Situational Storying
One of the things that Jay and I love most about the
privilege of being IMB missionaries is the joy that it is to train believers
how to use Bible stories in the situations that arise in their everyday
lives. Last week we were asked to come
to a local pastoral training center and teach how to do just that. With 9 pastors present, what joy we
experienced together as we mastered stories from the life of Jesus as well as
parables that He told. We acted them
out, told them to each other, and with the help of five simple leading
questions, discussed their truths in depth.
Each day the group had the homework of sharing the stories that we had
learned with at least one person.
My favorite testimony of the week was one pastor who had a young man in his neighborhood who had been avoiding him. One day last week when the pastor saw him, he said to the young man, “You always seem to shun me when I try to preach to you. Do you mind today if I just tell you a simple story?” The young man was surprised and said, “Sure.” The pastor shared the parable of the treasure in the field from Matthew 13, and then asked this question: “What do you like about this story?”
And then he listened…
No “preaching,” just meaningful exchange about the truths in God’s Word.
The Mundane Part of Our Job
You’ve been praying for our language study, and we gratefully
feel the effects of those prayers daily. We recently attended a conference where we
were encouraged to begin thinking about our language study in a new way. Rather than just learning a language, we are entering a domain of God’s
redemptive activity. Wow! What a switch from just wanting to get this
part over with so we can move onto what’s more important. He’s already here behind this wall of Lingala
noise. He already speaks and understands
Lingala. And He is already at work. What better way to find out exactly where,
than by understanding the noise that’s around us.
One of the new approaches that we learned in our training
included some listening activities.
We’ve found them to be very helpful as we s-t-r-e-t-c-h the number of
words in a row that we can comprehend.
It’s also a fun activity that makes us laugh a lot with our language
helper, Ruffin.
To our Southern Baptist friends, we daily thank God for His
provision for us through your generosity.
As we enter this Lottie Moon season, we are immensely grateful for your
care for us through your giving and support.
