Largest Bible School in India

Prayer & Praise Report #5,  2008

Download PDF

Dear Friends of God's Story,

How we praise God for His care and love and the power of His Word. Last year we saw the most new versions of God's Story produced 35. This year, already 29 have been completed and 11 more are waiting

for final approval. God gives the increase!

East Africa: A ministry that works in 100 counties is "testing" the use of God's Story wrote, "Our workers in East Africa love it. They want every language you have for the Horn of Africa!"

Ethiopia: “Thank for the good work you are doing. I am a Gbagyi man residing in Abuja, Nigeria and a Pastor/Computer Engineer. I have just bought a copy of God's story in Gbagyi for village evangelistic outreaches. I quite appreciate the work you've done.”

Please Pray For Us: In the next few months, we have over 50 Simply The Story workshops scheduled in 20 countries! It was just under two years ago that the Lord allowed us to introduce STS to the world. By the end of this year we estimate that STS will be actively being used in 42 countries (that we know about!) Amazingly, most of the instructing staff are 2nd and 3rd generation         people we have taught, who have then

taught others. As well, the majority of instructors are nationals teaching their own people.

(Don't forget to let people know about the Dallas STS workshop, Sept 19-20 & 22-24. Email back for flyer on it or for info on STS Sept-Oct workshops in 10 African nations, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Mongolia.)

Wonderfully, this STS addition to God's Story is helping people to learn whole Bible stories, and empowering people to study and deliver the Scripture in inductive Bible study, oral style. We continue to record more told Bible stories. We want the non-literate to have a recorded oral Bible as an anchor.

Trainings are nice, but what actual impact does the STS way of delivering Scripture have on discipleship and evangelism?

Village Evangelism Impact: Grace Bible College, the largest Bible school in India, now uses STS as part of their curricula. Reports from their staff state, “Our graduate evangelists are seeing greater responses to the Gospel and growth of the village believers than ever before.

One man in this village, who for three years The evangelists themselves, who have been trained in and use God’s Story and STS, show a deeper walk with the Lord and better understanding of the Bible than their previous graduates.”

USA Impact: A missionary to SEA who spoke in a USA church on the way from STS workshop back to field just wrote "By the way, I did try STS at church in Illinois, again using Acts 3 story to spark people in

home community missions. It was a moving of God's spirit

as several people stood up and publicly confessed and repented for passing the poor/homeless by. The pastor

then called the whole church to prayer asking God to open their eyes to community. Praise the Lord STS

WORKS!!!!, it allows people to interact and really see and hear God's messages."

More After Nairobi Impact: Our Africa Director Bram... went to Costal Kenya and trained Kenyan pastors in STS. One comment they made struck me. “Before we thought that to use stories we had to do a world view study first and that we could not present salvation until the end of the set of stories. To us 3 to 4 months to wait to present salvation was too long, so we didn’t use stories. Now we see that the Holy Spirit can bring people to faith even off of just one Bible story!”

School Impact: Before heading home, the headmaster of a local public middle school asked Bram... come to his school to “do something evangelistic.”

Bram... told the whole story of the Prodigal Son, then followed the STS style of asking lots of questions about the story. Amazingly the student body of 900 became engaged and enthusiastically answered questions. At first, the children considered the elder brother in the story to be the hero. But in time the children discovered that brother’s pride and disrespect of the father and the younger brother’s humility. During the discussion they observed, and then offered, “The younger brother confessed his sin to his dad and to God. We want to be like him!

After discussing the story’s contents, the children offered many personal applications that they saw. Bram... then asked, “Do any of you want to come to God and admit your pride and ask Jesus to be your Saviour?’ Three hundred children raised their hands and prayed to be saved!

“The pastors who we just trained in STS have offered to go back to that school every week and tell more stories to these children.”

Even More School Impact: On the journey home, one of the other instructors, who had also been invited to preach at a local school, reported, “I told a story and about 300 children prayed for salvation!”

It Gets Better School & Nation Impact: Upon arriving home to Nairobi, a top leader in the Kenyan Baptist Convention (who had learned STS in the June workshop we led in Nairobi) visited Bram...’s office. “I just came back from the Congo where I attended a major Baptist meeting. I sat on the front row so at every opportunity I could tell another Bible story STS style. Now they all want this in the Congo. Then I went to a school there, told a Bible story the STS way, and almost 300 children came to Jesus!” [Can it get any better?] Third Generation Impact: (From an instructor in Uganda, taught by a Kenyan who we taught) "All these attendees confessed that STS is the best Bible school they have ever attended without demand for exam; yet very rich in digging Bible truth. They were very appreciative for such a privilege to have attended and participated practically in STS. Since they are in the key role of their local churches, they said they will share the idea with their congregation to be using the same method for deep Bible study and discipleship program. One pastor, Dennis said, ‘Thank you for this handy tool, our quest is now fulfilled through this simple method.'

