Inconvenient or God Convenient?

Prayer & Praise Report # 3, June-July 2015

Download PDF

Dear Friend of God's Story,

Inconvenient or God Convenient?

It never ceases to amaze me how God uses inconvenient situations to reach the lost. We exited the train station in Budapest, Hungary, looking for the right bus. However, due to construction in the area, our leader didn't know where the bus stop had moved. One man took time to guide us a few blocks and made sure we boarded the right bus.

His English was almost as good as our Hungarian, but we had a solar player with the recently finished Hungarian

God's Story. I started the player and handed it to our new guide who boarded the bus with us. He smiled. Our guide continued listening to God's Story when we all exited the bus. After several more minutes, our guide left us still listening to the player we gifted him.

Vajta, Hungary. The Calvary Chapel (CC) School of Missions at their Bible College desired to incorporate STS into their missionary training in Europe. Pastors from large congregations in the states, attending the conference, were impacted and now want training for their people

The director of the CC European Bible College, whose experience as a missionary spans service in Russia, Ukraine and Germany, immediately practiced what she learned from the STS training with small groups and counseling sessions.

Slovakia.  One 19 year-­‐old young man, after a day of training, saw a woman working in a field  and started a conversation with her.  We had not covered yet how to do the shorter    conversational version of a Bible story. However, he shared a Bible story anyway and discovered the woman was a backslidden believer who had “lost her way” (her own words) in the occult. She was so impacted by the story and hour long conversation that she wanted to get right with God!

Farsi Immigrants in Europe

One instructor wrote that she did blind Bartamaus (Mark 10:46-­‐52) with about 80-­‐100 Iranian immigrant men. Many were afraid to speak. A few did speak up, and the men went from a little attention to having much attention. The people were all hugs and smiles after the Bible story.

How can a spark start a fire?

In 2014, a man, working in East Africa, attended an STS training on the East coast by a third generation instructor. Shortly after, this man spoke at a church in Illinois that was attended by a

family of home schoolers. The home schooling family could not remember the speaker at their church or where he worked, but did remember one sentence he shared about Simply The Story.

The mom called the office, spoke to Dorothy, who then called our leader in Illinois. Our leader spent a few hours with several home schoolers. Amazingly, this leader happened to be pivotal in the home school movement years ago, and the family knew of him for that reason! As a result of God orchestrating these events, STS is being adopted rapidly by the home schoolers in Illinois and Kentucky.

Headquarters welcomes a wonderful retired couple.

A couple coming to serve at TGSP headquarters stopped at a camp in the Texas hill country to visit their son and his family. Their son and family are on staff at the camp. The couple was asked to do a story for the volunteer worker program one evening. Twenty young adults crowded the living room as they told the story of Jesus calming the storm and had a lively discussion.

The director of the volunteer program attended, wanting to see how the young people reacted to this interactive method of teaching. The next morning at the camp staff meeting, the director shared his excitement about the response of the youth to Simply The Story. Then another director mentioned that someone on staff at their sister camp in New Mexico had been to a STS workshop and also felt this would be an awesome way to engage the volunteers and teach the Word to campers. God brought STS to the staff from 2 directions at the same time.

Could anything good come from Guinea?

A team traveled to Gambia for the first STS training in that country. Our Guinea leader reports the following.

“Four pastors … know that I came from Guinea they all turned me down, because they were not  expecting anything good coming from Guinea, and I’m not from the western world. Two of those pastors came  at  the workshop and they asked me to forgive them for not allowing me to host me, and they regretted that all their leaders were not there to benefit from this very powerful teaching.”

“Almost all of the participants had done a story telling workshop and most of them are church planters. Almost 30% of the participants were working for… they came to the meeting to see how we were doing our workshops, but it was a surprise for them to see how we are going deeper in the word of God and they were so impressed with us and some even asked me to help them to work with us.”

“One of the pastors told me … he had been a pastor for over

10 years but he has never been so humbled before because we really showed him how to be humble and in a simple way we teach the bible. He was able to go deep in the bible than ever before.”

Pastors and Leaders moved to action.

We praise the Lord for the many Lao and Thai people who attended the STS trainings in Thailand over the summer. One lady who was the head of a Thai competitive team, attended one training. She loved it so much; she followed the instructors to the next 3 trainings!

India

We praise the Lord, the Ao Naga Simply The Story handbook has been completed and is available for free download on our website. Go to the Resources > Gift STS Material. We now have 15 languages versions of the STS handbook available.

