We have just finish with the pastors and what a fabulous three month term we had. They went home Sunday with great joy as they were anxious to see their loved ones. They will be home for three months to plant their gardens and then return to us in August for a second four month term.
It was an extraordinary last week for the pastors as we ministered alongside the Simply the Story (STS). The team of four people from Kenya, Uganda and USA, held a five day workshop and taught us to do Inductive Bible Study orally. We witnessed the Lord working in the hearts of the pastors as they learnt this new evangelism tool. Simply the Story takes a story from the bible and retells it to an illiterate group. It is then retold by someone listening and then the storyteller leads the group through the story a third time. At this point everyone is now quite familiar with the story. Then going back through the story with group discussion we look for hidden treasures or spiritual observations and learn how to apply them to our life.
We have never before witnessed our pastors involved in such lively discussions and interested in every part of the story, asking questions and eager for their turn to share. They could easily talk and discuss for more than two hours about a ten verse story. Some of the discussions just blessed my heart to see the depth of understanding they have reached, making observations and comments that everybody in the group was blessed to hear and sometimes tearing from laughter.
In the last two years we have spent discipling these pastors it was always clear to us we are desiring them to increase in knowledge of the Word for their own growth and spiritual maturity. Some of the churches they pastor have as many as 500 people and as high as 99% are illiterate, so this has been a challenge. We have now brought an effective tool that the pastors can use and is suitable for their congregations. They have bible stories in their pockets that can be pulled out and used at any given moment. It’s brilliant!
The Lord is so faithful as we prayed for the Lord to help us fill in the gap for those who are illiterate in a way they can receive the gospel and understand it. Last year I (Sabet) was introduced to the method used by STS in a Bible study in Orange county. I was amazed at how simple it was and yet so powerful. I had no way of knowing how soon the Lord would provide a way for it to be brought to Tonj. Suzy met with missionary friends from World Gospel Mission who have been using this STS in Uganda and working with it in over 150 churches. They offered to help us and send us guys to lead us through the training. We had over 20 pastors and leaders from four main areas that are surrounding our village Tonj. Two tribal groups were represented in the training. The first outcome of this training is to see how blessed the pastors are to see the Word alive and to see how they were touched by the new discoveries they made through the storytelling. Second, is that I am praying and sensing God is doing a great revival in the Dinka and Lou land for His glory.
Please join us in praying for this tool to be taken adn used in all the areas that these pastors come from. We are having another chance to train these pastors the next term they are here to be trainers and leaders in their own respective areas. It was an exciting time to see our Lord Jesus being glorified by his servants who came and spent 10 days with us. Many thanks to World Gospel Mission’s Joy Phillips and Billy Coppedge for helping to arrange and fund the workshop. Also our gratitude is to Bramuel, Richard, Emmy and Jon for training us and allowing us to learn from them. We are so blessed!