Spiritual Impact: "They adopted the Naman story. When Gehazi accepted the gift of Naman; its consequences that was to affect his entire lineage. They applied it in their lives that small sin can affect one’s family and ministry seriously! This was a long story told by me, as I was illustrating to them how simple it is to learn many verses within a short time if the principle is followed."

Pastors Impacted: "One pastor, Remmy Acila, said, “This is a very timely tool for discipleship, such a simple method but profound way of Bible study we have been praying to God for.” Pastor Patrick, a pastor of a local church in Lira town said, “now all our cell groups will grow faster because everyone will get involved in the system and be able to reach their neighbors”.

Bottom Line Impact in Uganda: "I have seen the desire for the body of Christ to go back to the roots of the early church, the Bereans who spent time studying the word to prove whether the things that Paul and his associates said was true. The need for training is overwhelming       this is still a very new way of approach to

many churches, yet they have eagerly embraced it. There is a big need not only on STS but even for TGSP to be translated into the local language (Lango). This region has great potential to spread STS like wild fire when we embark on training more instructors."

Beyond Belief Impact: This next incident just occurred at a celebration to honor a pastor who does social work in India. Over 2000 gathered, Hindus, government workers and Christians. "They gave me much time to share what I have done for this society. I stood and said to everybody saying that I did “0” to this world BUT my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ came to this world to save each one of us.

“Everyone clapped and then I took time to share some testimonies and jumped into STS, I was looking someone to tell the story of blind man Barthimaias, a young boy told the entire story in dramatic way I asked everyone (2000+) to retell the story each other (to their neighbors) everyone was remembering the story and telling the story step by step to their neighbors (it was joy to see their faces while they were telling the Bible story first time in their life especially Hindus).

“After retelling the story I step through and then I have asked some important questions so that they can found out spiritual insights.

“Even though it was big group but still the Holy Spirit of God led each one us to find out many spiritual insights in the story and during application many were with tears and saying that even though we have eyes to see but still we are blind in spiritual matters and we are not believing Creator God. Finally Pas. Paul told everyone to stand up and he led them in prayer, I pray and believe that many people might have received Christ as their personal Saviour.

“Hindu guru said this is the first time I am telling the Bible story, how much truth is there in this small story and how much faith that blind man has up on Jesus, if we have trust in God and then God will do miracle. I gave him VCD of G.S film and more people shown their interest to know more about the Creator God.”

India Big City and Slum Ministry Impact. “STS is doing really well with us, Lord is giving us great insights into His pure word and our whole leadership is thrilled in switching over to STS. Now we have 10,702 members in our churches, all glory to our Lord Jesus. STS is a great blessing.”

Impact on Theologian: “As you know, I am a trained theologian. I am used to presenting the Bible in a very

complicated way which only really fits intellectuals. Now I can present the Bible in a simple way to anybody. On the bus ride way back home to Gulu, Uganda, I sat next to a Buddhist man from Japan. I decided to tell him a simple story using the method I had just learned. So I told him the creation story and asked him questions to engage him. In the end, the man gave his life to Christ as Lord and Savior. So I invited him to come and live with me and my family for a month…..

“I am also using this Bible story method in our weekly Bible studies and in our weekly staff devotions with Favor of God in Gulu. Later this summer, we are planning on training all our staff and field workers in N Uganda….”- M O-New Life Bible College w/ Favor of God, Uganda .

Ministry to Illiterates in Sudan Impact: “We are so exited about the opportunity we had to attend this training in Nairobi. Please thank all the donors who helped make it possible for us to attend this training. It was so useful to help us understand the Bible better. We are now able to also train those who don’t read. We want you to know that although we just got home, we have already started this training in our ministry in Sudan.” -R & J, Truth & Life Ministries, Sudan.

Vital Discovery Impact: After the STS workshop in Kenya, a church planter who attended shared a wise observation. This man, strong in theological training, let go of his city business to minister, but in four years he has seen little fruit in his rural village work. To come to this workshop he traveled two days by camel, one day by "airbus" (hitching a ride on the top of a passing truck) and one day by bus! He loved what he learned in the workshop, feeling empowered! He stated, "I have been teaching what others taught me, but until this training I did not know how to learn from the Bible. I now see that I cannot take people to a place where I have not yet been.”

Not Any More!: So, Friends of God’s Story, thanks for your prayers and support. For us, this is a signal time in missions and open door. The ongoing retelling of the Bible stories, the impact of God’s Story on DVD and audio, and the solar players is carrying the Gospel to the far regions of the earth.