The organizer of the Nagaland workshop shared with our India Director after the STS training, “We have invited many speakers to our mission and they came and gave lecture and went. We did not continue to practice what they have taught but the day one STS leaders came to our place we all are involving to learn together in the word of God. STS is a practical training so that everyone can learn the scripture and go in deep, we (…have 24,000 membership in their Churches) are going to adopt STS to our Churches and mission to continue to train many leaders.”

Could a Bible story be relevant to the situation?

Our Latin American team conducted 3 trainings in El Salvador and Costa Rica; one included 18 tribes from 4 different countries. Several more countries have invited STS teams to come as a result. The following story came from the training in Costa Rica.

The team was preparing the story of the fiery snakes in Numbers 21:4-­‐9, when a tribal man received a phone call. A poisonous snake had bitten his dad. The man feared for his dad’s life. The instructors realize the story they were doing applied to the situation … how God brought life and health to those bitten by snakes!

The group prayed for the tribal brother and for his father. His dad was in a remote part of the country and getting him to the hospital looked out of the question. The dad tightly bound his arm with some cloth, but his arm was badly swollen with the poison. The team waited for the next 24 hours.

The answer from God came. The father made it to a hospital, and then a specialized hospital in another city. He was soon discharged and home, completely healed!!

Snapshots From Around the World -­ Praises and Prayers

Our Simply The Story Israel trip is now set for February 2016. Brochures and registration forms are available here:  or go to SimplyTheStory.org and click “Upcoming Workshops.”  There are “al-­‐la-­‐cart” options for training and/or tour. The tour is designed to include our group and those around us as we experiment with the interactive Bible study method God has given us.

“I was leading a bible study in my home for the last ten years for my Church. After coming here I  realized  there was no life in my home group. So I resigned leading. This is my home group now…because, here there’s life.” – Andrew, a Business man in North Carolina that gathers weekly in the marketplace with a business networking group that uses STS.

“Just used STS at the Orange County fair in CEF's Noah’s Ark booth last night and God led 12 more little ones to Himself.”

Darlene in Southern California

We look forward to reporting about a recent training in the Sudan that included 150 military chaplains.

The team in Congo has grown tremendously, using STS every week. We are praying for a way to get the 3 leaders to an STS Comprehensive Leadership Training.

Our first STS Oral Bible School in the USA has been going since 2014.

STS trainings in past couple of months have occurred on 5 continents!

A great blog post by a recent STS attendee from France: A team is on the way to a country in Asia to record the first language of God’s Story for that country. Please pray as this has been a difficult language to complete.

Flooding in Myanmar has killed an unknown number of people and left many homeless. These photos were sent to us by our leader there who orchestrated God’s Story on national TV two times this year. Please pray for Myanmar.

Grateful to the Lord,

Andrea Executive Director

The God's Story Project

Man Sheds Tears

Prayer and Praise Report #2, March-May 2015

Download PDF

Dear Friend of God's Story,

What Could Possibly Make this Man Cry?

"The man broke down and wept during the jars of oil story," (2 Kings 4:1-­‐7, the widow who lost her husband and was about ready to lose her 2 sons).

Curious why this story touched the man so much, our Africa director continued, "The man said that for 23 years South Sudan has developed a dependency on foreign aid, rather than trusting the Lord. This man sees the Lord as wanting people to be part of the solution. The woman who had nothing but a jar of oil, still had something the Lord could use. As a Sudanese man, he feels his own people do not recognize what they have and what God can use." Pray for this man.

Another pastor from the Sudan who recently received intensive training in Simply The Story reports back, "...I shared the story of centurion in book of Matthew 8:5-­‐13 to 'military' officers. God open their hearts to receive

Jesus Christ. ... One stood up said, 'God forgive me for not trusting in your word all this year, and receive me in your family.' "

The pastor continued, "Then another stood up and said, 'I confess my sin of not being humble and forgive me I need humble heart.' So six of them received Jesus Christ as personal savior and 20 recommitted their lives to Christ."

How does one Introduce God's Story to several African Villages?

Our language coordinator for West Africa reported, "All went amazingly well. God's Story was the first media ever done in their languages. The villagers were so happy to see and hear God's Story in their mother tongues, that they openly received the film team. All the villagers gathered together in great excitement. After the 80-­‐minute film was seen, in only two locations it was prudent to have an altar call. Many in those locations responded openly to the Gospel. But, although these predominantly animist and mus.lim people did hear the Word of God, the chiefs were not ready to allow open "recruitments" to Christianity."

