Reports on Simply The Story (STS)
My Bumpy Road to Orality Read a Lausanne Paper Chronicling an Insightful & Enchanting Story of Discovery. By Larry Dinkins, Dallas Theological Seminary Graduate, PhD BIOLA, & Career Missionary Or (below) See & Hear Larry Tell His Story.
Larry Dinkins served 22 years in Thailand and is with OMF International. Dinkins Biography & How to Download This Video
Larry Dinkins Part 1:
Larry Dinkins Part 2:
North Africa: They see Love in Us
“Many times I tell them stories and they love them. Especially about the Samaritan woman whose life was transformed when she listened to Jesus and not only her, but how she brought others to Christ.
“Right now I am so encouraged because I am finding out that as soon as I share God’s word, people want to know the truth. They tell me that they see love in us which is something they don’t have.
“We are such a privileged people to have such an honor to proclaim His name.”
Lady attended one STS Workshop
Partnership with Presbyterian Frontiers Fellowship (PFF)
At the conference they sang in Arssi in their traditional style. Rukia, trained in the Bible storytelling workshops PFF sponsored in 2008, preached.
“She told a Bible story and then asked people to turn to each other and retell the story. Soon she had more than 500 people telling the Bible story and discussing it among themselves.”
[Our STS staff led numerous partnership workshops in Ethiopia. PFF sent leaders to Kenya for training. Those trained now lead throughout Ethiopia]
Not Much Duplication …Before That is!
“I've been teaching Bible classes in SE Asia for many years and the material I used was good and solid but.... even though it was designed to be duplicatable, I didn't see much duplication.
“For one thing all of the courses required written material which meant those taking my class had to have copies of the material in their language for each person they would teach. This just isn't practical and it rarely happened due to lack of continuous expensive financing for materials on my and other team members part.
“Also, the information also wasn't in their head but rather in the class notebooks so I didn't see many of the life changes which God's Word can bring. I've been very disappointed in the results I've seen as a return on the amount of time and money our team has spent to train the national leaders with these academic methods.
“In contrast I have been absolutely thrilled with the results I've seen from teaching the classes using the storytelling method. They are sharing stories with their Buddhist neighbors even in the evenings during the workshop. Unbelievers are responding positively and asking for more stories and to know more about God.
What I've seen happen when our teams used Bible storytelling and followed with inductive questions about the story and God is that our leaders and nonbelievers had their eye's opened to who the God of the Bible is and were drawn to Him by his character as revealed in the stories.
“Many of our national leaders shared with tears in their eyes that they had never heard God speak to them before but now He is speaking to them through the stories.
“Many of the national missionaries shared that many unbelievers are coming to the Lord through the stories they tell and they now have a church and are discipling them using the stories.
“New believers are also immediately able to share with others. STS is very duplicatable and they are always prepared since the stories and truths are in their head and heart, not in notebooks.
MM Seattle
It is Illegal to Share About Jesus There
“We hade a great trip and great two weeks trip to XXX. It is never easy being separated from our families, so we want to thank you for your prayers of safety and blessing.
“We spent most of our time doing storytelling workshops with COMPANIES serving our FRIENDS’ communities in XXX.
“It is illegal to share about Jesus in this country. Storytelling is the perfect method! At first the leadership (Pastor R) was very hesitant to have us do the Storytelling, since they had already ‘been through around 5 other Chrono-Storying seminars.’
“But by the end of our time with them, Pastor R was totally sold out on this method. We heard him share with others that this was totally different than the other storying strategies. When we left, he told us that they would be using this method for the next 6 months, and then would invite us back for a refresher!
“The Simply The Story method of inductive Bible study--”oral style”--has really been a treasure for workers in Service to our FRIENDS. 80-85% of the world either prefer or require stories and questions to learn.
The STS team SE Asia
Comments from a missionary in Thailand who hosted
an out of country team to lead an STS Workshop.
“February 17-21 was a very special time for the Christian Mission. God blessed us by allowing us to host a 5-day seminar on "Storytelling the Bible." This is one of the few things that I have seen so far that is directly applicable to what we are trying to do in Northeast Thailand in spreading the word of God.
“I was privileged to watch people who never have spoken out before take an active part in teaching the Bible. One older woman told me that this was the first time she has not fallen asleep in Church. ::))
“Dr Larry Dinkins from OMF - I met him 10 years ago when we were in Chaingmai - brought in a team of two Thai pastors, a pastor's wife and an intern to the Christian Mission for 4 days of intense training in how to story the Bible.
“The first two days were for leaders - we had about 20 people; the second two days were for leaders to practice and others interested in learning - we had almost 40 people in attendance.
“Day 5 was a trip to a combined church service in Kuseman and there were about 100 people in attendance.
“It has been a long time since I have attended such a useful, practical and to the point seminar. Everyone was anxious to get back to their home churches and try it out; we will be doing the same thing here at the Christian Mission.
“Please keep this in your prayers; especially that our teens will be interested and willing to go with this. Three of them attended the seminar and appear to be very enthused about it.”
More mission reports, Uses: Missions, Long & Short, and Hitting Our Heads Against a Wall
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