This week we received the recorded God’s Story narration for a people living in Timbuktu, which was once considered the hardest to reach place on earth. Not any more!

In His mercy, Dorothy A. Miller

A Defining Moment for Our Continent

Prayer & Praise Report #4,  2008

Download PDF

Dear Friends of God’s Story,

Before recounting our amazing African adventure, let me mention that it is not just in Africa or Asia that God is drawing people to His Word through God’s Story and Simply The Story. If you want to see how pastors in the USA are using STS, try the link on our home page www.SimplyTheStory.com “USA Pastor Discovers Impact of Oral Strategy.” As well, go to the link on left “Downloads-Radio, STS & More” to hear great interviews of Asian & African nationals using these tools. Interviews aired on podcast done by www.Story4All.com and radio by www.friendshops.org

Selecting words to share our 17-day trip to Africa presents a challenge. How does one describe a handshake with a man who looks earnestly into your eyes as he says, “You don’t know how much this training means to me.” The grip lingers on, as if holding on to my hand longer will prove his depth of gratitude.

Days later emails from Africa began arriving. “You have shared us blessings (Storytelling) you received from our Holy Father. I wish you the age of Methuselah! I have started telling story. Everyone found it fascinating.” [Ethiopia]

“...Am very excited about what the Lord is doing through the storytelling strategies. It is a defining moment in our continent in many ways.” [Kenya]

“          i just returned home from a church

that i was preaching.it was in a village and normaly when they hear of a guest speaker even the vilagers that dont normaly attend shows up.i gave the story of the man with shriveled hand and involved the congregatn.14 got saved and i prayed for the leadership they said that they saw themselves like

pharisees.thanks for exposing me to orality.” [Uganda]

By God’s grace we trained over 200 attendees from 12 countries. Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Australia, & USA. Attendees ranged from evangelists serving in remote villages to national Christian leaders. Ages ranged from 5 years old to a few in their 70's. Most were literate. Believers new in the Lord studied Bible stories alongside seminary professors.

Those who use God’s Story in many different countries excitedly shared reports of salvations. Typical was a man sets up viewings among Mu.slims. He told of seeing 72 Mus.lims coming to faith from watching GS. These converts are now walking with the Lord. Too, the interest and excitement over Simply The Story frankly is overwhelming.

Besides the workshops, we had opportunity to use STS in rural settings and in city churches. Once village in which we did this STS presentation of Scripture through telling Bible stories and leading probing discussions was Ekalakala. On nine other days, Bram... had brought a team to a centrally located church in this region and trained the people in STS. “When we first came there, ‘church’ was

singing as they knew little about the Bible. Now these pastors are seeing salvations and growth,” reported Bram....

Picture This: You enter a village church filled with about 60 people from the Comba tribe. There wait 15 pastors representing 11different churches. You notice that the men wear their finest to church, coats and ties. Most coats look several sizes too large and hang loosely on the thin-framed people. As you look closely, you notice frayed sleeves and trousers worn thin. Who knows how many have used these same “Sunday clothes.”

Hippo Time: The teaching must end by 4:00 pm so that the attendees can cross the river to return home before the hippos come out. Also, most in the church face a four hour walk to return to their round mud- hut homes.

While there, Bram... tells as a story Genesis 35:1-5. Listeners note that Jacob gathered all of the idols held by his family, but then hid those pagan items under the oak tree in Shechem. As those gathered in the church discuss Jacob’s actions, one lady stands up and excitedly points while saying something in Comba. An interpreter whispers to you, “The lady is saying, “We are Christians now. We still have our fetishes hidden away. We must not hide them anymore. We must destroy them!’” [You have just witnessed the power of God’s stories to speak messages to the center of people’s worldview!]

A New Kind of Circus: The day after our village trip to Ekalakala, I was invited to speak in a Sunday morning service. This church, in a circus tent, sits on the edge of the 2nd largest slum in Africa. The pastor is a bishop from Nairobi who left his big city church to plant churches in the slums. The attendance in Bishop Charles' church was maybe 70 or so, but only one other car besides ours and the bishop's was parked in the lot. They walked to church from their shanties.

After a lot of rousing Kenyan style praise & worship music in Swahili and English, I told the story of the bent over woman found in Luke 13:10-17. The participation in the discussion that followed this Bible story was animated. The attendees loved seeing how this woman who had been kept bent over for 18 years by the power of Satan was healed by Jesus. Jesus only said, "You are loosed from your ailment." Then He laid hands on her and the woman instantly straightened up, then glorified God.

Those in church were amazed to see how in the story the leader of the synagogue was incensed because Jesus healed on the Sabbath day! We discussed how amazing it was that this leader cared nothing about the woman who was healed, and instead classified the touch and words of Jesus as "work."