In all of the locations, after the movie was done, one of the team members would tell a Bible story and invite discussion as we do in Simply The Story. In every case, the people became involved and wanted more. The "more" they received on this trip was the 50 solar players for each language.

Most of these remote people groups live very far from any electric power, so the solar players were treasures that the recipients realized contained a treasured message. The few believers among these people groups have plans to do wise follow up.

Upon returning, our West Africa Director told me, "We need more solar powered audio players!" I responded, "I imagine you do. But first can the Ghanaian ministries who are trying to reach this region document some of the responses to God's Story and uses of these players? Then, as where most needed (and as we are able) we will see about getting you more players." Please continue to pray for this country and region. Plans are being made now to do another launching of 10 God's Story languages this fall.

God's Story on National TV?

Our leader in this Asian country emailed me and said he has a chance to play God's Story on TV and it would cost over $2,500.

As the new Executive Director, I choked a little at the cost and wrote him back with some concerns. He wisely responded, "Not the matter of  Money...For the Censor there are 15 Minister will be checking and watching the GS. In one way we can't reach or share the God's word to the 15 Government Chief Ministers. But in one way this is an opportunity to see the God's Story in their life." In other words, even if God's Story never aired, at least 15 chief government officials would hear the Gospel. What wisdom!

By the hand of our loving Lord, God's Story aired three times in this difficult Buddhist country in the national language along with at least 2 other languages subtitled. Thank you Lord for showing us YOUR ways, and not mine. (God's Story aired on national TV during Easter in Kenya as well!)

What happens in a Comprehensive Leadership Training (CLT)?

The CLT training in Kenya occurred during the Spring. Leaders from a few nations in Eastern Africa participated, including leaders from South Sudan! During the first few weeks, people spent a tremendous amount of time in God's Word, practicing the STS method of oral inductive Bible study. This washes people from the inside out, and encourages all the participants and trainers.

As the participants spend time hiding God's Word in their heart pocket, they are also learning to lead Simply The Story training. Approximately midway through the CLT, the people lead a training under the supervision of a skilled instructor. Finally, the remaining CLT time focuses on

coaching the people in their instructor skills. Participants leave the training understanding practicals (hands on Bible stories with anyone they meet, believer or non-­‐believer), knowing the "what" and "why" of STS philosophies, and capable of teaching both. All of this leads to a tremendous equipping and encouraging of many to know God's Word, and to share God with man.

Starting June 8, at our headquarters in Hemet, California, we begin another CLT. Only a few spots remain open for an incredible and refreshing time with many believers and the Lord. Midway through, a regular training will occur, open to anyone wanting to learn STS.

Could Anything Good Come From California?

Our state may be in the midst of a drought, however, an oasis of God's Word refreshes many young hearts.

Two amazing instructors were invited to teach Bible to the youth at a Calvary Chapel school for the Spring semester. The instructors decided to use the STS method and the results amazed many teachers and leaders in the school.

What were the final results?  Many of the 14-­‐ 18 year olds signed up to do Bible dramas in the elementary classes (typically 12 years old and younger). Others agreed to present Bible stories to the 11-­‐13 year olds (Jr. High classes), elementary chapel, adult home fellowship, children's ministry, high school ministry, and  at convalescent and assisted living residences. All of this came as a result of adult leaders seeing the changes in the lives of the students and wanting them to come and share what   they had learned!

One young man said about STS, "If I had this before, think how much I could have learned!"

Another senior graduate from this school assisted in an STS training in Hungary in May. His parents were shocked. Never had their son shown any interest in missions until now.

Many more stories from this school to come. Look on our website under "What's New?" in the near future.

Family Devotions that Impact

What happens when a family has no choice but to bring their children to a training because the father could not find care for the young ones?

Results of an STS Oral Bible School

Recently one leader reported what he saw resulting from an STS Oral Bible School (OBS) in Kenya. The pastor leading an OBS school said the Bible teachers for the Sunday school children keep leaving and they needed more teachers. I asked myself, "Why were they struggling to keep Sunday school teachers?"

Apparently, the children, who learn Bible stories from their parents attending the STS Oral Bible School, seem to "...know more than the Sunday school teachers so the teachers leave."

Snapshots From Around the World -­ Praises and Prayers

An STS training required one and a half years to setup, but we praise the Lord, it was completed recently. The country is one of the top dozen persecutors of Christians and required our entire office and the leaders to use a code name in reference to the training and country.

