Mbandaka StoryTogether Workshop 4 | Day 5

Mbandaka StoryTogether Workshop 4 | Day 4

Mbandaka StoryTogether Workshop 4 | Day 3

Mbandaka (DRC) StoryTogether/Oral Bible Storying project.

Workshop 4.

Eight languages -- most of them bibleless (including two Pygmy languages).

Purple Hull Peas

In recent weeks we traveled across the Congo river to “the other Congo” to do a 2-week orality workshop.  Mossendjo, Republic of Congo was a wonderful little town that reminded me of Garango, Burkina Faso, where we lived for our first two terms as long-term missionaries.  I told Jay I wouldn’t mind living there.

We met a lovely woman who owns a cloth boutique as we walked to the church for our workshop.  One afternoon she came for a visit at the home where we were staying and brought a most welcome gift.  Purple hull peas!  One of my favorite foods and my first time to see them in Africa. 

I shared with her and the ladies who were cooking our meals how much I loved those peas and what wonderful memories they brought me from my childhood.  And then I waited and waited and waited.  But the cooks never prepared the peas.  As we started back to Kinshasa, we began a long 8-hour trek to the city of Pointe Noire where we were to take a flight.  As we removed our bags from the car, Jay saw the peas in the trunk.  He said to our host, “Maman Kathy would like to take her peas, please.”  We took them inside, shrink wrapped them, and put them on the plane as a piece of luggage.  Just for the record, shrink wrapping fresh peas is not the greatest idea.  We spent the night in Brazzaville, RC and the next morning after church crossed the Congo River to return to Kinshasa.

 

When I unwrapped the peas, they had gotten a bit moldy.  BUT, undeterred, we shelled them, and I cooked them up with some bacon (just like Mama would’ve done). And you know, that mold didn’t bother the taste of those peas one bit.  Over the next three days, Jay and I dug into purple hull peas and cornbread for almost every meal.  I savored every bite, thought of my momma with her big hat on, picking peas in the garden and sitting in the living room shelling peas.  Pure joy!

So what comes next and how can you pray?

• May 1, we start our fourth Story Together workshop in Mbandaka, DRC.  Please check this blog each day for a specific prayer request for that project. 
• We look forward to welcoming our colleagues the Finches and the Singermans back to Kinshasa in the coming weeks.  Pray for us and the Evanses and the Kuglins as we prepare for their return.

Telling the Grand Story of God's Redemption

We recently completed the third of five workshops of a two-year Bible storying project in partnership with Seed Company.  What an amazing two weeks!  Follow along with the pictures and videos to get a glimpse of what that workshop entailed.

Each morning started off with lively worship before we got to work.

Over the next 5 days our team of Congolese and American trainers, orality consultants, and workshop participants told 86 Bible stories in chronological order, beginning with the creation of the spirit world and ending with Revelation.

Each time a story was told we gave it a descriptive title and placed a rock to represent it.  Large rocks were placed to show major stories in God’s overall redemptive plan.  Smaller rocks represented stories in between.

Each participant, consultant, and trainer was expected to learn the chronology of these stories by their titles.

Throughout this epic storytelling time, our lead trainer asked questions to help participants find “whispers” of the gospel in stories and to see where story messages repeat themselves in the overall Bible narrative.

In the late afternoon we checked the previous workshop’s homework of 12 stories, making sure that they were Biblically accurate and interesting.  Teams made final recordings of their stories.

Through a series of lessons on culture, our lead trainer helped all 8 teams think deeply about choosing 35 stories of the 86 to show God’s redemption to their people.  This process took several days as trainers and consultants questioned teams intensely about their choices.  The 8 teams chose smaller rocks to represent their story set.

Each team presented their story set to the big group and briefly explained their choices.

Finally after two weeks of hard work and lots of smiles and laughter from Baby Grace, everyone returned home to begin crafting and testing and recording their story set.  Of course, they will be telling these stories in their communities and churches.  In May all teams are expected to have half of their set completed.

So, what comes next and how can you pray?

• On March 9, three Congolese consultants will return to Mbandaka and the forest to begin checking the progress of homework.  Pray for them as they travel.
• Pray for the 8 teams to work diligently and respectfully with the Word of God.  Pray that they will carefully handle the Word of Truth.
• Kathy and Jay leave on March 1 to begin a two-week orality workshop in “the other Congo” as the beginning of a Bible translation in the Tsaangi language.  This project is also in partnership with Seed Company. 
• Thank God for Seed Company and for our wonderful Congolese partners. 

StoryTogether Project II, Day 8 (final day)

StoryTogether Project II, Day 7