Jesus says, "You hypocrites. You all untie your animals on the Sabbath and lead them to water. Shouldn't this woman, this daughter of Abraham who had been bound by Satan for 18 years be untied on the Sabbath? The story of the bent woman ends with, "The enemies of Jesus were ashamed, but the people rejoiced over the glorious things that were done by Jesus."

After those in the congregation spoke out their observations and personal applications of this story, I decided to wind it up by asking this active crowd one summary question. When people have been very responsive during the STS discussion, a summary question always receives a good response. So I asked. "What in this story spoke to you personally?"

Silence....

Deciding to help encourage some kind of response I said, "Sooo, does it speak to you that the crippled women came to Jesus as she was?" or          "Does the way Jesus showed His power over Satan's power speak

to you?" Nothing....

Try as I might, no one responded. In desperation I made eye contact with our East Africa director Bram..., sort of begging for him to break the silence and say something to get the answers to start flowing again. He just stared back at me! I was at a loss as this lack of any response from a crowd, who had been freely answering questions, did not make sense. I was asking the Lord what to do with this strange and unexpected situation when suddenly some men jumped up and hurried to something or someone in the 3rd row of the church.

Man Down...Quickly many men were praying over a person who was down having some kind of convulsive attack. They were calling in the name of Jesus for demons to come out. The rest of us prayed...fervently. After about 5 minutes (that felt like hours) the fallen man was up. Then the bishop gave an invitation and the young man walked forward for prayer.

Later I told Bram..., "I have never had people not respond like that. Then, when I looked at you for help, you just looked back at me!" Bram... answered, "That was so strange. I had an answer, but I could not speak and didn't know why."

This unexplained silence, Bram...'s inability to speak and the sudden attack          it became clear that the

story of the bent woman, the way Satan had bound the woman (but his power had been overridden by Jesus), had just been rerun in front of us.

Welcome to Africa! The Word of God "is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The whole time in Africa was like this. Even during the training while the 200 attendees learned how to do inductive Bible study oral style, we watched people discover personal applications in God’s Word.

The best way to share these Africa experiences with you is to show you letters we are receiving from those we trained. (Excerpts below)

[From Influential Ministry Leader in Kenya] “Oh what do I say. I went to three Bible schools. I teach theology in Bible school and facilitate discipleship program in Africa. But what I saw and heard in only two days was awesome.

“The story, and storying in style !! it is real, the Bible comes or oozes from the bottom. The treasure are there BUT you have to dig them out.

“Personally , I felt challenged, Blessed, humbled on how I have made Bible story become stone rather than God's story to His people. God help us!

“I have already mobilized all my program directors to catch this new wave and tool for discipleship among the unreached and even those who need a new, fresh touch from God.

“Thanks for opening our eyes to see the nuggets in the Holy Word.

“Thanks to all who sponsored us to attend the Big Story day. Thanks Thanks.”

[Kenyan Youth Worker] “Glory be to God for bringing you to Kenya such a time when we were thirsty and hungry for the word of God to come out in a different revelation and you guys did it. may God bless your work. Whatever you are doing to nations its not in vain. the world is going to be changed by His word.”

[Ministry Leader in Uganda] “Greetings. Am so grateful for the opportunity of attending the Orality conference in Nairobi Kenya. By God's grace I was able to Go. I had no idea what Orality was and for sure it didn’t know what to expect.” “When the first session was over, I was left puzzled and really

wondered where this treasure had been hidden for that long. I discovered a better simple and easy to learn to learn inductive bible study. I also discovered a very down to earth tool for evangelism.

“After the 3 days in the conference, it was time to get back to the field and implement what I had learned. I arrived on Thursday night in Uganda and on Friday morning I was in class and I was burning to share the treasure that I had just discovered. Normally our lessons in our leadership training goes for one and a half hours but that day, when the time keeper rang the bell, the whole class booed at him not to disturb him because they wanted us to continue with the story of Martha and Mary.

“As we applied the nuggets of what we learnt, the pastor stated weeping and saying we have been like Martha busy bodies and not taking time at the feet of Jesus to acquire what will not be taken from us.

“On Sunday I preached in a church and shared the same story and 5 people came to the Lord.”

[Kenyan Young Person] “Oooh, i dont know where to start, guess what? I have started implementing the training in the school where i study. i have told the story to some of my school mates and they are finding it so interesting. I was so happy the other day when i was talking to my friend whose mother was not saved and the mother came and found us talking. she sat down where my friend and i were. i just remembered the story Dorothy was telling us about martha and mary, i started telling her the story. my friends mother was so annoyed at martha for not listening and for being rude to Jesus.

