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Prayer & Praise Report #1, November–December 2014
Dear Friend of God’s Story,
By God’s grace, 2013 ended with over 300 Oral Bible Schools (OBS) in 11 countries and the completion of 23 new languages of God’s Story. But, counting the quantity of schools, new language versions of God’s Story or the number of Simply The Story workshops means nothing unless we see results of people coming to Jesus, maturing in the faith and reaching out to others in Great Commission obedience.
Here are some reports. Are there results? You decide.
Simply The Story. This photo from India shows people practicing telling each other short Bible stories. By their faces do you think they are enjoying this? But is there any eternal value? You decide.
“STS training style is very new to some main line churches and they were amazed to see how the Lord speaks to them through going deep in His WORD using STS style.”
“One evening during the workshop, newly trained storytellers went out into the surrounding areas and told Bible stories.
31 new souls came to the Lord during evening outreach / practical ministry.
“One lady said she is a Christian last 27 years, but she never experienced like these 3 days on how the Holy Spirit of God worked in her life and she did not get an opportunity to share God’s word to anybody in her entire Christian life. She led 13 new souls to Christ in these 3 days and she was very very happy.”
More in India. But does this multiply? “Nishanth, a non Christian had high fever since 4 years, he has spent lot of money but nothing was happened. Someone told him “there is a prayer meeting” He thought this is a prayer meeting, so he came to the STS workshop one hour late. I was telling Martha Mary Story and leading the group asking many questions to discover spiritual observation and then make Spiritual personal application in STS style.
“God touched this man and healed him and his body became cool and he was praising God but he does not know how to say thanks to Jesus. He shared his story during tea break (what was happened to him during personal application time) and we all praise God and we prayed for Him and he has requested us asking shall I continue to learn stories? Nishanth said, “Because all my family members are non believers so I have to learn some stories and I want to share these life giving stories to my family members.’ We welcomed him. He was there till the end and he paid money for the Lunch and blessed some extra money to the local organizers. Local pastor was surprised through seeing this miracle.
“Yesterday I called him and he told me that he shared Bible story (first Martha Mary, later Zacchaeus) to his entire family. (He is the father / head of this house). 6 people came to the Lord and he is happy to share stories of God to his neighbors. He was asking us to pray for him and for his family. He has a small business and now he came forward to provide a hall (building) to conduct regular Bible Study through using STS style.
“This evening will the first Bible study in that hall. Please remember them in your prayer. 12 people will be attending 3 times (2 hours each time) a week regularly. It is an OBS. Local Pastor now he is a very good and willing to lead this team.
“In the year 2010 we had training here and 8 leaders took the challenge to reach their groups through using STS method. Praise God for their dedication, all 8 were good in STS, 4 came to help in this training and they gave this report.
- 298 new souls came to the Lord through using God’s word in STS way.
- 76 water baptisms took place in the last 2 and ½ year through TGSP tools.
- 3 new House Churches has been planted in that area.
They need our prayers, big opposition is there in that area.” [Did I neglect to mention that that this is a non conversion state? It is against the law to “convert” anyone to Jesus. It is one year in jail for doing so.] Are lives really changing? Are believers multiplying and are teachers replicating themselves? You decide.
Africa. This multiplication is happening all over the world. This pastor’s wife graduated from an OBS last year. Now she has 296 stories and Bible passages in her memory (her ”Heart Pocket.”) She urges all people to attend an OBS because she has become a great counsellor at her church using STS.
Mentoring and Multiplication. Patrick, a young pastor in Kenya with a small church, came to an STS training. He loved this style of gleaning from the Bible and of ministering that way, so he learned everything and became an instructor. He trained all of his elders how to use stories to evangelize and disciple. His members grew in depth and the church grew in size. Then, from new converts, they have started a new church in another region. It now is exploding in size. “85% are new converts.”
Patrick is sometimes on the road 6 weeks at a time, leading workshops, planting more OBSs and training leaders. His church is his income. When asked, “Don’t your members resent you being gone so much?” he responded, “No. They see themselves as part of the ministry and they are supporting and sending me out to multiply.”
Patrick begins a weekly radio program in Kenya tomorrow. He will tell Bible stories and discuss them with a live audience and phone lines will be open so listeners can interact. Please pray for this outreach as the other countries doing radio are seeing powerful results. We just heard from one of leaders in the Philippines who weekly does two, two-hour radio programs. Each week, during the programs and afterwards, they receive 1,300 text messages and scores of phone calls. Pastors who listen in are reporting a change in their lives and the lives of their flocks. They are experiencing a reformation as they come back to the Bible as the basis for what they believe and teach.
