Reconciled to the Church

Earnest is a believer who was having problems with one of the leaders in the church. As a result, Earnest decided to leave the church. This resulted in him straying from the faith. Earnest tuned into the STS radio program in East Africa and listened to the story from Luke 15:11-32 about the prodigal son. The Holy Spirit used this story to transform Earnest and his entire family. They forgave the church leaders and returned to the fellowship.

Faith and Healing

In response to radio broadcasts of Bible stories presented using Simply The Story, people have been sharing how God is at work in their lives. 

A woman called Antionette testified that she had been using herbs for her protection. However, one day after a story presentation, she gave her life to Jesus and immediately threw away the herbs

A brother in the Lord whose name is Diego, after listening to our story presentation, called us for prayer. When Diego called, his legs were paralyzed, he was unable to move or stand up. I prayed for him on the phone. A week later Diego called and shared that he could move again and was up and active. He is now a regular listener of our radio program. 

Men Transformed by the Word

A Thai-born man who lives in the USA attended an STS workshop in the States. A week after his first workshop, he called the STS office. "Guess what?" he exclaimed, "I told a story Saturday at our men's Bible study. They loved it! When we discussed the questions, I stayed in the story, like we did in the workshop, and we learned more out of that one story than we ever knew was in there."

This Thai layman continued to use the STS method to teach his men’s Bible study class. Given time, his confidence grew to the point that he trained for the pastorate and was ordained for ministry. He now leads a church and uses the Simply The Story way of preparing and sharing scripture as the primary way of teaching. This now confident pastor leads mission trips back to his homeland, Thailand.

A Filipino workshop attendee testified the following:

“Before I was afraid to tell them, but now I have confidence because they are not listening to me they are listening to the story, so I am not worried about myself.”

Storytelling Transforms Outreach

“When I learnt STS, it helped me a lot in my ministry. Many times, I could not share God's Word to non-Christians because they never heard it and they didn't want to believe and didn't want to trust God.

“When I asked them if I could tell them a story they said yes and were very interested. They asked me to come back the next day and tell them another story. Then they said to me " ’I didn't know your God was like that, tell me more about Him’"

“I have led many to the Lord now through STS style Bible Stories and now I have a church and disciple them with the stories.”
Amos, a national missionary and pastor in a SE Asia country.

Immigrants, What an Opportunity!

It works, it really works what you taught us!!!!

“My new Chinese friend, Jill and I just had a 4 hour lunch. I am finding it very effective to do the story telling over food; people don’t run away or fall asleep and there is a natural break when they go for seconds. I asked Jill if she was willing to be my guinea pig because I wanted to tell her a story that I had learned last week in the workshop.

“So I did the prodigal son story, letting her repeat the story, then we went through the observation stage and then personal application. With questions like: Who am I in this story, and where am I going - away from the Father, still feeding the pigs, or on the search to find the way home to the Father. She said she is definitely searching for the Father.

“It was so awesome. I didn’t know how much Bible background she had so we did a quick review of the fall in God’s story. Then we prayed together and she prayed freely herself. I was so thankful that the Chinese restaurant was almost empty by the time we got to the prayer application.

“I am not sure if she understood everything but let me tell you it was so incredible, I cried when I saw her hungry heart and the deep questions she asked. She even said: let’s get back to the story. She said something like “I wonder what will happen to me when I go back to China as a Christian.”

“I realized, I need to learn more how to lead people in a culturally appropriate sinners prayer and of course I want to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit discerning the right timing not to be too pushy but also not to miss the moment.

Pray with me that God would reveal himself to her as she is watching the 80 minute God’s Story video in Chinese.

Until we meet again.
Love Marianne, USA

My Husband Prepared My Messages

See what you think of the impact of STS on spiritual fellowship in marriages.

After 5 days of training in an all ladies workshop in Cote d’Ivorie, one woman announced, "I used to ask my husband to prepare my messages for me to go and share with the women fellowship. Now I can have my own messages with this Bible stories STS way."

Another woman said, "I have been trained 3 years in a Bible school, and I am training the women in a Bible school where my husband is the Director. The first day of the workshop, I went home and my husband asked me what we've learnt, so I told him Martha and Mary story. He was amazed at the number of treasures this story contains. And he said ‘This STS method might be a good tool as I just discovered in a story I know well many things I’ve never seen before.’ He said that even with all his diplomas got at Bible school. Please come and help us better teach all the women coming in our Bible school. Tell us the conditions to have you come."    

“Many of these ladies were illiterate and testify that STS has removed their shame. Now they gain confidence to stand before people to share Bible stories and have nice discussion time without shame of not being able to read.”