“After that i told her that she was like Martha because she had not accepted Christ. she started crying for being like martha, being rude to Christ, and for not listening to him.

“Guess what happened next? she asked me to lead her to Christ! I am so happy that God is touching so many through the Gods story method. so far i have shared a story with two different people and they have both given their lives to Christ. The young man in Nairobi who gave his life to Christ is Ken and my friends mother name is Priscilla. i pray that many more will come to Christ.

“I plan on sharing this method with my school where I am studying and in our local church.”

[Like Bush Fire] I just got back from Sheshemane, Ethiopia. The conference was good. I was invited as one of the speakers. So I told stories in my two sessions ( The leper, David and Goliath). The response was so powerful. One was the things that touched people in the story of David and Goliath is that God uses seemingly weak instrumentalities, then whatever experience God allows us to go through, it is never wasted rater God uses it to build our faith to deal with bigger problems. Many people were healed and delivered from demonic oppression.

I met a church planter who is an oral communicator (He cannot read or write). He has been struggling as he told me through an interpreter how to get access to God's word. I gave him a player with God's Story on it and trained him how to use it, he could only but shed tears of joy. He has a group of 25 illiterate disciples. I'll be going to train them next month on STS. Several other local churches who were present told me this is what they need. so they are coming up with dates when We could train them. It is spreading like bush fire.

Thank you for your prayers and support. It is the Body of Christ at work!

Dorothy A. Miller

TGSP Executive Director

We Love Pirates

Prayer & Praise Report #3,  2008

Download PDF

Dear Friends of God’s Story,

Thanks for your prayers. God surely is bringing wonderful answers. We leave for Africa Tuesday. (See last paragraph in this letter.)

We still lead with our flagship production God’s Story. Last year, our most productive yet, we saw completion of 33 new language versions. Through May this year, we have done or nearly completed, language number 34! [www.gods- story.org/curprogress.htm] These many languages are being birthed because those who step forward to partner with us are seeing the effect of God’s Word as presented in God’s Story, so they want this tool for reaching their target people. For example...

Pirates We Appreciate: In one North African country we completed a language for an unreached people, Mu.slim people. Word came to us, “God’s Story in XXX is being pirated and sold in the kiosks!”

“We are so sad. “Our players don’t work anymore!” In the last year, ten evangelists in Northern East Nigeria working among Musl.ims were each gifted with a solar player carrying the audio of God’s Story. [These players will broadcast for 6 hours before they need a recharge and the batteries will last for 500 recharges.] So, each player had been used to broadcast God’s Story for 3,000 hours!!! This is incredible, when you discover that the target listeners in this language are hard core Musli.ms! A request from this very area just arrived a few minutes ago. “Two Christians who accepted the salvation of Christ through the last batch of players to Nigeria

were whisked away by their relatives. No one knows if they are dead or alive. Please pray for them.” [We did get new batteries shipped to them.]

Liberia Twosome: “In one Mu.slim village, 25 people came to Christ as a result of the STS storying our evangelists conducted there. God’s Story is being used to reinforce the storying and is proving to be a great tool for discipleship.”

God’s Story Speaks in Ethiopia: “Two weeks ago I gave GS to one of my associate evangelist to use in a mission about 380 miles from Addis. In the whole time, about 450 people were reached with the gospel. 35 out of the 450 gave their lives to Christ. Through this mission we were able to put in hands the GS audio cassette to 25 unbelievers. Others were reached by the show of GS.”

Not Hindu, They Are Animists: Indians working among the remote Irula tribal jungle dwellers report, “Believers are increasing 50% more in the churches through God’s Story.”

Miracle in Hospital: “We distributed 30 God’s Story audio cassettes to the nurses and doctors who are in practical training in that hospital. 18 of them listened to full God’s Story. Next day every one came at 10am and shared that we need this Christ who came to save us from Spiritual death to Eternal life. They shared their desire to follow Jesus and other 10 village people also came to the Lord during our son stay in that hospital.”

Solar Player Blessings: Throughout Nepal come reports of God’s Story impact...”This is the voice of real God. We found such story in the Bible which we never heard before.”... “I am illiterate person, so player help me understand the Bible.”...”When I get this player I got chance to know more about God. I have decided to teach others what I have learn from this.”...”After listening they know that they are worshiping things which are made by themselves. They listen very carefully and they are interested to accept the Jesus Christ. And they repent about their sin.”

From Venezuela:...”Pastor Rafael was shocked at the gift of the player. We met outside under the trees, very hot. He could not express himself, just hugged and all day kept saying, ‘gracias, gracias and smiling.’”...”Pastor Perez said, ‘Thank you for coming to our poor church. We have nothing.’ (This man is already using it all of the time.)”

