First-hand Report: Simply The Story Oral Bible Schools Impacting Refugees

In our previous Prayer & Praise Report we shared about a small team of us traveling to the refugee camps in Northern Uganda. We have been receiving astounding reports for the past couple of years and saw the results firsthand. Dave (a mission's pastor), Dave’s friend, Abigail Miller, and I joined our leaders in the region.

We had an opportunity to talk with several Simply The Story Oral Bible School students. They know Scripture!! And, as James requests, they are doers of the Word, not just hearers only. Many of the Sudanese women identified with the story of Ruth, as they have lost their own husband and have found themselves in a strange land.  

Several women learned from Sarah, in Genesis 18, when she welcomed and cared for the visitors who came to reconfirm the birth of Isaac. The Sudanese women, as believers, saw themselves as needing to be welcoming and caring for visitors just like Sarah.

One lady reported that her sister-in-law killed her brother. The lady originally sought revenge, but as a result of studying the Bible at a Simply The Story Oral Bible School, she has come to forgive her sister-in-law.

A majority of the graduates from the Simply The Story Oral Bible Schools mentioned wanting to continue meeting together over the Word, even though they had graduated! (See this short video on youtube of one graduation at “STS Oral Bible School Graduates in Northern Uganda Refugee Camps” or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JAa-nMRLBI)

We commissioned a new group to travel to the Arua Refugee camps in the Northwest of Uganda and conduct Simply The Story training, as well as begin Simply The Story Oral Bible Schools. Amazingly, that work has already begun in Arua. We are praying with our leader about establishing a training center in Adjumani, which serves as a hub between multiple camps.

A pastor in the Morobi camp recently sent the following after showing God's Story.

"We had projected God's and Jesus story in many locations up ten sites. The response in every locations was very positive. A good number of people adding seriously to the churches …. Friday up to yesterday we projected up to mid- night and there were sixty five people who were saved….Need for workshops to create oral Bible schools within the areas where we have projected the stories."

Countries Come to Kenya for Comprehensive Leadership Training?

Abigail and I stopped in Kenya to meet several rising leaders in our ministry from 12 countries. Many of these leaders traveled at their own expense!! No words can express the joy we had in hearing their personal stories and watching them lead discussions in Bible stories.  Thank you to the Kenya and Ethiopia Simply The Story team for leading this training!

Children Growing!

India

Our leaders continue conducting Children Summer Simply The Story programs (CS-STS). In this 5-day program, the children, their families, and the leaders are blessed because they spend more time in God’s Word rather than in sports and other activities. Many children go to school learning to write and read. Along with those wonderful skills, our leaders teach the children how they can trust God’s Word. The children learn the Simply The Story process and often share their Bible stories with their family, friends, and neighbors.

On the last day, family members are invited to the dramas and activities to see what their child learned in 4 days. The results? More souls are coming to Christ using the Simply The Story method than before.

USA

Another church, that develops their own Vacation Bible School, has also integrated the Simply The Story methodology in 2018. Over the past year, the children's leader and another pastor from the church shared that several children were impacted and remembered the Scripture stories months later. In the Winter and Spring parents called about the 2019 dates so they can plan their summer around the VBS!

Another church recently shared how they integrated Simply The Story into their weekly children's program. One of the leaders said that in the past, kids very rarely shared any kind of application of the Bible in their own lives. Now, a number of hands reach for the sky when asked how they applied the previous week's Bible story in their lives.

The children also know the stories that were done 5 and 6 weeks earlier!  Many often tell the Bible stories in the car on the way home! Parents express their amazement at how much their children are learning.

Europe Expands!

Praise the Lord! Our first Czech-only Simply The Story workshop was completed in May. This means an all Czech instructor team led and taught other Czechs the Simply The Story process. Our instructor wrote, "I was “flying” home on a cloud…. They were all very excited about the training and the method."

Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos!

We were blessed to hear that our leaders in S.E. Asia conducted Simply The Story training along the border of Myanmar and Thailand. Shortly afterward they went to a monastery and shared the Truth of God's Word and prayed with one of the monks. We can't show those pictures for security, but it is wonderful to see this monk holding a solar audio player.

Another team of Thai trainers have been working along the Thai borders with Laos and Cambodia as well. The leader recently called asking for prayer. He said that there were 30 planned attendees, but 40 showed!  What a problem!! The team is already preparing to return and several people trained are learning to help lead.

Simply The Story for the Family and in the Board Room?

USA

Recently, a pastor friend shared about teaching a young leader in his church the Simply The Story process of preparing a story. This young man took his family to lunch and shared the Bible story he had recently learned. An hour and a half passed by and none of the family realized it. They were so engaged in the discussion of God's Word!

The next week, twice as many people came to see this young leader, so he shared another Bible story, the garden wedding of Adam and his wife in Genesis 2:18-25. One of the participants in the discussion observed that Adam talked about his wife's identity first (…bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…). The participant applied this to focusing on who a woman is in Christ first!

Recently, an incredible instructor shared his joy. He was honored to do a Bible story with the board of a large ministry in Africa. He reported, "It was so wonderful sharing the Bible story with the board members …. All the glory be to the Lord, they really love the story and were so engaged. They did not stop talking about it, They were moved about the story. Some of them were repeating the story with actions…. The couple I was talking with, the wife was not in the meeting when I shared the story and he made me share again with his wife. [Another man's] wife said it is so good by asking them question to discover things in the story themselves instead of preaching it to them. Another one said why Simply The Story is not taught [to all]?"

Prayer for God’s Story

Several countries have God's Story languages in progress and the teams need prayer. We discovered early in this ministry that the spiritual attacks come hard and fast for anyone working on languages. In one case several years ago, six languages were scheduled to record in different places around the world. Sadly, all six were canceled due to narrator issues!

We are training new recordists because our current recording specialists are overwhelmed! Praise the Lord.

God's Story languages in process.

Countries with 2 languages or more: Nigeria, Congo Brazza, Bhutan, Sudan, India

Countries with 1 language: Netherlands, Lesotho, Central Asia, Uganda

Some locations are unnamed due to security reasons.

Grateful to the Lord,

Andrea
Executive Director
& The whole staff of The God's Story Project (TGSP)