Orality

Running

Plo remembered screams, even more than running. Mom and dad left before dawn. He played at the creek with friends. Just after first light, shouts and shots erupted from the village above. He ran up the bank, crawled beneath the house and peered out between bamboo stilts. Soldiers appeared, a long, green line oozing from between jungle trees. More shots, many shots cracked thorn sharp beating rhythm for the chorus of screams.

New smoke, bullet smoke spread evil vapor that stung eyes and nose. Coordinated squads broke from the main line, spread between houses and bunched fleeing villagers into a swelling herd. Some escaped. Most were caught. Methodically, the soldiers culled old folks with single shots, drug young women off by hair or hand, and pushed the able-bodied into a dense knot. Fortunate resistors received bullet or bayonet. Others drew special attention - skulls mashed flat by rifle butt or drenched with boiling water until scalp and skin peeled away.

Concealed behind the duck pen under the house, Plo watched. Helpless disbelief froze his eyes open and nailed him in place. Finally, shrieking’s sheer weight ejected him backwards from cover, propelled him over the bank and down the path.

MAF-LT Orality Specialist, Regina Manley, directed an STS Story-Telling workshop in the southern California mountains near Lake Arrowhead.  The Calvary Chapel Conference Center in Twin Peaks provided beautiful meeting rooms among the pines.  This workshop had the unusual advantage of being hosted by MAF-LT Director, Richard & Patricia Morris. 

The 5-day workshop that ran from 20-24 July, equipped new practitioners and sharpened instructor's skills.   Local pastors, a missionary family from Kazakhstan, a FedEx pilot, and San Bernardino teachers were among those who participated.

At one of the evening board meetings with MAFLT partner ProMETA, Judy Musselman gave Mauricio a box of Spanish versions of the Bible in cassette format, some cassette players and some cranks to power the players in places with no electricity nor available batteries.

Mauricio and his wife Rosalia were invited to the small rural village of Abangaritos, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, to attend a short weekend mission trip with their local church youth group. Mauricio had to preach that Sunday in San Jose, but decided to be in Abangaritos from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. Very short trip.

Because of MAFLT's involvement in Orality, Mauricio had learned that almost 70% of the worldwide population are oral learners. Mauricio decided to bring some of those Bible cassettes and devices with him, as maybe the Lord had people in that area needing access to the Word but without the possibility of reading the Bible.

His van was already full with his kids and their luggage, plus one more invitee; 6 people total. However, they made room for some of those kits.

They had a great opportunity to share the Gospel, pray, and spend time with some of the families in the area, as well as share some groceries with them. Mauricio preached on Friday night even though electricity was gone for most of the message (fortunately, his flashlight worked well).

We set out to accomplish four things. But as an added blessing, we find God's people enjoy the fellowship of one Spirit whether from megapolis slum or sun-blasted wilderness. Our four tasks:

• Mumbai (Bombay): Determine if we can help the pastor of a 25,000+ member house church network with leadership training
• Jaipur: Participate in an SIU (Scriptures In Use) church planter story workshop
• Bengaluru (Bangalore): Conduct an STS Bible story-telling workshop
• Mysore: Evaluate progress of a three-year relationship with the leader of a rural house church group

At just over a third of the way through our trip, I had to share these sample sightings... (more pictures)

The Lesotho STS workshop has just wrapped up. There have been surprises. Most of the “excited to attend the conference” responders from a few months ago have not shown up. Is it because we did not offer this for free? Perhaps.. But “free attendance with lunches provided” would make it impossible for nationals to duplicate the workshop. Is it because of schedule conflicts? Perhaps. One thing is certain, the 16 faithful attenders will get extra attention, extra training and be better prepared to pass the method along.

Pray for all of them! They include nationals working in ministries with orphans, with Mission Aviation Fellowship and planting churches. They also include missionaries who are working with shepherd boys (Lesotho boys in the mountains must work from a young age and do not attend school), missionaries training church planters, working in accounting and as wives supporting their families here. more pics follow...