors for training. One of these, Mercy Ships, just received STS training in Benin, the 3^rd country in which we have trained their local ground crews!

USA: In Sept we are hosting a Summit for Lead Instructors including directors from 15 countries.  Afterwards some will stay on to lead a first-timers training and Alumni Advanced training from Sept 28-Oct 3. There are still a few slots left! We need 3 more visas granted.

Answered Prayer: For a long time we have asked for prayer regarding the need for hands-on help at our Hemet headquarters. Part time help has come! More full time help is to arrive when their house in TX is sold. We still need one or two on-site staff who love web site, audio and film ministry.  Blessings,

Dorothy A. Miller