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

Long Haul, Worth the Trip

Praise & Prayer Report #4, June-July 2023

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Prayer & Praise Report # 4, June & July 2023

Long Haul, Worth the Trip

Many of us experience various projects throughout our life. Some projects are quick and others feel like an everlasting gobstopper. Several years back we set out to redo our websites and to combine God’s Story and Simply The Story under one banner. These tools work so well together, we felt they needed to be easy to find on one website.

The initial prototype presented to us by the web developers looked and felt very much like a western church with worshiper on the banner. This did not fit who God called us to be and it started a very long path to get a site that worked for our needs.  We spent time praying and testing the rebranding of our ministry, went through Covid shortly after we started the new website, experienced other serious delays, and had several tests and bug fixes.  At the same time that our website was being developed, our shopping cart also received some much needed upgrades.

All this to say, our long haul project is done and our website is now live for everyone to enjoy. We encourage you to watch Gods Story, learn about our oral Bible schools, experience the ease of ordering MegaVoice solar players, and so much more on the site. We plan to make all of our God’s Story languages available on our website, but this is a much longer process as about half our languages need to be upgraded before they are put on the site. Please be praying for this next step as we slowly roll out more and more languages.

Thank you everyone for your patience and your prayers during this time and for this project. Thank you to the kind donor who saw the value and vision and need for our new website. Thank you to everyone who helped test the site, work on the content and to our developers!

Why all the expense and sacrifice?

Our language workshops and launchings continue this month in Congo Brazzaville. Six languages are being recorded and several other completed languages are being premiered. Below are a couple of testimonies from this workshop.

Our leader wrote recently, "One of the narrators was prayed for this morning. He has been a drunkard for long time, but after a week in the Camp (working on God's Story), he said 'I must confess that I have been inflated so much, not with the food, but with the word of God. I know I am not the same anymore. My family will be surprised about the sudden change.' He was welcomed like the prodigal son back into the house."

Another post on Whatsapp shared the following, "We are very grateful to the God's Story project, we are full of testimonies from more than 50 churches planted through the God's story film.

"I asked myself a lot of questions, namely: why all this expense and sacrifice? But I now understand it was worth it. We won the whole bun village, because the village chief himself agreed to follow Jesus."

This man sums up the reason why our volunteers put their hands to the plow and don't look back. We know God is bringing thousands to Himself and we get to be part of this harvest.

Around the World in Brief

Our oral Bible schools throughout the refugee camps continue to multiply in ways and numbers we could never have imagined. The leaders are continuing to raise more leaders, and people are changed when they spend time in God‘s word together. They continue almost every evening showing God’s Story in different languages. The radio teams share Bible stories weekly in 6 different programs and languages.

India continues with many workshops and Oral Bible Schools. Our STS family in Manipur struggles to survive with all the fighting and destruction of homes. Pray for the people who have fled to the forest to avoid death.A team of STS storytellers returned from Turkey helping the earthquake victims. STS storytellers were specifically asked to come help and God worked in amazing ways.

The STS instructor teams in Europe recently finished training people in Ireland, Finland and a joint Czech-Slovak workshop.

Pray for the instructors, God’s Story teams, and Oral Bible School students as they carry God’s Word to their regions.

Thank you all for your prayers,

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

Executive Director

Lives Changed

Praise & Prayer Report #3, April-May 2023

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Giving Hope at the Hope Center!

An instructor and pastor with Mercy Ships, trained in Simply The Story sent us a video from their Hope Center. The video showed one of the day crew telling the Bent Woman story with translation in to the languages Pular, Wolof and Madinka. Praise God for the many who are being impacted by the Truth and receiving the Hope.

STS Radio Impact and Praises

One of our leaders in the Arab world recently shared the following testimonies as a result of people listening to STS Bible stories on the radio in East Africa. (Names and locations changed for security reasons.)

"A woman called "Nes" testified she had been using herbs for her protection, but one day after the story presentation she has given her life to Jesus and thrown away the herbs.

"A brother called "Nick" also got healing from paralyzed legs and he has been down no movement. After hearing our story presentation he called for prayer and I prayed for him. The following week he gave testimony he can move and up to now he is following our radio program very closely."

"'Zooran' ran away from her husband after a misunderstanding, but she has been reconciled to her husband after forgiving the husband. The husband called me after radio program and he told me all the story of how his wife go to their home. I called the wife and counseled them, now they’re together in marriage."

A man had problems with one of the church leaders and decided to leave the church and backslid. After hearing stories from Luke 15:11-32 about the prodigal son, our leader shared, "He and his all family are transformed, forgave the leaders in church and now he is in church."

