“Prime Minister or King of Kings?”
Prayer & Praise Report # 6, October-November 2018
Prime Minister or King of Kings?
An instructor recently wrote an email to me from an island nation in the Oceania region titled "You're gonna love this!"
The leader of one large denomination in the region had a meeting with the prime minister scheduled, but he did not want to miss the STS training. Our instructor wrote that, "Very politely he informed the pm [prime minister] that he would need to reschedule so he could come to the training."
Along with this amazing news, we learned that the many denominations in this region did not generally work together. However, the denominations who attended the STS training were now learning to work together, bonding because of the Word of God!
Drugs, Alcohol and Jesus?
A wonderful team of instructors was invited to do an STS training in a drug and alcohol rehab center in Mexico. The testimonies were super! One ex-addict said local pastors and missionaries come to share with them, and the man really does not understand what they are talking about. He thought maybe some of his brain cells had been damaged by drugs and alcohol.
The instructor wrote in her newsletter, "He was so surprised the Scriptures came alive to him during our dialogue looking for spiritual observations and that he remembered the whole story of the Transfiguration [Matt 17:1-9] when he learned it one night to share it with another small group. He could not believe that he could actually learn the Bible story and teach the story to others by asking questions."
The director of the rehab center said that this was the first time he saw the Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) men excited and involved in learning Scriptures. When he used to teach them before STS, he felt like he was talking to a wall.
One instructor will continue using STS with the A.A. group every week and looks to have the men take turns in presenting the story.
What can one do with God's Story?
A team traveled in Ghana for most of November presenting 13 languages of God's Story to various leaders and villages in what we call a "God's Story launching."
The leader of the team wrote recently, "We put a copy on a frontline evangelist smart phone and gave him a Bluetooth speaker. He got up at 4:30 am just to wave to us as we left the town. His excitement was joyful!
"With the JBL speaker he can play it 4 - 5 times, can recharge with phone charger, and move easily. If he had a Bluetooth projector can you imagine?"
This leader of the team, who is focused on finishing all the God's Story languages of Ghana (with only a handful of languages remaining), shared his excitement, "We have found 3 more of the languages we have been looking for. One is totally closed, non-written, unreached, completely M-zlim." He continued sharing that they also found the language of a large group that they did not even see listed in Ghana!
Dan Blowo launching in Cote D' Ivoire
Our leader recently returned to Cote D'Ivoire to launch the Dan Blowo language of God's Story. She wrote, "The meeting with the pastors went well. Most of those who received the DVDs are showing it to their churches and using them in the villages to reach more people. They are happy with the results they see, their church members, even themselves as church leaders, are impacted by the GS message, it has changed their way of preaching. They have the whole view of God's plan for people. That makes the Word easier to understand.
"They are asking for more, as they are passing it to the other churches who ask for it. All the churches represented asked for an STS workshop in February for all their churches and STS OBSs (Oral Bible Schools) in their region.
"They were 9 Church denominations represented at the meeting. At the end each leader received a Megavoice (solar audio player) for his community."
So much has been shared from this one leader, it could easily be a full Prayer & Praise report.
How to transform written curriculums for all non-literate learners?
For the past several months two STS instructors have tag-teamed to help an organization transform their written curriculum into a version that transcends all styles of learning. This means those who can't read or write can still learn from this life changing healing curriculum "Go In Peace", and even learn to teach it to others. Both ministries, STS and Go In Peace, benefitted from the years of experience our leaders gained while teaching STS on a global level.
The testing of this "oralized" curriculum occurred in Uganda recently with stellar results! Praise the Lord with us as you read these short testimonies.
One man said his dad was a pastor, but he could not be one because he did not qualify to get into school. The man said, "Now that I've learned this, I'm going to be a pastor and come to my father in heaven and tell him I am a pastor like he wanted."
Another young man, who had polio when young and could barely move around, said he never could understand the Bible. Now after a couple days in the STS workshop, he can understand the Bible and share with others. He wants to give his life to counseling others.
Another pastor, who has been a pastor for 20 years, plans to do stories and discussion every week because he sees the power of how this connects with people and helps the people fall in love with Jesus.
Amazingly, this training had STS instructors from Rwanda, Sudan, America, and the lead instructor from Kenya.
For more information or help making your specific curriculum into a version that transcends learning styles and allows for even non-literates to learn, please contact our office.
What are the Chances?
Eight God’s Story languages in production have made it to the recording step in October and November, which means they are nearing completion by God's grace! The countries that will be impacted are Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, a Middle East country, Uzbekistan and the Luyli people group in 4 Central Asian countries that has 0.00% professing Christians and profess Isl-m (we worked with two believers from this people group).
Right now this "special" language has been recorded and currently out to be checked. Please pray for good quality checking in this highly unreached people group. This has been one of the toughest languages to record in my experience!
The Uzbek language has also started to impact people "hot-off-the-press." Dan, who orchestrated the translation, and helped record this language, shared the video with an Uzbek man sitting next to him on the plane from Moscow to JFK (coincidence?). The man gave 2 thumbs up to Dan and showed his appreciation by giving Dan some naan (Uzbek bread). What an encouragement from the Lord!
Finally, we have need for part-time and full-time volunteers. Opportunities include the following: Web design and support, publishing, editing, accounting and record keeping, general office help, artwork and design, research and development, audio and video assistance. Wonderfully, some of the above help can be done remotely from the comfort of your home! If you would like to help, please contact our office for the next step.
We pray you and your family are encouraged by what the Lord is doing around the world. From our God’s Story / Simply The Story family to yours, Merry Christmas and an amazingly God led New Year.
Andrea
Executive Director
& the whole staff of The God's Story Project (TGSP)