Simply The Story: This added tool of TGSP, teaching inductive Bible study oral style, continues to impact nations. www.SimplyTheStory.com has details on workshops. Lubbock, TX starts June 25; Sandpoint, ID July 14 and Dallas, TX Sept 19.

Won’t Take a Break!: Ethiopia “Every time I gave them a break, they could not go for the break

rather they gathered in small groups. I asked what they were talking about and was told they werediscussing about the STS Bible story.”

Competition: An American pastor working in Belize, “About 8-9 weeks ago one pastor I taught - who

had me come to his church to do a session there on a Wed. night updated me since my visit ‘Now, the people in my congregation have taken to storying so much so that they are teaching and actually nearly competing to see who gets to teach next week!’”

Nepal Testimonies: Only a small team was needed for our trip to Nepal and India, because wonderfully, the nationals we have previously trained are taking over leadership. We rained 68 pastors and church planters. Many came from very remote areas, enduring days of hard travel to get here. Now, under the new Maoist government, these believers need prayer...big time.

"I do not go to conferences, but came here and didn't know why. Now I see. The Bible is opened up to me and I can now share with others. "

"When I heard the statistics of literacy in the America, I suddenly realized that if it is that bad in America, then here in Nepal is much lower. I must use this oral strategy to reach the lost."

[I swallow pride to share this one.] "When I saw this big women up front give such interesting action to the story I said to myself, "If she can do this then why can't I?'"

"I am over 25 other woman who go out and evangelize woman who are not literate. I am going to teach them all to tell the stories in this way."

"My pastor told me to go to this conference. I said to myself, 'Go to a 3-day conference to learn to tell stories? That is crazy! How long does it take to tell a story?’ Now after three days I see the time went so fast I didn't even notice it because I was interested the whole time."

"I am going use this by waiting until the Buddhist monks who walk around the temple get tired and stop to rest and then I will tell them stories."

"I was not reading very carefully before and missed all of these treasures."

God’s Math is Multiplication:

We trained 65 leaders in Hyderabad, India. Afterwards, we drove an hour to tell a story to 300 youth workers and children. [The organizer of this meeting was training 20,000 workers to lead ten days of VBS in May to 1,000,000 children!] God led the presentation. The host loved STS and now wants the leaders who we just trained in Hyderabad to train his youth leaders in STS as a follow up to salvations and as on-going church planting strategy.

Before flying out of Hyderabad Saturday, we went to the offices of a very large mission organization [org name withheld for security] where we spoke for 2 hours to about 25 of their leaders and 15 leaders from other ministries. They caught the concept! These leaders plan to use God’s Story, and to have their workers learn STS for discipleship. The large org, that works in almost every state in India, can now be trained by those we just trained in the Hyderabad workshop.

Mumbai [formerly Bombay]. Sunday morning in church we joined the beautiful singing (as well as we could since they sang in Hindi and English.) At 10:15 am, after the announcements, the host’s wife turned to me and whispered, "You have until 12:30." "I do? What does that mean?"

"Oh," she said, "Didn't my husband tell you? You are speaking today." That's India!

Praise God! Having stories in your heart pocket is great. After finding two stories they had not yet taught at that church, we filled the next two hours. Whew! God carried the day.

Just before speaking, the host asked the 250 gathered, "Do you remember how we used to teach topically and then in Nov we changed to stories? "Yes." the people responded.

"Do you want to go back to topical teaching? "No," they all shouted."

So, even though in Oct we sent a fledgling team of STS instructors that was still learning how to train others, God has greatly honored the STS way of telling and discussion of the stories recorded in His Word. These leaders ask their pastors to tell and teach a new story Sunday in their main churches, Then, during the week, their house church leaders tell and discuss the same story with their nearly 10,000 church members. [This leader shared his stats with us, showing that since October their rate of church growth rose by 50%.]

Fire of Revival: Afterwards this Mumbai leader wrote, “It was great [again] to receive ministry from your team. All the leaders who attended the STS Training are blessed immensely. The fire of revival has flooded every one of them. Regular practice and application is going on in a big way. By now more than 300 people are trained and twice in a month STS Trainings for down the line leaders is planned. All our Sunday Services and House Churches have switched over to STS method, which means regularly our whole congregation of 9000 plus is getting the taste the goodness of STS. There is great excitement all over.”

One gorgeous young Indian woman, a music leader in that church told me. “I’m not an evangelist or house church leader or anything, but since October I have been telling stories on the train. At first, I told Bible stories to just one believer who travels the route with me as we go to work. Then two lady commuters became believers, so now four of us tell stories (but everyone in the train car listens to us.)”

