Does God Love the Bajao?
Praise & Prayer Report #1, January 2009
Dear Friends of God’s Story,
This wrap up of 2008 shows how The God’s Story Project experienced its most extraordinary year yet. By God’s Grace, in 2008, we produced 44 new languages of God's Story, the most ever in one year. Also, over 12,000 solar-powered audio players went into 80 different nations with God's Story AND we distributed masters for 55 language versions for use in unlimited duplication and distribution.
A plank sidewalk suspended over floating garbage takes you to a bamboo home.
See last page, “Does God Love the Bajao?”
Myanmar: “I have given the GS VCD, Evangelist Backpack, Mega Voice to Pastor who in village place. When I play for him, he was about to cry by hearing the God's Story. Now he is using this tools. Many people mind were trouble that Why it was happened? [Cyclone] Remember to those people that when they see and hear the God's Story, let them realize that Jesus Christ is the only Creator and Savior and Lord.”
Please pray for those who receive GS and who are being in STS to tell the Bible stories. We currently have STS workshops running or scheduled for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Cambodia, Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Peru, 25 countries in Africa, unnamed regions in Asia and other places wise not to mention.
See the amazing explosion account of God’s Story and Simply The Story in Africa 2005-2008. Go to the link “Explosion in Africa” on the STS home page. We add new reports, workshop dates and samples of STS to www.SimplyTheStory.com as quickly as we are able.
We ask for prayer that the Lord would send two added staff people for Hemet headquarters. Computer skills are needed and a desire to work in the epicenter of a spiritual whirlwind that is touching down in enemy territory.
Reports on God’s Story:
Unnamed Country: “They showed the DVD in the work camp that houses women who are HIV positive - mostly former prostitutes and drug users/dealers. Because the government cares so little about them, they have freedom to do things there that they wouldn't have in the prisons that house political prisoners, etc. On their first showing of it several of the women accepted Christ and they begged them to come back as often as possible to show it to them again.”
Myanmar: “I got a report that on 15 Nov showed the GS in TV to 32 people. And the next day followed up Bible teaching. After that 2 person accepted and on 20 Nov. GS show again with previous people and other also including there were 63 people watch the GS and followed up the Bible teaching 30 people accepted and 6 people were baptized on 22 Nov. God is Stirring in the heart of the people here slowly. Need more prayer support.
Reports on Simply The Story:: Upcoming workshops in USA. Hemet March 23rd- 27th 2009 and St. Paul-Minneapolis Sept 14th-18th. For information email
The Hemet workshop is shaping up to be a blockbuster! Lots of very interesting folks are signing up for training. It seems that God gives us strategy on a need-to-know basis. As of yesterday, He impressed upon us to tap into the millions of other-than-English mother-tongue speakers in the USA. "Purposely train these multi-language speakers so they can train people in their ethnic circles and home lands.”
Workshops done in people’s mother tongue are the most effective. We see on our radar screen right now, ten ethnic groups that may attend. Instructions from the Lord only came yesterday!
Tibet: “I talked to Bro. L briefly the other day and he said that they really enjoyed the training. From what I hear they are all pretty excited about it with the other guy, Bro. Z saying something to the effect that, it is really great because we can share the gospel without doing anything that
they can get us in trouble for! No handing them a bread, or other literature and if authorities come around we are just telling stories! PTL!"
North East India: “Hi Special people, We have a great training and i would like to give you a brief news and rejoice with us as this training is God's answer to our struggle in the fields.
As we have planted 278 house churches in North East India, we were all struggling with the question: How are we going to effectively communicate the gospel and disciple the non literates.
“83 people attended this training, altogether 13 people groups attended, namely the Adivasi, Chakma,Mising,Assamese,Nepali,Boro,Tutsa,Tangsa,Ao,Poumai,Burmese,Hajong and Mog. We had our first believer from the Hajong tribe who was lead to the Lord by a 6 month believer from the Chakma tribe. He is excited to Simply Tell the Story to reach out his people group.
“It was God’s answer to many of our non-literate church planters and their disciples who were struggling with discipleship and how to approach their believers who were mostly illiterates.
This Discipleship method is a reproducible/transferable. It is a proven method and I thank God that this training was available to us here in North East India.”.
Bhutan: This country is officially Buddhist. If you become a Christian you lose all rights such as you cannot go to school or hold a job or drink from the village well. Often you are put in prison. Instructors from India, Bhutan and Nepal just trained 30 of these leaders and pastors who meet secretly in Bhutan. One wrote back a few weeks later....
“I really thank you and the team of STS which gave a golden chance to attend the STS training. In fact, we were in need of that sort of tool (STS) to reach our people. I got confidence that I can reach unreached people with good news of Lord by the STS tool. I was praying for this sort of training. I find that it is very effective not only to the unreached people but to the congregations too.” [Note: He lives with threat of persecution but he focuses on the needs of others!]
