Simply the Story

Wow! A few weeks ago I attended a workshop called Simply the Story. At this workshop we were taught how to learn a Bible story accurately enough to retell it properly as a story, as well as how to invent questions that draw the listener through the story. This allows them to remember it accurately as well. The listener can then pass the story on through a similar technique to another listener ans so on...

This strategy is called "storying" and there are numerous organizations that teach "storying". The reason that I learned how to story is so that I can train interested individuals in the strategy so that when we visit our friends in Ethiopia, the Gamo people, we will have a usefull tool in our belt in reaching them as an oral culture... or as illiterate learners.

As you can imagine you run into a bit of a wall when you share the gospel with an illiterate learner and they ask you "how can I learn more about this God that you speak of". "Go to church" is a great answer... if there is one planted already... "Read the Bible" would be a fabulous response in America but poses a problem when your new friend cannot read, or when the Bible is not printed in their native language.

For this reason storying has become a common and extremely usefull tool in the missionary's tool belt. I am so very excited to go into Ethiopia this summer with a way to teach the people Bible stories... stories that Jesus taught himself... in a way that they will be passed down for generations.

For more information on Simply the Story you can google it... there is another workshop coming up in April in Texas if you are interested. Peace.

Simply the Story...

Have you heard of Storying?
It is a technique used to evangelize cultures of non-literate learners. These cultures have passed their traditions, history and religions down through stories for centuries. The truths that we base our faith on as Christians are housed in the stories of the Bible. God wrote the Bible as:
75% narrative (story)
15% poetry
10% exposition
The idea behind Storying is that you learn the format by which these cultures create and present their stories and then you put Biblical stories into this format. This will allow non-literate cultures to learn, remember and pass down the truths in scripture once you have shared the gospel with them.

I will be attending a conference this month called Simply the Story. Simply the Story encourages presenters of Bible information to use the whole story as God gave it, and then to go back and find the spiritual information the story contains. As well, the presenter learns how to form questions for a discussion forum that will lead listeners to that information. I am very excited about this new strategy and I am anxious to see how it will impact the non-literate Gamo culture in Ethiopia that we will visit this summer. At this conference I will not only learn the strategy but be trained to teach it! The conference is January 25-29 so stay tuned! Peace.

"...so what do you do dear?"

And so I leave my apartment and as I walk the short distance from stairs to parking spot I encounter numerous older women, enamored with this new single girl in the building. Each of them inquire about my age, my boyfriend status and then of course my occupation. I'm stumped. What do I do? Nanny... waitress... shop girl... "I'm a missionary."

What an amazing statement to proclaim after months of prayer and doubt, support raising and tears... How blessed I am to be able to share the love of Jesus with the nations. I am blessed by those who have chosen to step out in faith with me and support my efforts... I am eagerly awaiting all that the Lord chooses to do through us all. Here I come...