India STS Training Centers Established: Now in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Siliguri as well as Bangalore and Mysore, those interested in learning STS can come to be trained by Indian instructors.

STS Enters Closed County: A believer from Bhutan came to a workshop NE India run entirely by nationals. He wrote... “Simply the Story-imperatives for disciple making, the God Story Project, is new but effective tool for all the Bhutanese participants (remember all the participants were layman pastor and evangelist) and this will further encourage them to learn the stories and tell the others.”

Children Respond: Indian Pastor wrote this after our April trip and workshops. “Here all the evangelists meet 3600 childrens in this summer (85% are Hindu background) and told them different stories by following all our STS steps. there are 38 regular Sunday schools started through this result of STS model of telling the stories to childrens here. 22 Sunday school teachers are newly commited for the childrens ministry their testimony is "Simply The Story method is very easy and very much applicable to our childrens understand the truth with in the story. In this summer it was great movement among them. please continuely pray for them many more may come to the Lord.”

You’re Kidding! A Pastor’s Wife?: Evenings after workshops our India director leads attendees to the villages for “practical.” That first evening, by using the stories, 8 came to the Lord and the next night 4. In the workshop his wife was helping the attendees discover spiritual insights from the Blind Bartimaeus story. He wrote, “My wife said blind man left everything belongs to his old life (his blanket) when he wanted to get a new life. A pastor’s wife was started to weep in the group and then my wife asked what happen. Lady she said openly, ‘I did not leave many of my old life even though I am pastor's wife.’ Then everyone hugged her and prayed for her. and she accepted Jesus as her personal saviour and she felt very joy in her person life.”

American Amazed: This report came from a conservative American who knew oral strategy was needed, but had reservations at first on whether correct doctrine could be delivered and maintained through this STS inductive way of study and sharing Scripture. “I'm so excited to report a little bit of the results of the conference we did here. I go on Tuesdays with a pastor who we've been teaching Bible Stories to for several months  He gave them all an assignment to find 5

disciples that they could meet with weekly and share the same stories we've been teaching them in the same method. On the way there this week I told him that I expected only about half to have completed this assignment.

I was shocked when nine of the 12 showed up with lists of their new disciples. This group of 12 has found in one week 40 people who they are passing the stories along to. The other three promised that next week they'll each have their groups as well.”

Strange Honeymoon: Andrea plus Regina and Jim (MAF) just returned from leading a two 5-day workshops in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. This was a new region for STS. One newly married couple shared how happy they were that God had led them to spend their honey moon in this storytelling workshop. “This is preparing us for our life of service together.” In Spain the team left behind good STS practitioners and some who are ready to train others.

For Such a Time as This: In just three days we leave for Africa. There 160 leaders from over 10 East African nations (as well as from South Africa and Nigeria) are converging in Nairobi to be trained in oral strategy. The 3-day African initiated MANI conference on orality is featuring STS. At least 1/4 of these attendees have experienced STS in either a workshop or a vision casting in this past year. We three instructors from the US are joining 22 Africans, already trained in STS, to lead this workshop. Afterwards, we host a 2nd smaller workshop expressly to train instructors. These county contingents are largely leaders of ministries (some heads of seminaries an Bible schools.) They, by God's grace, afterwards will go back to train others in their countries.

In August and September, workshops are scheduled for West Africa that should have attendees from 17 nations. We plan to go to Asia and Philippines in the Fall to share God’s Story and run STS workshops.

Thanks for your support, prayer and encouragement. Please do pray for the people and opportunities in this letter.

In His service, Dorothy A. Miller

Asia Trip Hyderabad Advantage of Heart Pocket

Prayer & Praise Report #2,  2008

Download PDF

"Training Leaders to Reach Millions"

One more Simply The Story workshop completed; 60 more leaders trained! One pastor who attended mentors 550 pastors in Orissa state India. Last year, when our TGSP India team recorded two new versions of God’s Story for Orissa, this pastor who helped arrange those translation, was trained in STS along with 50 other pastors. The first-hand reports this pastor gave about the impact of God’s Story and STS were most exciting to hear. (His location in Orissa is where 200 of the 400 prisoners in a jail now meet in "cell" churches inside the jail. All this as a result of Bible stories told STS style! This Hyderabad India visit was our second 5-day workshop of this trip.

This workshop was held in an RC retreat center used for conventions. Wonderfully we were able to hand off some copies of God’s Story to some sisters and the mother superior. They, and their staff, were touched by the way the attendees and staff cared and treated them, so the response to the gift was very positive.

After the workshop in Hyderabad closed on Friday, we traveled an hour away to tell a story to 300 youth workers and children. God led the presentation. The organizer of this meeting was training 20,000 workers to lead ten days of VBS in May to 1,000,000 children! He loved STS and now wants the leaders who we just trained in Hyderabad to train his youth leaders in STS as a follow up to salvations and as on-going church planting strategy.

