God’s Power!

God’s Power! 

Praise & Prayer Report #5, August-September 2023

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STS Oral Bible Schools Continue Strong 

Several years ago, I sat with ministry leaders in Ethiopia who shared their desire to raise Bible study leaders strong in the Word of God.  Sending people to seminary of regular Bible schools was too costly and nowhere near their location. They thanked the leaders of Simply The Story in Ethiopia for bringing to them the solution of our STS Oral Bible Schools. Since then, many people have been part of these OBSs throughout Ethiopia. The results have been churches planted, church leaders raised and strong growth in the Lord.   

What do amazing flannel graphs, STS and Oral Bible Schools have in common? 

All are working together to help people in Mexico grow in the Lord and reach the lost. After attending an STS training in Mexico, 50 people signed up and attended the inaugural STS Oral Bible School for Latin America. These students commit to learn 296 Bible stories and to share the Bible passages with people in their local area. The deep discussions they have in the OBS allow the students glean tremendous observations and application for their lives. 

The BDMI flannel graphs are also proving to be a wonderful combination with Simply The Story and are being used in Mexico, India VBS, and Africa. The flannels draw people's attention and the STS Bible discussions reach the heart. All ages love this combination. 

Cost Effective OBSs and Needs

Our Oral Bible Schools remain highly cost effective due to the unique design. Our greatest expense tends to be the graduation because we love providing solar powered Megavoices with God’s Story, audio Bibles if available, microSDs and other tools to graduating students, depending on the region.  

Recently, one leader shared that in Northern Kenya, the Turkana people are starving due to drought. They are nomadic and there are no wells for their herds, and thus the cattle are dying and food has become scarce. When our leader reached out to 3 organizations that dig wells, they refused to help because he did not have the funds and was not a western organization.  

Despite these issues, many Turkana continue to attend our OBSs. We have chosen to help feed them 3 meals a week. This is only a fraction of the need.

Please pray for an organization that can dig the wells needed in this region and for the resources given to the OBS graduates. 

STS Seeps into the Catholic Church

Earlier this year, we did a few trainings in one of the largest countries of Africa. Several of those attending with a Catholic background wanted to tell the priests about our tools, but the instructor encouraged them not to do that. Instead, they started to simply tell the Bible stories and discuss them. Now the instructors are receiving reports how the people are spending time in Bible stories rather than reciting prayers to Mary. Many are accepting Christ as well. 

A Mind Blowing Testimony

Recently one of our leaders emailed me with a testimony that is both mind blowing how God changes hearts, and gruesome before people submit to the Lord. It comes as a result of one God’s Story premier. Some details changed or left out for security reasons.

An assistant pastor received God's Story during the premier of his language. In one of the villages where this church leader works, a lady who used to come to church asked to borrow his microSD card so that she could watch it closely at home, alone.  

A few days later she came to the assistant pastor and shared something strange. She admitted to being a prostitute and practicing magic. She also confessed to having other gruesome practices. 
She told the pastor that every man who comes and touches her bed has to give her all the money he has. Even the villagers testified how people with cars visited this lady. She asked the assistant pastor to go with her and to help solve these other gruesome practices. She wanted to be set free from this situation forever.  

The pastor was very scared. After praying all day with the lady, the next morning they went to resolve the gruesome practices. 

What a testimony to the power of our Lord and His Word bringing this woman to Himself. 

God’s Story Recordings and Premiers: Transformative 

Our leaders work hard to finish God’s Story languages and then set up the language premiers. 

Our leaders continue to share how several translators and narrators are transformed while translating and recording God’s Story languages. Our teams spend time in the Word with these precious servants, and that time impacts their hearts. These deep Bible discussions have been called, “Powerful.” 

Our teams also coordinate with  several denominations to dedicate and gift the church leaders and church goers with a limited supply of DVDs, CDs, solar audio players, and microSD cards, all depending on the location where the language is most commonly spoken. Our leaders challenge the churches to organize themselves to reach every corner and village where their language is spoken with these precious gifted tools. 

People are asking for more. 

In one language group, the militias terrorize people and challenge the government. The leader of this militia group is considered a representative of God in the area. No church wants to evangelize in these places because they are hostile to the Word of God and for security reasons. After the premier of God’s Story in this region, the leader of this militia group and some of his close leaders were informed about the movie and they wanted a solar audio player.  

The leader sent his people to the representative Pastor, who was the narrator and who was also an STS Assistant Instructor, to get God’s Story materials and to use the opportunity to organize a STS workshop. The STS / God’s Story team wrote, "We also need your prayers because we will be in front of rebels." They plan to train the rebels in STS when they return. 

Like the rest of the world, our money does not buy as much due to inflation.  God’s Story premiers, Oral Bible School graduations, trainings, and all the tools God provides are laying a strong foundation for who Jesus is and why He came. People are understanding the Truth and receiving Christ. Pray with us for the provision needed to continue to provide these resources. 

Heart Pocket Podcast 

October and November podcasts include an interview with David Witt, CEO of Spirit of Martyrdom, who uses God’s Story and the foundations of STS in their ministry. We also have an interview with Dan and me regarding the rebranding and website along with plans for the future.  Listen to more podcasts at www.HeartPocket.org. 

We continue to add more God’s Story languages to our website for people to watch and to our Youtube station. Share these links with others.  Thank you for your prayers,  Andrea & The whole staff of STS & The God's Story Project (TGSP) 
Executive Director