South Sudan and East Africa Grows in the Lord

One STS instructor, who was sent to remote area in Southeast of South Sudan said, "40 people accepted Christ and we baptized. 26 who joined church." He told story of Elijah on Mt. Carmel and even a witch doctor gave his life to Christ!

Another instructor from a recent training sent us amazing pictures and gave us an update.They had a total 31 people in the training. The lead instructor along with 3 other provisional Instructors being raised conducted a successful workshop. All the attendees were able to participate.

The people expressed their gratitude and desire to learn more. Many even asked for a longer workshop than 6 days!

The lead instructor commented, "Those who cannot read testified that they can now do effective ministry through this training." He also thanked us for the prayers.

Pray for the Oral Bible Schools to be setup in this region.

PRAY for Cameroon

Over 40 communities have been trained in Simply The Story and can't wait for the next opportunity with STS. The Cameroon team is actively preparing the next session. Pray for the team members to have clear vision and be able to work together for the glory of the Lord.

Oral Bible School, Encouragement and Prayers In Kenya, the leaders do Bible study together weekly on Whatsapp. It has been wonderful to see them grow in their understanding of our Lord. Many actively participate in reaching communities showing videos, like God's Story, conducting STS training, doing in-depth STS Bible discussion on radio in several languages, and overseeing Oral Bible Schools.

Some South Sudanese beat one outreach team, a Turkana woman and two Turkana men. Please pray for these teams as they reach into some very dark areas bringing the light of Jesus Christ. Many are committed to continue the Oral Bible Schools in spite of the dangers. We have seen this in several parts of North and South Sudan.

The teams are praying for projectors and memory cards for the Turkana as well. They go to many villages. As one leader mentions, "They are in need of such nourishment since most people are eager and love seeing God’s Story film."

The pictures show several people among the Turkana in one of many Oral Bible Schools committed to learning Scripture. The people are encouraged! The leaders ask us to continue praying for the growth of this class. On this specific day there were 33 participants.

In another STS Oral Bible School, they thanked God for his protection and for finishing the Old Testament passages. They are now in the third story in Matthew. Again, they ask for prayers!

Mali Open to the Jesus

The STS team left Bamako at 6 am to drive 450 km on bad roads and arrived safely because of God's mercy. They raised assistant instructors in country who will soon lead their

own trainings and oversee Oral Bible Schools. The lead instructor wrote, "It went well people were blessed."

One of the STS workshop attendees said he is glad to share Bible stories with people and see them listen and even volunteer to retell the stories.

New Trials For New Believers

Recently one of our leaders in Mexico shared that one of the people who became a believer in their STS Bible study was admitted to the hospital with intense bleeding and blood in the lungs. Oxygen levels dropped to 70% and his situation looked dire. As well, the hospital would not allow visitors.

Miraculously, the Lord brought strength and healing to this young believer. He and his wife said, "Everything that happened to us was for us to mature in our faith." Our leader wrote, "A year and a

half of stories and they're growing in their faith. How exciting!"

As a result of the love of those in the Bible study group, now their son wants to know more of Jesus.

Thank you all for your prayers and love for the nations.

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

Ann Lives!

Prayer & Praise Report # 2 February and March 2023

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What to do with Flight Delays?

Travel disruptions can be annoying. Imagine being denied a visa upon landing in a foreign country and being stuck in the airport for several days. It happened to one of our team members traveling to record God's Story languages in East Africa. He was denied entry because he is Nigerian. He spent several days in the airport while our leader worked in vain to get him entry. Our leader wrote, "And for the days he stayed on the airport, he was witnessing and 7 souls gave their lives to the Lord." Praise the Lord for such fruit!

How Does Simply The Story Impact Israel Tours?

Many years ago, 10 of our STS leaders were blessed with a tour of Israel. During that tour, we did a couple of stories where we believe they happened and discovered the impact on the listeners. We have experimented a bit more over the years while various instructors have been in Israel. This last time, STS coordinated and led a tour, but with greater involvement by the people on the tour, and 100% of the people said they loved STS as part of the tour and would definitely be interested in attending another tour with STS discussion opportunities as the main focus.

Pray for us as we begin to prepare for a unique advanced training in Israel.

Amazingly, God also provided funds that were specifically marked for the Israel tour so that 8 of our national leaders were able to go. Having multiple countries represented on the tour enhanced the discussions of the Bible greatly!

Ann Kavuo’s Testimony Lives On

“Ann Kavuo was not permitted to get an education, but soon discovered how she can learn, keep and share the Bible in story form building a repository in her "heart pocket".  In her video she shares a well-known Bible story (which she can tell but not read!),” wrote Bryan Thompson on his Youtube station.

He continued, “When this plucky five-foot, 65 year-old widow could not get a ride to her Oral Bible School, she walked 10 kilometers daily to get there. Oddly, in her filmed testimony, she says that now, when she goes preaching, she does not have to carry her Bible because, "I have the stories in my heart pocket!"

