story4all stories

2009-10-13T05:27:00.000-07:00

Amazon Awe

Very recently a family of five were running a Simply the Story (STS) training in a Peruvian Amazon jungle village. A cry went up just before lunchtime and everyone fled the building to pray for a man who had just fallen 7 foot through a floor onto sewage laden ground. The family prayed about what to do in that remote location to help the poor man, who had badly twisted both ankles and damaged his neck. Then the Lord prompted a telling of the story of Eutychus falling to his death out a window (Acts 20), and the family's 16-year old girl ably told it in Spanish. Then everyone went off to lunch, leaving two friends to attend to the man who had fallen and had been unable to move. Two hours later, when everyone was back in the seminar, in walked the man who fell with a huge smile on his face - completely well! The STS attendees went ballistic with excitement and praise to the Lord, and they learned that day that even in a traumatic or crisis situation one can minister through story!

[Source: story4all]

2009-06-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Middle East

She is an old woman who has recently lost her son to illness. Two foreign ladies walked into her neighbourhood and someone told them that the household was in mourning. They were invited into the humble house and sat with the women. The two foreigners told them the story of Jesus' power, how He raised people from the dead. His friend Lazarus, a young girl, etc. The ladies listened with interest. Several weeks later, the two ladies were invited to sit again with the old woman, her daughters and her daughters-in-law. As she heard the gospel, the old lady repeated it word for word to the younger ladies, not giving arguments against it, just telling the story.

[Source: PTAP]

2008-11-19T01:46:00.000-08:00

India

50 church planters over the course of 2.5 years led 815 people to the Lord and planted 20 churches. They then signed up for and completed The God's Story Project's Timothy Church Planter Training. Just six months after completing the training, this group of graduates had led 5,372 people to Jesus and planted 218 churches. A year later that figure has now reached 9,122 people saved and 370 churches planted.

[Source: The God's Story Project]

2008-11-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Philippines

One young man in his early thirties recently attended the 5-day Simply the Story training in Manila. As a pastor he returned to his flock and began to teach others. In just over ten days since his own training he has already trained 50 others in how to share the Gospel through Bible storytelling and discussion.

2008-07-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

India

In a place where they sacrifice human beings it is difficult to preach the Word of God. Even taking a Bible in there is risky. The Gond custom is to sacrifice in the fields at the time of planting their crops. But through Bible stories the Gond people are being reached. Seven people recently received Jesus and were baptised and now meet to pray in their village.

Stories like these can be received weekly by email by requesting them here.

[Source: Stories from Storytellers]

2007-11-15T08:23:00.000-08:00

India

Nepalese church planters work among the 8-9 million Hindu Nepalese in India. Two leaders from The God's Story Project trained 140 of them through Simply the Story (STS). One of the church planters who attended the STS training had a congregation of eleven after a long time of working in North India. Six months after taking the STS training he now has 200 attending that one church! At last they understand God's message!

[Source: TGSP Simply the Story]

2007-11-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

Thailand

Yupa was out "checking" some stories, telling them to unsaved people to get their feedback and check effective communication. She was telling stories to Laijai, a local Buddhist shopkeeper. Laijai wanted to learn more. Two weeks later, her husband suffered a serious heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He died. Laijai kept praying for God to raise him from the dead, and the doctors kept working. After forty minutes, his heart suddenly began beating, and he woke up! After examination, the doctors advised he get more surgery for numerous blockages. Laijai kept praying for complete healing. Her husband was later examined and given a clean bill of health ... totally healed! He has since returned very interested in re-connecting with the God he once knew when he was a child. Meanwhile Yupa continues to disciple Laijai through the stories.

[Source: Kathi Maresco, SEAHOP, Bangkok]

2007-10-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

India

His parents came to a local believer named Dasarath urgently pleading for help for their son who had just poisoned himself and was about to die. They took him to hospital and as the doctor announced there was nothing he could do the parents began to cry openly. Dasarath told the story of Elijah from 1 Kings 17 where it tells how the prophet healed the widow's son, bringing him back to life. The parents were grieving; the police had come to file their report of the death. Even though the dead body was lying there Dasarath and those with him prayed that God would raise the man up too, like in the story. After 60 hours the man came back to life and was totally recovered. All the people saw this and knew he had been healed by God after we prayed. Many people came to the Lord and started to attend Dasarath's church thereafter.

Stories like these can be received weekly by email by requesting them here.

[Source: Stories from Storytellers]

2007-09-13T10:55:00.001-07:00

Ethiopia

She's an old woman. And she can't read. With a big wide grin on her face she announced, I know some parts of the Bible better than my pastor does! He reads the Bible in Amharic, but not very well. As for me, I listen to the chanted tapes and learn off the words in our own language. This woman is typical of over 26,000 Wolaitta Christians living in southern Ethiopia, who may not be able to read the Word of God for themselves, but who have hidden huge portions of it in their hearts. Read more here.

[Source: SPARK]

2007-04-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

India

Recently, local pastors received a new discipleship tool. The tool included several Bible stories that help explain who can become part of the Family of God. The men were excited to receive this tool, and after some studying of their own, they took this set of stories to their house churches and began to disciple new believers with the Word of God. One man exclaimed, 'This (set) is just like a little Bible!' As many of the men and women who receive these stories are unable to read, condensing the Bible into these story sets is an essential way for them to comprehend the teachings of the Bible. As they grow and share, the pastors are able to give them more stories to add to their knowledge and equip them as they tell their families and friends about their Savior, Jesus Christ.

[Source: Global PrayerGram]

Nigeria

2006-07-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Missionaries had worked in the central Nigerian region among the Tiv tribe over a period spanning 25 years. In that time they only saw 25 people come to Jesus - an average of one believer per year. Some Tiv believers then began to set the gospel story to musical chants which was the local typical medium of communication. Spreading the Gospel message took off and within a short time there were a quarter of a million Tivs worshipping Jesus! Not resistant to the Gospel as previously understood, but reached through a change of communication style - to an oral one!

[Source: ION/LCWE Making Disciples of Oral Learners]

India

2006-07-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

In the mid-1990s a local Indian missionary agency discovered that their Western trained workers were not being effective in outreach and that their congregations could not understand their preaching, nor remember what they had been taught. After some years of trial and error a seminar was run at the beginning of 2006 to train the workers how to be Bible storytellers. In just twelve days they learned 12 stories from the book of Genesis and went out to share them in their home areas (amongst Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim populations), instructed to share each story a minimum of three times. Six weeks later at the second training event it was reported that 32,386 people heard stories, 87 of whom came to Jesus with 2 baptisms and 5 new cell groups planted.

[Source: IMB, 2006]