Story & Oral Strategies Report - August 2009
"Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Matthew 13:52
Church leaders in Africa are bridging the Literacy Barrier by using inexpensive MP3 players to expand leadership training and encourage isolated Christian leaders. MAF Learning Technologies partners with key national pastors to overcome the literacy barrier using technology to deliver the Gospel.
Bringing Bible School to Isolated Leaders in Uganda
Tony Okullu in Uganda calls this the “Church Based Mobile Bible School.” MAF-LT provides a 5 Gigabyte hard drive of Christian materials, many of which are audio files. Tony downloads a teaching series on the MP3 players and sends them out via a network of Christian coordinators who share them with pastors and Christian leaders in the villages of their district. Pictured at left: Pastors from Lira meet to listen to teachings on MP3 players.
Pastor Joseph (pictured at left) has begun to use the MP3 player to start a mini Bible school among the leaders in his church. He remarked that the teachings have come at just the right time saying,
“I repent for the way I have been handling leadership and the messes I encountered due to ignorance!”
Most of these men pastor congregations that are 80% illiterate. The audio teachings have been helpful for both leaders and maturing Christians.
MP3 player with Conference Messages Passed Hands 25 Times!
Mike Mutale of Zambia reports that:
“One day I was walking along the road and I saw the MP3 [player] with some one I do not know. So I took interest to ask where he got it. It was very up lifting to hear that that person had traveled 750 kilometers with the MP3, borrowed from one of the persons who attended the meeting [conference]. That very MP3 had gone through 25 pastors listen and taking notes from the teachings. I immediately responded and made CDs to send to the brothers to share among themselves. Now I cannot switch my phone on, calls come from all over Zambia. Yes we do need more MP3s.“
Pastor Trains 540 Indian Leaders to Use STS to Reach Children
“I was involved in 10 training programmes; my job was at training how to lead different age groups of children to Christ. For every category I used STS (Simply The Story) method following five steps even though it was very new to all leaders but very much liked and all accepted that this is the right method to reach out children with good news at present situation. A total 540 leaders were trained and each leader conducted classes for 30 children in five days. Every one told stories in STS method and got v
ery good response from all - even from parents. A total of 16,082 children were reached in Karnataka and, according to their report, 268 parents accepted Christ as savior. So our team leaders were also involved in the same training. This summer all of our 19 leaders reached 740 children through stories in STS method. …184 children accepted Christ as their savior and started coming to their (the leader’s house) churches. Even some of the parents are also showing positive way for Gospel because the….parents find out the changes in their children’s lives.” Pastor Naveen, pictured at right.
ery good response from all - even from parents. A total of 16,082 children were reached in Karnataka and, according to their report, 268 parents accepted Christ as savior. So our team leaders were also involved in the same training. This summer all of our 19 leaders reached 740 children through stories in STS method. …184 children accepted Christ as their savior and started coming to their (the leader’s house) churches. Even some of the parents are also showing positive way for Gospel because the….parents find out the changes in their children’s lives.” Pastor Naveen, pictured at right.Regina worked with Naveen in 2007. He pastors in Mysore, India and uses STS to disciple 19 house church leaders.
Karen Bible School Includes STS as a “Permanent Teaching Tool”
David, host of the 2008 workshop with Karen refugees in Thailand reports how excited the Bible School teachers are about STS:
“Yesterday Wado asked me to send an official letter to Dr. Simon regarding making STS a permanent teaching tool in Kawthoolei (Bible School)'s curriculum. Wado and the other teachers had a meeting about the results they have seen in those students who took the training last November and the impact it is making in the churches throughout the refugee camp. They feel it should be implemented as a permanent training tool, and taught sometime during November.”
“As you know, the Bible school shuts down for the entire month of December, because the students are required to evangelize for one month. Plo's (a student who attended the 5-day workshop in 2008) impact on winning 24 souls to the Lord using STS is changing the way the Bible school is thinking.” Pictured at right, Janice Hale teaches STS with Karen Bible school students.
MAF hosted 2 Story & Oral Strategies Workshops near Boise, Idaho
The “SOS” workshops featured the STS method and explored other technical tools such as MP3 players, solar-powered audio players and DVD projectors. Pictured below, Regina (left) teaches STS at the June 2009 SOS workshop (class on right) at MAF in Nampa, ID.
Attendees responded:
“Thanks so much for the orality seminar… it has changed and brought new life to my teaching and preaching.” Mike
“I like it- it allows participation and allows treasures to be found by everyone!” Belva
“The cultures I have worked with (in Arnhem Land, Australia) have been ones that carry on an extensive oral tradition within their culture and I believe they would find the STS method of doing Bible studies to be very helpful, meaningful and practical ways of digging into the Bible. I look forward to using this method when we return at the end of the year because I will no longer be presenting as a
teacher/preacher but simply as a storyteller and fellow learner of God's Word. In the past I had not felt that I had the right 'tools' to reach out to non-literate peoples with God's Word and now with the STS method I do.” Nikolai
“…opened a whole new world to church planting plans, evangelism and home groups. …everybody can learn to lead this oral inductive Bible study…” Robert
Song Download The Revs (Christian singing group) created a great song called “Mary Martha” (from Luke 10:38-42). Download it here: http://media.serveall.net/Orality/audio/audiodownload.html
(Permission is given to share this song in workshops. Please do not duplicate for other purposes.)
If you know of other good songs from the Scripture stories, please share them!
STS Skype Share is a place to do STS with a group via Skype. Occasionally we spend the hour looking for “treasures” or brainstorming about other story challenges.
Every Wednesday afternoon (2-3pm MST)
Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday (8:30-9:30 MST)
Future 2009 STS Workshops with MAF-Learning Technologies involvement:
· Senegal
o Ziguinchor Oct 12-16
o Dakar Oct 20-24
· Thailand
o Kawthoolei Bible School Nov. 2-6
o Mae La Oon Bible School Nov 6-9
If interested in instructing in the Thailand workshops, contact Regina Manley for details.
2010 Workshops (dates to be announced)
· Arnhem Land, Australia
· Boise, Idaho
· Chiang Mai, Thailand and Karen refugee camps on the border
· Lesotho (independent country in South Africa)
· Mysore, India
· Papua New Guinea
Instructors are needed for 2010 workshops. For more information, contact Regina at rmanley@maf.org