Working in partnership with another organization, close to 80,000 copies of God's Story, along with other materials have been distributed to closed countries since 2014. Reports of impact have trickled in due to the security issues facing this project.

Latin America opens up to STS! This year alone, training has occurred or expected to happen in the following countries: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Bolivia.

Three countries in the Middle East received STS training. All three are on the top 50 list for persecuting Christians. One leader will be attending our CLT training in June.

A large organization raising children to follow Jesus throughout 20 African countries has chosen to weave STS into their curriculum. We will work together with them over the next year or two.

Dates for the Israel training and tour are set for the last 2 weeks in February 2016. Look for the registration and brochure on our website this month or call our office for more information (space is limited). We're excited to see how the interactive discussions in Bible stories affect those on our tour, the other tours near us, and the local residents.

Look for a wonderful testimony from our Togo director under the "What's New?" section of www.SimplyTheStory.org later this month.

Our incredible office staff and world leaders are doing wonderful as they go through this transition time following Dorothy's home going. God has ministered to each of us in His own special way. Tom Miller remains a faithful and tremendous leader.

Grateful to the Lord, Andrea

Executive Director

The God's Story Project

* Pictures blurred for security reasons

Vision Continues

Prayer & Praise Report #1, December 2014, January-February 2015

Download PDF

In 1995 several of us from another ministry, who had just spent the day working in more than 100 degree weather, were invited that evening to watch God's Story: From Creation to Eternity at the Miller home. Dorothy Miller, screen writer and director for the film, wanted to test the new music and effects before proceeding to final production with the English version. It became clear to me while watching this evaluation copy, "this program belongs to God."

Changes were made to the music, and God's Story in English was completed soon afterwards. For the next 3 years, the producer struggled to fulfill their vision of getting God's Story into world languages, so in 1998 they asked Dorothy Miller to lead "The God's Story Project" (TGSP).

Dorothy and I worked together to develop the God's Story website. As well, we worked on several other projects until I moved to Honduras for some missions work. After returning from the field, Dorothy offered me the opportunity to join the team going to the Netherlands for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association conference known as "Amsterdam 2000".

For me, there has never been a conference like Amsterdam before or after. TGSP earned the reputation as the busiest booth. Our booth had 40 people or more at each moment wanting information about God's Story in their

language. These national leaders from around the world also saw the value of our solar powered VCD players that fit in a backpack. Several language translations of God's Story started as a result of our new relationships.

I continued assisting Dorothy via email and flying to California once every month or two. She started discipling me a few years earlier and continued for many years more. At the end of 2001, Dorothy asked me if I wanted to join TGSP full time. Even though I spent several hours a day working with her, this invitation meant moving to Hemet where TGSP is headquartered.

For a few years, Dorothy and I were the only two in the office. I managed shipping and became a sounding board and advisor for the development of many processes and policies that helped establish TGSP. During this time, I developed our in-the-field recording studios, setup our own production and mastering studio, and became the head of technology for the organization.

The 100th language of God's Story started with a suggestion from a friend, "Why don't you get God's Story in Hip Hop?" My friend must have read the "you're kidding" look on my face and asked me to just listen to a man nicknamed "Modavador g." Modavador sounded great, which led me to suggest the same to Dorothy. The look on her face said, "No way. " Taking a cue from my friend, I suggested she listen to Modavador when he calls. Dorothy wisely recognized that the Bible is 15% poetry, and Hip Hop spoken word is a type of poetry. This version of God's Story could reach a genre of people that may never walk into a church. We celebrated the 100th language of God's Story in 2004.

Around this same time, Dorothy and I were learning about orality and oral communicators. We were also astounded by how God was using God's Story in people's lives. We recognized God's Story spoke to the 80% majority of the world who learn best through stories. We integrated solar audio players into our repertoire of equipment, which allowed for thousands more to hear the Word of God in their mother tongue.

More people started volunteering in the office around 2003, and overseas, leaders began bubbling to the surface. We thank God for each person listening to His call. For TGSP, this meant Dorothy was free to listen to God and His vision for us.

We were still overwhelmed with requests for God's Story when Dorothy started to develop Simply The Story in 2006. I remember saying to her one day, "We're not keeping up with God's Story, why are you developing this?"

Her response was clear, "Because I believe God wants me to." I told Dorothy that was enough for me to support her.