USA: [After attending workshop] “By the way, as you know, in preparation for each story God blesses me with SO many insights that I never noticed before when just reading through a story once in the Bible. I can truly say that I know what it means to ‘Meditate on God's Word.’”
USA: [After a workshop this testimony came from a Wycliffe translator.] “My new Chinese friend, Jill and I just had a 4 hour lunch. I am finding it very effective to do the storying 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...
“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.’”
USA: [After STS “sermon” in church service] “Thank you for another great Bible study. I have heard the story of Jonah since I was a child, have read the book many times, and have even studied the book of Jonah. Amazingly I was never before struck by the significance of God working through Jonah even while Jonah was rebelling and willfully disobeying Him. In that miserable condition, God still used Jonah to bring a whole boat-load of heathens to repentance.”
Philippines - Mindanao: [Results after STS workshop] “We have 4 outreach groups from the 12 leaders, and they have at least 6 places that they go to. We also trained 12 of our youth and they are joining in the different groups to help out. In one of the groups which is in a very remote area (they travel by motorbike and then by horse) the youth are teaching the children while the adults are telling the story to adults. There are no churches in that area at all, and the people love it there!!
“In one of our other groups, they went to a house of a retired teacher who was bedridden. He couldn't talk but listened to the leaders. The leaders asked the teacher if he would like to receive Jesus as his savior, and the man nodded. So they lead the man to Christ. After that, they started singing to the man, and the man started singing with them!! The neighbors could hear the man outside of his house and the hairs on their arms were standing up!! They all witnessed a miracle!! Praise God!! That man was not able to talk for a very long time!!”
Philippines - Manila: “STS is being used all around the country. Your team's work has certainly paid off. It has been like a revival for some of us. Just using the STS methods for meditation on scripture has been a tremendous blessing and like a revival for many of us. I don't say this lightly. I have heard from Filipinos as well as international missionaries saying how God has used STS to reveal things to them and to those they teach. I have kept in contact with a number of the people from each of the cities where you trained. I ran into a couple of our co-workers whom you trained in Davao and they were so excited to tell how they had been able to use STS with 'neighbors' successfully, not to mention in their own personal Bible study.
“Tribal people from Palawan (the three men who came to the Manila training) completely caught
the methods and took it back to their remote area. City people are also using it in some of our more progressive churches.”
Personal Highlight: The impact reports coming to us from the STS workshops worldwide increase daily. Our USA instructors led 21 workshops, 18 overseas. Our national instructors led hundreds of approved workshops and hundreds more unofficial trainings took place. Scores of amazing experiences fill my heart from this last year of workshops.
This one stands out........
God Loves The Bajao
While in the Philippines our team traveled to visit the Bajao people. People treat these “Sea Gypsies as untouchables. The Bajao cannot attend school, nor are they even allowed to go into stores. For seven years our host couple has been giving medical help to the people and schooling for the children. Through the Bajao pastor, regular humanitarian aid has also been given. Our host shared how odd it was that the pastor, although friendly and appreciative of the help, kept waylaying the training and assistance. Prayer and counseling hadn’t fixed the situation.
We traveled to the Bajao settlement. The people live in tiny bamboo houses built over a bay that is filled with raw sewage! I mean filled; you can’t even see the water for the trash floating in it. To go into this settlement, and to get to the homes to visit the people, we walked on narrow wood planks suspended over the water, planks that serve as "sidewalks." In the homes our foreign team (very much larger sized people than the Bajao) had to be careful to not stand too close together as you could feel the floors starting to give way.
Wonderful loving people are the Bajao, who melt when touched. We entered a large room that serves as their church. Since scores of shirtless children and plainly dressed adults had followed us into the church, I asked if I could tell a story. The Blind Bartimaeus story captured the attention of the about 75 people of all ages, half maybe being small children. The Bajao children excitedly responded to the story as children worldwide do. The adults looked on as their dusty children waved their hands to answer the questions.
As we moved toward the door we hugged and prayed for smiling people. Our host stayed behind to talk with the pastor who had been watching the whole time. Through tears he shared that he was illiterate, so had trouble teaching Bible to his people. “But the story like this I can do.” The host then realized that this simple pastor felt threatened by seeing the children leaning to read. He was afraid to lose his leadership.
Now 3 months after that visit, we hear that the Bajao are thriving on “story,” and their pastor is finally secure in his leadership role.
How many pastors and Christians across the world cannot read, but who by STS could now be empowered, just as was this Bajao pastor?
Please pray for all in TGSP leadership and training positions us to listen well to God’s leading and to protect us as we try to deliver His Word in God’s Story and STS.
In His grace, Dorothy A. Miller