Then Sat, before leaving Hyderabad, we went to the offices of a very large mission organization (org name withheld for security) where I spoke for 2 hours to about 25 of their leaders and 15 leaders from other ministries. They caught the concept! These leaders plan to use God’s Story and to have their workers learn STS for discipleship. They work in almost every state in India. They, as well, can now be trained by those we just trained.

Today was our first full day in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). We had anticipated that Sunday would be a true day of rest in between workshops, but on the way from the airport Saturday evening the host announced, "We will pick you up for church at 8:30."

Then Sunday, at 10:15 am after songs and announcements in church, the host's wife turned to me and whispered, "You have until 12:30."

"I do? What does that mean?"

"Oh," she said, "Didn't my husband tell you? You are speaking today."

That's India!

Having stories in your "heart pocket" is so great. I named off three

stories I knew, but our host said they had told them already. Mercifully, I found two new to them. Whew! God carried the next two hours.

Before I spoke the host asked the 250 gathered, "Do you remember how we used to teach topically and then in Nov we changed to stories? "Yes." the people responded.

"Do you want to go back to topical teaching? "No," they all shouted."

So, even though in Oct we sent a fledgling team of STS instructors that was still learning how to train others, God has greatly honored the telling and discussion of the stories recorded in His Word. These leaders ask their pastors to tell and teach a new story Sunday in their main churches, then, during the week, their house church leaders tell and discuss the same story with the over 10,000 church members. This week we train 100 of these leaders how to train others. When we are done, then Mumbai will be another location in India, besides the ones in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mysore, where those interested in learning STS can come to be trained. We want to try to free up our Indian TGSP director to enable him to focus on orchestration and recording of new God’s Story languages. He has 5 new languages now ready to record!

For now we live in a hotel on the edge of the slums. At 11:26 pm the sounds outside my window are loud and mixed from the many people crowded into very small spaces. The need is very great! Even the smells reveal the need. The darkness is everywhere, but as in the Bartimaeus story, when the blind call to Jesus, He responds and gives light.

Thanks for your prayers,

Dorothy

Asia Trip Nepal This is Crazy

Prayer & Praise Report #1,  2008

Download PDF

“Surprised Attendees”

The encouraging 3-day Nepal workshop is completed. Some of the attendees want to come to our director’s’ home for further Bible study, if riots do not follow the elections.

We trained 68 pastors and church planters. Many came from very remote areas, enduring days of hard travel to get here. Below are just a few of the rewarding responses. (Not included are the spiritual responses to the stories as they were taught. Excited spontaneous testimonies of discoveries from the Bible stories were common. Then, at times the eager and verbal attendees suddenly went silent as conviction grabbed them.)

Testimonies: Same old same old..."I do not go to conferences but came here and didn't know why. Now I see. The Bible is opened up to me and I can now share with others. "

"When I heard the statistics of literacy in the USA, I suddenly realized that if it is that bad in the USA then here in Nepal is much lower. I must use this oral strategy to reach the lost."

(You will like this one.) "When I saw this big woman up front give such interesting action to the story I said to myself, "If she can do this then why can't I?'"

Workshop attendees share Bible stories with illiterate villagers like this Nepali lady who is

Pastor who attended workshop reaps fruit from use of teaching Bible through STS story style.

"I am over 25 woman who go out and evangelist woman who are not literate. I am going to teach them all to tell the stories in this way."

"My pastor told me to go to this conference. I said to myself, 'Go to a 3-day conference to learn to tell stories? That is crazy! How long does it take to tell a story? Now after three days I see the time went so fast I didn't even notice it because I was interested the whole time."

"I went home the first day and told a story to my children and they said, 'Mommy do this all the time!'"

"I am going use this by waiting until the Buddhist monks who walk around the temple get tired and stop to rest and then tell them stories."

"I will use in my church...youth.. in the field.. with children..etc."

"I was not reading very carefully and missed all of these treasures."

After every round all the storytellers came to me to share their view of what happened in the presentation. Every one reported that lives were impacted even as they the storytellers and questioners were nervous and struggled.

I asked many of them. "Do you know how to ride a bicycle? “Yes," each would respond.

"Do you remember the first time you ever rode a bike?" I would ask. Big smiles would come, and they would say things such as, "Oh yes. I fell and skinned my knee!"

"Now you ride a bike well from practice. Even though you are wobbly in your skills of STS. like you were wobbly on your bike, you made progress and already lives are being touched. It is the Word of God you are delivering and in time with practice you will become more skillful."

Blessed to be in God's service, Dorothy