Within a month of that conversation, Simply The Story (STS) became my vision too because so many Christians were being affected by God's Word like I had never seen. The responses people had in the USA and during our premier STS trip in 2006 to 5 other countries astounded me. Dorothy and I knew very quickly by the requests for training that we needed to raise instructors. Dorothy moved me from my comfortable position in the background and behind the camera to being in front of the people teaching and training starting in 2007.

For the next 4 years, I traveled the globe conducting or assisting with 80 STS trainings in 25 countries raising instructors. By the end of 2011, God blessed us with instructors on every continent except Antarctica (still working on that). We multiplied in a short amount of time. It was an honor to report back to Dorothy, along with others, about what worked in our training and what needed modification. By 2013 our training and handbook were well established.

African leaders said to me, "This is so African!" Asian leaders also said the same.

For the past few years, Dorothy allowed me to help our instructors learn to raise instructors, attend to special situations, and to be her right hand.

Our first 8 years focused on God's Story, and for the second 8 years we focused on Simply The Story. We start 2015 praising God for Tom Miller's continued leadership. We also look forward to what the Lord has next, which includes a training center, developing a children's Bible ministry, focusing our online presence, and refining several multiplication strategies that use God's Story and STS.

Our beloved Dorothy is sorely missed. Her guidance, trust in the Lord, and mentoring will continue in the many people worldwide who learned from this godly woman.

Grateful to the Lord, Andrea

Executive Director

The God's Story Project

TGSP | PO Box 187 Hemet CA | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.| Gods-Story.org | SimplyTheStory.org

Only One Person

Prayer & Praise Report # 4, August-October 2014

Download PDF

Dear Friend of God’s Story,

I am only one person, what can I do? Most of us see the spiritual and physical needs around us. But honestly, the needs are so overwhelming that we sometimes feel hopeless, thinking, I am only one person; I can’t make a difference. This is NOT true. If you pray for TGSP or if you financially support this work, you ARE already part of its global impact. Please know that praying, giving, or going, do combine to produce the evangelism and discipleship impact of TGSP.

This current newsletter, Only One Person, gives testimonies of individual people who use our tools of God’s Story (GS) or Simply The Story (STS) training and are seeing huge impact.

Stealth Team:

If you also want to “go,” and you have time to learn and practice STS, ask about becoming part of a Stealth Team. One person, using the STS stealth tactics, is clearly impacting a closed access country. Right now, this person is handing off advanced STS leadership training to uneducated villagers, but they doubted their ability to learn. They said, “No other teacher makes us think as much as you do.

“We’ve always been given shallow information. We’ve never been asked to think for ourselves before.” But they are getting it. And by God’s grace, they will use this simple but deep way of understanding and applying Scripture with others, who will then hand it off to others.

The fruit is worth the commitment to gain this innovative way of learning and teaching others.

Urgent Prayer is needed now for a team in Ghana that is launching ten new languages of God’s Story in ten different locations.

These are languages of smaller people groups, largely untouched by the Gospel . . . all recorded by one retired American. The team is traveling in a country with Ebola on either side. It is sort of like walking through the parted Red Sea! Leaders in each people group are receiving DVDs and 50 solar audio players with God’s Story. Some players also have Scripture, as available. Most villagers are hearing words of the Bible in their mother tongue for the first time. They also are hearing, learning, discussing and being ministered to by STS-told Bible stories. At the first language launching, 63 stepped out to make professions of faith in Jesus!

Medical Missions: Just this week we completed a brochure showing the usefulness of GS and STS in medical missions. As we were selecting some testimonies for the brochure, we celebrated. Millions of people in scores of countries have been ministered to body, soul and spirit. We discovered such reports as:

“In India we conducted 10 medical camps. Over 3,000 people were medically treated and more than 800 people came to the Lord through hearing God's Story during the camps. Twelve Home Bible Schools have started through these medical camps we conducted.”

More Medical Missions & a UUPG (UUPG is an unengaged, unreached people group) For several years, a Kenyan medical missions group had been ministering physically to the East Pokot. But these animists refused to listen to any religious teaching. The leader of this medical group decided to try something new. He asked these Pokot if they wanted to see a movie. They agreed, and watched the God’s Story film. Eight people professed faith in Christ after seeing the film, the first believers among the East Pokot!

The West Pokot have many believers and speak the same language as the animist East Pokot. But due to the resistance to Christianity of those in the east, these believers had given up hope of evangelizing their distant relatives.

The director of the medical group invited STS instructors to train 30 of the West Pokot believers. Those trained felt encouraged and empowered.