“If Ann cannot read, why did she bother to carry her Bible before? (You who have been to STS workshops heard our instructors explain this oddity. We show and tell how non-literate people often carry Bibles and put pens in their pockets so they look "educated" and can gain credibility). Ann's comment may reveal even more. Could it be that her perceived "need" to carry a Bible to give her credibility has now been replaced by her new found ability to easily speak multiple stories from her heart pocket?

“Ann's boldness to speak in front of any one, should inspire many. In fact, consider the boldness it took for this non-literate villager to give her spontaneous testimony in front of 130 people, Westerners included, and mostly strangers to her—while being filmed!”

Bryan Thompson uploaded the video of Ann Kavuo’s testimony from a 2011 training in Kajiato, Kenya. The video link shows Ann's amazing testimony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFLhbQPTljk or you can see the story on our vimeo station, https://vimeo.com/bibleforall.

We often don't know how our actions affect people years later, but recently we received this email from Ann’s daughter. “Praise God. My name is Everlyn Kanini from Eldoret, Kenya. On 22 April 2011 you took a video of an elderly woman, Ann Kavuo from Kinango, Mombasa and you put the video on you tube. She was giving a testimony on how the Oral Bible school had helped her, and she even gave a short story of Zacheuas the tax collector from the Bible. That lady Ann Kavuo is my Mother. I just want to say how grateful I am for putting my mothers testimony on you tube, I watch her video on you tube quite often. I just wanted to say thank you. My mother is late now. She passed on June 2015. But because of you, her testimony lives. Thanks and God bless you.”

Simply The Story Globally

We had several STS trainings over the past couple of months and look forward to sharing more in our next Prayer & Praise report.  Enjoy this picture of a recent training in Brazil, which has opened some bigger doors. Pray for our leadership team as they discuss future possibilities with several groups in South America.

Also, please pray for the upcoming STS trainings in the DRC, California, Western Michigan, Thailand, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Illinois, Zambia, India, Philippines, and Mali.

God’s Story, YouTube, and Festivals!

Praise the Lord. The God's Story language of Lun Bawang (Lundayeh) that we recorded last October and uploaded in early March, has had more than 330 hits on our YouTube station already. The language is spoken on the island of Borneo in the countries of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. Considered a language of the Murut people group, according to the Joshua Project, “Brunei statistics reveal that the Murut community is 58% Muslim, 30% "tribal religionists" (animists) and the rest Christian (mostly nominal).”

The language orchestrator wrote recently, “The Malaysian committee members have asked to show the movie at a special Lun Bawang festival in June. The president of the state‘s Lun Bawang Association agreed to show 40 minutes at festival.” Praise God, the committee asked for 30 minutes and they were offered 40.”   

Pray for all the Lun Bawang speakers attending this major event to be impacted in their hearts by God’s Story. 

Karakalpak Language

Nearly a million people speak the Karakalpak language through out Central Asia. We praise God that this language has been completed now in God’s Story. 

Youtube.com/DoesGodSpeak

We have been uploading more than 200 languages of God’s Story: From Creation to Eternity on both our Youtube and Vimeo station. Some videos have needed upgrading, which requires more steps. If you have specific languages you would like to see released, please let us know and we will move those to the top of the list. Please pray for those who are updating descriptions and managing the release of the languages. Let us know how you would like to help.

Thank you for praying for our leaders, the trainings, languages, and the ministry,

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

Good Seeds Spring Forth Good Fruit

Prayer & Praise Report # 1, December 2022 and January 2023

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Planting Seeds, Bearing Fruit
Five years ago, a young American woman traveled to Zambia and Mozambique to do STS style Bible stories at an orphanage. As this young woman left, the leaders of the orphanage said she did more to impact the orphans in one month than anyone had in the previous 25 years. Some of the older boys had even left the gangs they were in!

Fast forward five years. The kids are still doing Bible stories, along with skits, every Friday night. They also continue their memory verses. One leader said it is a sign of true discipleship that the children continue even after that young American woman has left. The children bear fruit, and God’s Word disciples their hearts.

Children Rise Up to Lead?

While leading a training in Spain years ago, I had the blessing of teaching Simply The Story to a 14-year-old boy. For practice, he presented the Bible passage and asked probing questions to a group of ministry leaders. When it was done I asked everyone, “If your pastor said a 14-year-old boy was coming to give the sermon, what would you think?“ Then I asked a second question, “How many of you learned something new from this Bible story?“ Everyone raised their hand. This solidified that God's Word and His Spirit is the ultimate teacher, not experience nor age.

Jesus Taught in the Synagogue at 12 Years Old, Can Others?

