Verse:  Deuteronomy 11:19    You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

 

REACHING ORAL LEARNERS WITH THE WORD OF GOD 

Our long-time Faith Promise Missionary, Al Rhea, has the joy and privilege of gathering and distributing weekly praise and prayer requests from Cru teams in countries in Southern and Eastern Africa. Recently he listed a praise from a team in Tanzania thanking the Lord for the “Story Runners” training in oral translation materials from English and Swahili. 

 For thousands of years, the Bible has been passed on as oral stories:

• The promises God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were passed down by the Jewish people for generations before Genesis was ever written.
• The prophets God sent to Israel and Judah delivered oral messages to the people.
• Jesus used parables when he taught people about the things of God.
• After Paul planted churches in the places he visited, he would write a letter meant to be read aloud to the church there.

While missionaries all over the world are actively involved in written translation work of the Bible, Cru’s Story Runners ministry is focused on impacting the many non-readers in the world who primarily learn orally.  They, also, need God’s Word, not only in their heart language, but also in a form of communication from which they will naturally and readily learn. 

The Promise is a series of 42 Bible stories, from Creation to the Return of Christ, that have been recorded in a number of languages. Their vision is to launch communities of multiplying disciples among oral cultures by equipping local followers of Christ to produce and to use oral Bible stories in 500 languages by 2025 through their School of Storying workshops.

They work hard to ensure each story is biblically accurate, is easily learned and retold, easily understandable in a non-Christian cultural context, and uses everyday language that anyone in the culture can understand.

This is a really fascinating ministry! Go to https://www.storyrunners.org and look around. In the “Stories” section you can listen to the Bible stories in English. In the “Updates” section there are interesting stories of people groups who have been impacted by this ministry.  

Prayer & Praise - August 18-24, 2021

8/18 Beverly Minor 

Central Missionary Clearinghouse, Austria 

Praise God that the European borders have opened, providing an opportunity for Beverly to take a ministry trip to Switzerland in August plus another one to Croatia in September or October. FBA was blessed to have Beverly sing on July 18 at our services while visiting stateside.

 

8/19 NABIL & LENA COSTA

Christar, Lebanon 

Pray for Lebanon and the people there. The economic and social crises there seem to be spiraling out of control. In the last few months, the local currency accelerated its free fall, while shortages and rationing of fuel, electricity, and medicine are driving people to even more despair, anger, and hopelessness. Rapid inflation means that supplying meals for a month for a family of five now costs more than three times Lebanon’s minimum wage!

 

8/20 Mark & Jana Faus 

SIM, USA/Worldwide

Pray for the Evangelical Church body in the Philippines. There has been widespread Covid cases affecting all the church bodies and has resulted in scores of deaths of Philippine pastors. Pray that the Lord will provide peace and strength during this trying time in the Philippines and that there soon be sufficient vaccines for the population.

 

8/21 Keith & Rita Haywood 

Operation Mobilization, USA/Worldwide 

Praise God that Keith’s trip to Egypt went well, allowing visits with three potential ministry projects and working on next steps to formalize a partnership between the US church and partners in Egypt.

 

8/22 AL RHEA

Campus Crusade for Christ, USA/Southern & Eastern Africa (SEA)

The situation in most of the countries in Southern and Eastern Africa is very serious; health-wise because of Covid, and in so many places the already weak economies have been hard hit because of continuing shutdowns. Please pray for CCC staff and their families in these countries.

 

8/23 Bela & Ildiko Dobos 

Word of Life Hungary, Hungary

From the end of August, the Dobos will be in the US for an extended time of furlough. Please pray for all preparations and for strength to accomplish everything they need to do before they leave Hungary and for their time in the US. Please continue to pray that the number of new applicants in their Bible Institute for the next school year will increase.

 

8/24 Bill & Joy Boerop 

World Thrust International, USA/Worldwide            

Pray for much wisdom in developing a new website. The focus must be on pastors. They are most always the key. Pray for the restart possibility to conduct their Winning Strategies Seminar in different parts of the world.