But the West Pokot live in such a remote region, that they could not be reached in time to join the medical team for the next trip. So the team took one trained STS storyteller with them.

While the medical staff tended to the patients, these animists showed interest in hearing Bible stores. In fact, Samson, the storyteller, told about 80 stories!

One listener, a chief, accepted Jesus after hearing a story and discussing it with the other animists of his village.

That day, he mingled among the villagers and told the Feeding of the 5,000 story five times!

The next day the chief stood in front of all the villagers gathered for medical care. He announced, “I have something to say.” All work stopped and the people grew quiet.  We Pokot have nothing. We are poor, so we demand help from the government but they give us only a little. We have no schools for our children and our people can barely provide for themselves. But God sent His people, not the government, to care for us. And this storyteller told us many things about the God of the Christians.

We, the Pokot people, must look to God to help, not the government. Now we must let God teach us how to provide for our people.” The trained believers from West Pokot have now asked to start an Oral Bible School among their own people and are planning to go to live among the East Pokot to evangelize and disciple using stories.

But it seems that already, due to the vision of the director of the medical mission group, and one man’s readiness to tell many stories, the East Pokot are no longer a UUPG!

Summit at Bethel: This Sept, The God’s Story Project celebrated 15 years of service, and Simply The Story completed 8 years. Thirty, multi-country directors and leaders met at Bethel, our center in Hemet, California. At this summit, they discussed where we’ve been, compared current strategies, and dreamed for the future. We also heard these leaders tell and lead discussions on Bible stories they had never before used. (Soon to be posted on “What’s New” is a report titled “Listening,” a surprise use of one of these stories.)

The directors, from 15 countries, thrived on the testimonies of the other leaders, each thinking of the others as the most amazing and humble leaders. I knew that one of our directors had expressed feelings of aloneness. So I asked all of those gathered, “Have any of you ever experienced aloneness?” Hands shot into the air so quickly that I was stunned. But really, it shouldn’t have been such a surprise considering that most of the significant followers of God in Scripture also expressed aloneness. The good news is that being part of this gathering of the “fellowship of kindred minds,” and hearts illustrated God’s statement in Psalms, “God sets the solitary in families.”

Even during the summit, we clearly saw the attacks of the enemy on the families and ministries of these leaders. At the last minute, the burning down of one man’s house was stopped.

Family members of numerous leaders became ill and the sad, but frequent heartbreak of human betrayal or staff being enticed to leave the ministry for money was taking place.

The Lord reminded us of the many times in Scripture that the same things happened to God’s children, and they made it through. That helped our directors through these trials.

One More Trained Man: Just one man, a director who attended the summit, plans to launch 35 new STS Oral Bible Schools (OBSs) in Ethiopia in the next two months. By God’s grace, within one year, these nearly 400 students will be able to teach deeply from memory 296 Bible stories and passages! They will be walking, talking Bibles!

Flash. Just Came In! Our Ethiopian director wrote: “I just returned home after a successful planting of OBSs. We had planned for five in this area, but when I got there, they were six. There are 72 students in total. Before travelling to USA for the summit, I had given out 4 MegaVoice players, which were distributed to four villages.

“In one village, the Christian who was given the player invited villagers to listen to God’s Story in the Oromo language. Night by night they gathered. The number of listeners increased every night. After listening for about a week, 61 villagers gave their lives to Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Some of those new believers attended the workshop we led last week. A church has now been planted in that community.

“In a second village, a man was given the player to be a custodian. His wife and son were very much opposed to the gospel and there was no peace at home because the man is a Christian. This brother begun to listen to Oromo GS, and the wife became interested to listen.

After a week, the son took the player and left home. He came back after a few days and said to his father, ‘Dad you are right.’ Both the son and the wife surrendered to Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

“At the same time, this church that is hosting the OBS had an issue with some members who had split from the church. When this group that had split heard about the workshop and players, some attended our first workshop in August. Now this group has been reconciled to the church and asked for forgiveness.

“This coming month, we are going to the next place to plant 23 OBS there by God’s Grace.”

We thank you deeply for your prayers and support that help make possible the language launching, the gifting of solar players, the production of new languages, the trainings and

this strategic summit gathering. Your involvement makes you part of this family and part of this harvest as well.

We recorded many stirring testimonies of these leaders. We hope to post them on our STS website soon on ”What’s New?” I want you to be able to hear directly from your brothers and sisters.