Only The Gifted? But maybe just a few can learn large blocks of Scripture? Again, you decide. Check this story next story, Out of Babe's Mouth. (It’s on the STS home page, right side, DVDs. Feel free to send the link to friends.)
Out of Babe's Mouth: Jonah by 4 year old
Daniel is lively and silly like a four-year old should be. But as well, his family sees Daniel as having a spiritual nature that needs to be nurtured. Every evening Daniel's father reads a small portion of the Bible to him, and then father and son discuss it together.
Awhile back, Dad decided to ask Daniel to tell the story back to him, and what you see in this film is the result. The filming was done at an Advanced STS Training. This was the first time anyone outside of the four-year-old's family had heard Daniel tell the whole story. After Daniel finished telling this story, you will hear Grandma ask Daniel a few questions about the story. Of course, it is wonderful that this child is learning a complete Bible story, but one might wonder if this young child has any understanding of the meaning of the words he is saying. You decide for yourself.
Could other fathers and mothers and grandparents follow this example and seed into the lives of the precious little ones whom God entrusts to them? Of course, and some are doing that. May many more see the value of investing in the very young while their clay is soft.
You may notice that this 4-year old boy tells the complete story of chapters 1 and 2 from the book of Jonah - 27 verses!
Daniel's dad explained to us that that at first he had been reading to Daniel out of a Children's Bible. The dad said, “When I was young, the stories that had been read to me out of a Children's Bible impressed me and stuck in my mind. But I noticed that, at times, as an adult, I was confused, as my strongest memory was the content of those shortened, simplified stories that had been read to me. Sometimes, I still have to sort out and relearn information as the words from the children's version had been imprinted on my mind when I was young."
So this dad decided he really preferred to read to Daniel out of the full Bible. He stated, "I want Daniel to learn and remember the complete story so he will not be confused when he grows up, as happened to me. I go slowly and discuss the content and high level words that Daniel does not yet know. This way I am both educating our son in vocabulary and talking with him about spiritual truth from the Bible."
This was one dad's decision … but perhaps the reasons for this dad's decision parallel our reasons in STS for teaching villagers and the uneducated complete, unedited Bible stories?
The next photo shows a 2-year old watching and listening to this storyteller. This was the 3rd time that day she stopped her play to listen.
Oh, by the way, that the small storyteller in Out of Babe’s Mouth does more than tell his story in the safety of a Christian setting. On his own, in secular social gatherings, he has asked adults, ”Would you like to hear a story?” They always say yes and afterwards he may even ask them a question about the story. Is it just this child? No. There are others near to his age who do the same. Is learning Bible stories producing fruit? Is this something you can do? You decide.
God’s Story. How hard is it to use? Does it reach anyone? If a child can do it, can I?
Sunday, after church, a pretty little girl with long black hair strolled up to me and announced, "Remember me!" I didn't.
Still, my guess was that she was part of our church’s Christian school elementary that had heard my God's Story presentation the last week of school. So I smiled knowingly and said, "You were in the assembly where I told about God's Story, right?"
She grinned and then a valid, personal get-acquainted time began. Her name is “Maria”, a third grader, with an Anglo dad and, I think, a Filipino mom. We had asked the children to pray about who they could deliver the Gospel to using an audio version of God's Story. We gifted 157 children with the language of their choice in audio.
"Did God show you who to give your God's Story to?"
She said, "Yes, but he is giving it back." "Oh," I responded, but in an effort to encourage her (and myself, too, I suppose) I added, "Then you can give it to someone else and it can still touch someone’s life. She nodded in agreement.
"So," I probed, "Did the person you gave it to say anything about what he heard on the CD?"
“Yes,” Maria responded in a matter of fact tone. “And what did he say?” I asked.
“Oh, he said they all prayed the prayer at the end and asked Jesus to save them.”
Of course I bubbled over with excitement, much more excitement than she was showing. Perhaps she had naturally expected the outreach to bring fruit?
I have observed that when children (and even baby believers) give out God’s Word, they do so with great trust, and very often God graciously shows them His power. Whether it is because they act with fresh faith, or whether God knows that they need quick reinforcement, I am not certain. But I am reminded too that Jesus said in Matt 18:3 “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Full trust in God and His Word, the trust of a child. Can we do this? You decide.
I thank God for your prayers and support.
Dorothy A. Miller
