Oral Bible Schools Impacting Refugees
Prayer & Praise Report #3, April-May 2018
How is Simply The Story Oral Bible Schools Impacting People in Ethiopia?
An incredible STS leader planted 18 new Oral Bible Schools (OBSs) in 6 different villages of Abuna, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. People walked for more than four hours to the workshop. Pray with the Ethiopian team for fruitfulness in Abuna.
One evangelist from the OBS in Abuna said, "It wasn't clear to me at the beginning. When I went home, I shared stories we learned here with some backsliders and non believers. 18 people were convert and 42 backsliders came back to the Lord. The church membership went from 20 to 80. Again young people become very receptive, something I had not seen there before."
Another Pastor shared, "After I took you to the bus station, I met a non believer and I shared a story with him. He got born again at 5 am in the morning. Now he's a member of my church."
As well, please pray for the students and leaders attending one of a couple hundred OBSs that are running in 5 different Sudanese refugee camps in Northern Uganda.
How does North Africa respond to God’s Story?
A few people just returned from North Africa carrying God's Story on solar players. Here's what they shared.
"We are so blessed to tell you that our trip to XXXX, was led by the hand of God! We visited many families, encouraged them in the Word! prayed for them. Some families are following Jesus and we saw them blessed! even their husbands are now believers! …we gave away the [solar players] to the shepherds in the fields and others in need of the gospel."
Does the Word Still Help those who Need to be Clean?
People from Africa, Oceania, Asia and the USA attended our recent STS training in Thailand. The following testimonies were only a few of many. One man who, at first, struggled with the process shared, "But this Word is powerful, and it always has been and always will be. And I sense there will be a day in my own country where we may not necessarily have the luxury of the written Word, and it seems to me like we ought to get that Word in our heart pocket so that we always have something that we can share with somebody, like on a bus or in an airplane or wherever we are."
After the training, this same man, who felt he needed to have paper and pencil to learn a story and also works with a very literate group, wrote to our lead instructor. This man, without any notes, orally presented and discussed Luke 5:12-16 about the leper asking if Jesus was willing to clean him.
Here are the results, "Everyone loved the storying, there was a lot of interaction, and they saw new things in the story. That is what I thought was really cool. Well, one guy came to my office a couple of hours later saying that he had to go to a full body skin cancer scanning, and he felt like he wanted to ask to be clean. He did get a clean bill of health. And he said to me, 'I'm not going to forget this story for quite a while.'"
Youth and Bible stories?
Every Spring around April, people in Thailand, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries celebrate the “water festival”. Recently, one of our leaders in this region had a water festival camp training with STS that went successfully. Many young people responded to the story.
Shortly after, in his own home, our leader conducted a special program for children from eight or nine orphanages. More than 100 children enjoyed the program which lasted for 3 days.
Our leader shared about these orphaned children, "Through the work of the Holy Spirit we see the fruits and children are coming unto the Lord." Many of these children come from a Buddhist background. How does Training Impact a Singaporean?
One woman from Singapore attended a recent training. She wanted learn to tell stories that were short enough for people to understand, and yet, powerful and clear enough to share the Gospel. She told us about her experience, "…after the first day, it was so daunting. I told myself maybe I should give up. But I'm thankful that the trainers, for their encouragement."
She continued, "And truly, I begin to realize that now, apart from learning to tell the story, it has actually helped me to dig deeper into the Word. So it wasn't just to tell people a story, but for myself I felt that I've grown, and I've felt that I saw insights that I never would have seen if I had just read it from the Word. So for me it has been a learning journey to learn just through listening, but also to learn to dig deeper."
What’s the Latest for God’s Story Languages?
Translation of God’s Story has started in the Refugee camps in Nuer, Murle, Anuak and Shilluk. Pray for these teams. A team of STS instructors and God's Story leaders visited Pagirinya, a major refugee settlement in Northern Uganda.
We have finished God's Story in the 3 major languages of the Comoros islands, Birifor-Malba, Dan Blowo and other languages these past couple of months!
What is Happening with God's Story?
A mission’s pastor shared this blessing with us. During a medical mission’s trip to Uganda a nurse listened to God's Story (GS) on a solar audio player in her mother tongue. The pastor wrote, "she could not put it down till all of GS was listened to! GS is so anointed!"
How Old Should a Bible Storyteller Be?
One young woman shared a Bible story from Acts 28:1-6 (the shipwreck at Malta) with a Bible story telling group, "Coffee with Koffi". Five people shared their testimonies during the spiritual applications. Wonderfully, the young woman who led this Bible story discussion is younger than 14 years old.
Since our training with this ministry in Cameroon, Africa, most of the people who attended the workshop have already shared Bible stories. Some have told Bible stories in "Coffee with Koffi", some in the hospital ward service with patients, some in the local church of Douala, Cameroon, others in their department devotions and some with their family.
Other Blessings from The Lord.
Sometimes emails arrive that are so precious; they must be shared in their entirety. The following was translated by Google from French to English, so please disregard any misunderstandings.
“dear officials,
may the grace of our Lord Jesus accompany you.
the Dan-Yacouba people of Côte d'Ivoire thank all the people for their time, their money, their knowledge so that the gospel of our Lord will come to our region.
After viewing the film "FROM CREATION TO ETERNITY", presentation and donation of mega voices [solar audio players], the communities show great joy listening to the device.
thank you for finding attached some images that testify to it.”
Where else can one share a Bible story? One woman told a story to an Uber driver—and it was just right for him.
Grateful to the Lord,
Andrea
Executive Director
& The whole staff of The God's Story Project (TGSP)