Blessings,

Dorothy A. Miller

No Junior Holy Spirit

Prayer and Praise Report #3, June-July 2014 

Download PDF

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

Creative Delivery of God’s Word

Prayer and Praise Report #2, February-April 2014 

Download PDF

Dear Friend of God’s Story,

Reports show that after discovering God’s Story and/or being trained in STS, the interest in Bible study soars! This #2 newsletter of 2014 mentions just some of the creative ways people are using these two tools. For instance, churches are using the STS oral inductive Bible study, not just for services, but as you see in the picture above, for Sunday School!

Reports on Flagship Tool, God’s Story

By God’s grace . . . we have 12 new languages waiting for final approval and 20 more new ones being translated or set to record.

UUPG We thank God for the new Bodo version for NE India. The 1.5 Million Bodo are listed as 0 percent evangelical (so they are an Unengaged Unreached People, a UUPG).We have record of 32 UPGs and UUPGs in India being reached by God’s Story. Please PRAY for yet another people- group breakthrough. In two weeks, believers wanting to reach the Bodo intend to start the showings of God’s Story.UPG. Another new, very exciting version just done is the Zuni. These Native Americans also are an unreached people (UPG). Many errors of the past have made the Zuni very wary of Christianity. In Acts 16, God sent an earthquake and opened prison gates. He unlocked the shackles of Paul and Silas and all the prisoners! PRAY for bondages of the Zuni to be broken.

Jungle UPG. Among the unreached aborigines who live on the Andaman Islands, there is a people group called the Nicobarese After many years of challenges, our India Director finally was able to set up a God’s Story recording for these reclusive, unreached, jungle people. After the team recorded 1/4 of the 80-minute program, the narrator, one of a few saved Nicobarese, became very ill and the recording had to be suspended. Word just came to us today that the Nicobarese are listening to that 20 minutes of audio (Creation to Abraham), no music or sound effects, no visuals, just a Bible storyteller retelling Scripture.

Amazingly, from hearing God's message, the jungle people are coming to Jesus, a lot of them!

The Bishop of Andaman Islands sent a message, "Thank You God's Story people for bringing Creation to the promise of God to Abraham." PRAY for these remote people who are discovering God’s love.

Creative Delivery. From the beginning of God’s Story, people were not sure in what category to place it. The art is simple classic, which makes it timeless. Some people like to use the audio and let people picture the story in their minds while others use the “movie” as a way to draw people to hear the message.

A sweet letter came today from a New Tribes missionary at home in USA due to ill health. “I really liked the God's Story DVD a lot. In fact it is the best I have seen out there. I took art in Community College many years ago so am sensitive about how art is done. I usually like real detailed things, but this was so good as you could avoid really picturing Jesus (Which I have heard is important with Mus.lims.) There was such a feeling of action because of the kind of pictures and what ever you did to make them seem to move.”

Since the start of The God’s Story Project, we at the project have enjoyed partnerships with the Body of Christ. Just these last few months, missionaries with various organizations have asked about partnering on 15 new language versions of God’s Story.

Reports on Simply The Story

We also enjoy creative partnerships on STS. The highly successful ministry documented in

Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale, works with 100,000 church planters in N. Africa. They saw that the unique oral method of deep Bible study taught by STS could be a valuable asset to their church planters. They invited African STS instructors to train their leaders in Cote d’Ivoire.

One of the participants was 75 years old. He said, “I'm so happy because the process of STS makes me a better disciple, because even with God's Word we are supposed to always be learning.” He added, "In my many years of ministry, I have never seen such levels of maturity in the Word and in lifestyle as I have seen with STS users and particularly in this class--not even in my 4 years of Bible college." PRAY for even deeper understating and application of God's message to spread like a wild fire among those trained and to others yet to be trained in Africa.

Mercy Ships Finds Creative Ways to Share. The ship adopted STS in Guinea. Since then, they invited STS instructors to come join them again, this time in Congo-Brazza. We trained Congolese ground crew there and led an advanced training on the ship. Since that time, they have developed multiple ways to minister using interactive Bible stories on the shore in churches, outreaches and the land hospital. Due to there being 450 people on the ship committed to medical tasks, they decided to post a calendar. Anyone telling stories lists the date and time on the ward or deck, so crew members can find a time to join in. PRAY for body and soul healing.

Brings Believers Together. A wonderful Thai brother in the USA discovered STS. What this shy man learned prompted him to become an ordained pastor and establish a church that uses STS.

