Passionate Storytellers

The majority of West Africans are non-readers or oral learners. According to a recent UN study, the least literate countries in the world are Burkina Faso (13%), Niger (14%) and Mali (19%) --the heart of the West Africa region. Even if the Bible is put into their language, many people will never be able to read the inspired words. This year, a new strategy has been introduced in West Africa: creating an "oral Bible" that is made available on cassette tapes and DVDs as well as through traditional forms in the culture of the local people. OneStory International, a partnership involving the International Mission Board and several other Great Commission Christian mission agencies, focuses on Bible-less language groups and gives them the Scriptures through a set of chronological Bible stories. OneStory teams working in West Africa spend their term living among an unreached people group, learning the local language, conducting a worldview evaluation, and developing a set of Bible stories in a format that can be easily understood by the local people. Written Bible translation must continue, as Christians will always be a people of the Book. Yet oral Bible translation must occur as well, for the billions of people who will never be able to read this Book. Pray that as OneStory teams share Bible stories in local "heart languages" across West Africa, many unreached people groups will come to understand and accept the salvation that Jesus Christ offers.

Judy Miller - Team Leader, West Africa OneStory Team

S* has been studying the Bible with my husband Lee for several years. Our Jola team began praying that God would reveal to Lee what they should study next. Several weeks later, God directed Lee to use the "storying cloth" (a cloth with 42 Bible pictures printed on it, representing 21 Old Testament stories and 21 New Testament stories). When they reviewed the pictures on the storying cloth, S* knew almost all of the stories. The next week, Lee asked S* to repeat the first two stories that were pictured, and then asked if he would be interested in taking the cloth and sharing these two stories with several other people. S* responded, "Yes, that would be easy!" When he returned the following week, S* had shared the stories with 12 men, and was excited to learn the next two stories so that he could continue. Praise God for answered prayer! Please intercede for S*, asking God to give him unrelenting passion for telling the Bible stories. Pray that the men who hear the stories will accept Jesus as their Savior.

*Name withheld for security purposes

Donelle Kauffman - JOLA Team

Order a West Africa "Bible storying cloth."