One Year New
Prayer & Praise Report # 5, October-November 2015
Dear Friend of God’s Story,
What are some ways Gods Story: From Creation to Eternity affects people in different parts of the world?
God’s Story: From Creation to Eternity continues to lay a solid foundation for people to learn and trust Jesus as their Savior. One user of God’s Story emailed, “We receive good reports from the field. People are very interested to listen, as this is in their own language and it is easy for them to understand. Some people have started to cry of joy as they have seen GS in [their location], Asia
It is amazing to see how the Word of God brings good fruits, despite all the problems they face as a ethnic group, exposed to genocide, and the few believers experience very much persecution for their faith in Jesus. Right now two of our main contacts are in prison for their faith, but even there they spread the Good News.”
Not only does God’s Story reach the remote ethnic groups in Asia, it also reaches the Europeans.
A leader from the Netherlands states, “The summer camp was great! We had 55 children; the 37 older ones (between 10-15 years) with their leaders watched GS. Especially the last part had a lot of impact on the teenagers in my group, they had lots of questions what would happen on Judgment Day, even before I had to answer, they got the answers from GS. Some of them renewed their faith in the Lord and did pray the prayer, told me later they had peace in their heart!”
Multiple languages and copies of God’s Story on Megavoices are now in the hands of several refugees. We thank the Lord for the many refugees in Hungary who have submitted to Jesus as Lord. Working with the churches, we desire to reach the refugees before they settle in Europe. The power of God changes hearts, and God’s Story has proven highly effective in Farsi and Arabic.
Can Children and Youth Go Deep in God’s Word and Lead Bible Discussions?
People often ask our instructors, “Does STS work with children?” Absolutely, and in several ways! Children learn the STS process sometimes faster than adults.
The father of this 3-year old sent me this photo (to the right). His son loves telling Bible stories, especially the “Blind Bartimaeus” story (Mark 10:46-52). His father, who lives in West Africa, was trained by Dorothy Miller and was even taught how to do great actions and expressions. When the boy started to share the story with his own friends, he stopped and asked for his dad’s glasses. Why? He wants to be just like his dad when telling stories, including the actions!
One 16-year old lady was warned by the instructor that God normally has something special for the people in their first story they present in a training. This young lady told the “Bent Woman” story (Luke 13:10-17). That night, the girl couldn’t sleep and started applying the “Wise Counselor” questions we teach to the “Bent Woman” story.
The next day she shared with our instructor a couple of questions. “This woman chose to come to Jesus and he released her from her infirmities. (‘Yes,’ the instructor said.) Then Jesus put his hands on the bent woman and she stood straight and glorified God. (Again, the instructor agreed.) Do you think this woman cared about what the others thought? The last few months at church I’ve wanted to raise my hands and worship God, but kept wondering what people would think.” This young lady saw herself as the bent woman bound by what she thought others might think.
One mother wrote about telling Bible stories at their Vacation Bible School. “The kids were glued to my every word... Even the questions! I did the 15-minute model, but still, thirteen of the around 30 to 40 kids prayed at the altar after the ‘fall in the garden’ story!”
We thank the Lord to be able to include children in our training. One mother shared with me that we’re the most child friendly conference she has ever attended.
Since our last Prayer & Praise report, there has been both regular and advanced workshops in South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Australia, India, Thailand, unnamed places in Asia, Singapore, Turkey, USA, with a Korean group, and an STS Oral Bible School graduation.
Bible Storytelling, could this lead to better evangelism?
An attendee at a recent Australian STS training commented, “These days I have been thinking, 'What can we do for evangelism?' because if we come up to people we want to talk about God, and people would usually shut down straight away. However, with storytelling, It will attract people and will be powerful to reach people. With other ways people shut down, but with this there are open doors.”
Another New Zealander at the same training shared about STS, “Similarly I have been thinking about evangelism and I have been thinking about if we want people to come into a relationship with God and not into a new set of rules, but an encounter with the Person of Jesus and the Father. And so I have been thinking about how I can introduce them to God and to encounter Him and I think that this is really an incredible way, through story, to really show people what He is like and not just tell people His system of rules.”
Church Planting with STS, really?
One group using STS in evangelism, recently sent an update that included a picture of the church (to the right). “Despite the physical hunger lingering throughout South Sudan, the pastors reported there is also a hunger for God’s word. This is so exciting to us as this village has resisted the gospel in the past. After we planted a church there in 2012 many abandoned their traditional beliefs, stopped going to the witchdoctor and started to follow Christ . . .God’s word is bringing change and transforming lives. God is healing the sick through prayer and bringing peace to this village. Earlier in the year the clan fighting was so bad and brought many casualties upon families. The church responded in prayer and the Lord gave peace to their land. More and more ‘God stories’ are being told and passed around.”
STS Oral Bible Schools - Could they help change lives?
Many reports come to our office about STS Oral Bible School students being changed, including miracles of the heart being changed and miracles of the body being healed.
Recently, the leader of the first STS Oral Bible School in the USA reports that a woman, who attends the school, suffered a stroke two years ago and could not use her right hand. After listening to the “Eutychus” story and what Paul did to raise him from the dead (Acts 20:7-12), her husband noticed that the woman picked up a pen for the first time since the stroke and started taking notes!
Ethiopia has 19 STS Oral Bible Schools with 8 more pending. Please look for an amazing report from Ethiopia on our website later this month. The report will be under “What’s New” to the right on our home page. The report shows several ages working together, along with the educated and uneducated going deep into God’s Word as a group.
The Philippines have 5 OBSs in special areas. Continue to pray for the students of these schools and the others around the world.
Could God’s Stories Affect One’s Memory?
One mother wrote recently about her teenage son who suffered a brain injury in a car accident, “Just want you to know that STS is helping him a lot. His biggest cognitive issues (memory, sequencing and relationships as tested by analogies) are all addressed through remembering the stories in sequence and thinking through the wise counselor questions. He told me the first
time he heard [an instructor] tell a story that he knew it would help him, which is why he was fine to give up camp to go to Hemet as my birthday and Mother's Day gifts. :)”
Flooding in Myanmar
Update from our leader in Myanmar about the flooding which has affected 12 of the 14 provinces, displaced 385,000 households, killed 20,000 cattle and destroyed about 1 million acres of crops. Our leader there has been distributing food, clothes, supplies and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even sharing the Word from a boat! Thank you to all who prayed and contributed to this country in an incredible time of need.
More Blessings From Around the World
We praise the Lord for 3 new languages of God’s Story from West Africa and Asia that have been completed since our last Prayer & Praise report.
In the Netherlands a woman who told the Martha-Mary story to approximately 75 people shares, “had a good participating front row with the smallest children, …25 minutes total, which is a long time for these type of children (!). And people during the week kept referring back to the story . . . the children loved it. As one of my teenagers, it was her 2nd or 3rd camp, said, ‘this speaks more to me than last year.’”
In West Africa, we praise the Lord for the many advanced and regular workshops the past several months. Our leaders are planting deep so that many can take the Word of God to their ministries, their communities, and their countries.
One leader from West Africa reports, “All the Guinée women testify the effectiveness of STS compare to the others methods of sharing the word of God they were using before. They are using stories and the wise counselor in their everyday life. One woman said, ‘now I can lead and solve problems at my work place.’
How does a small Korean church say “Thank You” to one of their STS trainers? By encouraging their people to give what they can week by week. This little Pig was filled with $56.56 of "Thanks."
Thank you everyone for your prayers and for standing with us around the world.
Andrea and the Staff The God’s Story Project