He called today from Thailand where he went to lead a large workshop in the Thai language. He excitedly reported, “STS is helping the Body of Christ serve together. Seventeen people, who we have previously trained, came from many cities for the week to help as staff. They represent eleven different denominations!” The Thai people, on an average, read very little. PRAY for them to be touched by hearing the Word of God.

Wonderfully, when people who treasure the Word of God come together to study using STS (so they stay in one passage at a time) the Lord leads them to discover truths and new information on which they can agree.

In North Sudan, Simply the Story workshops continue. This is not an easy place to serve. How is this for replication? Two years ago, instructors we trained in the USA, trained a man in Africa, who trained others in his country, who now go to N. Sudan to train Sudanese, who in turn help train fellow Sudanese! These Sudanese train other Sudanese, and then select a few attendees to go to new locations to serve as provisional instructors.

One person selected told the story of Paul and Silas to those learning STS, presumably all Christians. After much discussion STS style, the storyteller felt led to say, “The jailor asked for salvation because he discovered he needed to get saved, and I say if you know you are a sinner and haven't yet received the salvation of God, and you know you need it, then you have to stand and ask for salvation and I will pray for your salvation.” Ten out of 35 trainees stood and prayed with the storyteller . . . a 17- year old Sudanese girl! PRAY for the Holy Spirit to anoint people (even the youth and women) to carry God's Word to difficult places.

Out of the Safe Box! A lady I’ll call “Lee” attended an STS workshop. She was like many Christians who serve mostly within the structure of an organized church or missions setting and use preplanned outlines and notes. After the STS training, Lee, who had not done much witnessing to strangers in the marketplace of life or taught without notes, stated, “This is terrifying. I want to do it, I think it is right, but it seems like ‘free falling.’” Within one month, reports from this lady flooded our inbox.

Okay, I’ll do it, but I don’t think it will work and the only story I remember is the “Jars of Oil” story. So I turned to passenger seated next to me. All I could think to say was, “I’ve just been to a storytelling conference. Can I practice a story on you?” She said “sure.” While I was telling the story I kept thinking, What’s the point of telling this story to her? When I was done, before I could ask any questions, the passenger started telling ME what the story had spoken to her! I didn’t do anything!

Lee taught a Sunday School class . . . without notes. Afterwards, a seasoned Christian in her 80s told her,” I have read this story many, many times and I can honestly tell you that I have never seen some of the things in this story that I saw today. I really enjoyed this class."

See another insightful report Lee sent about her mission trip “free fall”, called Scary Decision on the Eve of Service. If you want to make copies of Lee’s to give to friends, go to our web site search feature, upper right corner, and type in “Scary Decision” PRAY that more will boldly speak of You.

Church Planted. “Two months ago we started a new church in Mbanaa. It has a population of about 300 persons who are mainly Dagombas from the Upper West Region of Ghana. They are subsistent farmers and the predominant religion is traditional worship and Islam. Though making disciples was slow in the beginning, the CPM and STS principles came in handy and have proven to be effective ministry tools that facilitated sharing the gospel - especially in regions where most of the indigenous are unlearned.” PRAY for the new believers in the church plants coming from STS.

Creative Radio. One ex-Muzm told a Bible story on radio . . . in a dominant Muslim country. The early responses were very positive. Even two months later, a muz.im man went to a church and told the pastor of the church how he had heard the story on radio. The man stated simply, “Now I believe.” That pastor happened to know the radio storyteller, so he contacted the storyteller and told him about the wonderful impact on that one man’s life. PRAY for the storyteller’s safety and for God to open radio opportunities as He wills.

The Parade-The Graduation.

These photos show everyone’s excitement about the graduates who have learned and can teach 296 Bible stories. We gathered information on the Oral Bible Schools. To find and make copies of this report, Special STS and OBS Report, to go search feature on our web site.

As of April, 2014, we counted 80 schools in 11 countries. The Home Bible Schools (HBS) number well over 1,000.

A typical HBS starts with a mixture of believers and seekers. Those who gather commit to learning the same 296 Bible stories done by the OBSs. Most attendees come to faith and the HBS develops into a local house church. The details and testimonies in the report amazed us! PRAY for the new army being raised up that they will live by what they proclaim.

We have just a few openings left in our June advanced training at Bethel at our Hemet headquarters. Also, we are set to be part of a conference in late July in Phoenix about reaching refugees. Anyone need an STS workshop while we are there?

Blessings, Dorothy A. Miller