An African man, who has planted many Bible stories into the lives of his children, recently shared what God has been doing in his children’s lives. In December, this man’s eldest son was invited by five different churches to give the Christmas message. I asked him, “How old is your son?” He said that his son is 12 years old.

I wondered, “How could 5 churches ask a 12 year old boy to preach the Christmas sermon?” It is not for lack of pastors or churches! The father continued to tell me that his son told his own pastor about the invitations he received, but his pastor replied, “You’re not going anywhere! You’re going to preach in this church.”

Younger than 12?

This boy’s younger brother (the man’s second oldest son) attends a different church. They call him the associate pastor in the children’s Sunday school class. I asked this dad why they call him the associate pastor. The dad explained to me, “The pastor of the Sunday school said because he knows so many of the Bible stories (from STS) and he is excellent at engaging the other children.” This boy is only nine years old.

That same 9-year old boy attends a Catholic school. The Muzlm students are excused midday on Friday to attend prayer. This young boy asked the principal if he could tell a Bible story to the other children who stayed. He prepared for 2 weeks and told the story of Jesus turning the water into wine (John 2:1-11). The boy went on to also lead a discussion about the story as well! The principal sent a WhatsApp message to the father and said that the boy asked a certain question and wondered if the father had told him to ask that question or not. The father asked, “What question?”

The principal responded, “If Mary said to everyone in the facility, especially the disciples and those who brought water, whatever Jesus said you should do it, why are you doing what Mary wants and not what Jesus wants?” Does Jesus say they should bow down to Mary or does Mary say they should do whatever Jesus says? All the teachers of the school were there! The teachers and principal discovered this 9-year old’s father is a Bible storyteller and pastor. When back in the hometown he contacted that principal, who wanted to learn more, and asked for 30 minutes to discuss the story more. The principal said, “No. I will give you an hour. I want to learn more.” Stayed tuned for the next part of this story to come. 

Even Younger than 9 Years Old?

Our storyteller’s second youngest daughter was picked by the teacher of her primary class to talk to the governor of their town because the teacher was impressed with her. This young girl used her mom’s phone and called her dad and asked, “Daddy, tell me a story … about the obedience of children. I know that Jesus obeyed his parents.” Her daddy told her Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Her mom helped this young 5-year old deliver the story for 10 minutes with the governor. The governor was so impressed that he gave this young girl an envelope with nearly equivalent of $100. In Africa this is a lot of money.

Life Results from Death

One of our leaders recently lost some family members. Funerals in Africa are not like those in America. This leader’s family and friends normally celebrate the deceased person’s life with an evening of drinking. However, this leader chose to celebrate with family by sharing life. That evening, he showed his people a recently completed version of God’s Story: From Creation to Eternity. He told us that now people are convinced that Jesus is the God who created the world.

Children with Autism Engage

During the Chinese New Year celebrations, one storyteller shared that they had 30 Chinese people, and lots of children, including some on the autistic spectrum, at their home. This storyteller used to be a nursery school teacher for children with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Attention Deficit Disorder. She shared with the parents how faith in God can help people. She also offered other practical advice. 

The storyteller was asked to do a very interactive storytelling of Genesis as most of the Chinese Christians have no idea about Genesis. There were over 70 people attending the Chinese New Year celebration at the church. This story had to be autism friendly as well. The storyteller used puppets and props to help. She shared, “As with STS I am always accurate and took it slowly, involving as many children and adults as I could. God blessed it abundantly.” For most of these Christians, it was the first time they had heard "In the beginning…". She also shared that many of the children with autism also participated in the Bible story discussion.

Heart Pocket Podcasts

If these amazing stories touch your heart, be sure to listen to the Heart Pocket Podcast (www.HeartPocket.org) Every Tuesday a new episode airs. On February 14 and 21, hear what a church in Southern California did for a neighborhood Christmas outreach to the neighborhood and the impact. Hint: it does snow in Southern California in the right places.

Items for Prayer

1. STS Children’s curriculum is in the testing phase in the USA and enters testing in Egypt and Ecuador. Pray for those testing the curriculum.

2. New Website has been tested and we are working on a problem with the AI translation tool. Please pray that we can easily and quickly resolve the translation tool and the other minor issues discovered during testing.

3. STS leaves for Israel for training and a tour. Our tour has STS woven throughout along with some unique outreach opportunities. Thirty people from USA, Africa, Europe and Asia are registered. Thank you for praying for the training and the tour.

We are thankful to the Lord for the way he uses these podcasts to encourage people. Our team spends time recording and editing each podcast and the feedback encourages us to keep going. 

Thank you for reading and for praying for this ministry

“Prime Minister or King of Kings?”

Prayer & Praise Report # 6, October-November 2018

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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)