A Dream Becomes Reality

A few years ago, a new strategy to reach oral people groups with the gospel was only a dream: creating portions of an "oral Bible" on cassette tapes and DVDs as well as through traditional forms in the culture of the local people. In October 2006 THE INTERCESSOR CONNECTION featured an article on the beginning work of OneStory teams in West Africa. Since that time, a total of 19 OneStory missionaries have come to live and work among nine different unreached people groups in West Africa - learning the local language, conducting a worldview evaluation, and developing a set of oral Bible stories.

Our desire is to convey the richness of the Gospel in a way that will enable people of different cultures to grasp the message themselves. As our team members' language ability improves, so does their understanding of how culture can impact the quality of our stories. It's a lot of responsibility that our young, but mature missionaries take seriously... They have worked so hard. I wish you could see the mud huts they have lived in, smelled the sour milk they drank with a smile, and heard the complexities of the languages they learned. These young people have acquired life skills that will take them far, such as working and living closely with their teammates and making team decisions on the direction of their work. Most importantly, they have lived on the edge of their faith and solely trusted the Lord to see them through. Join me in thanking the Lord for His faithfulness in protecting and blessing our OneStory team members. Pray that the West Africans who hear God's Story in their heart language will embrace the One who loves them so.

Judy Miller - OneStory Team leader

As we have reached the end of our work in Niger, we are excited to have finished our projects. The story sets we've been working on for the past 2½ years have been fully approved by our consultant. Throughout the project, we submitted each story to her to be reviewed and checked for biblical accuracy. We praise the Lord for the set of 22 Tamasheq stories and the set of 33 Fulfulde stories! The Lord is good! Please pray that as the Tamasheq and Fulbe people receive these story sets on cassette, they will take them back to their families and the Word of God will spread rapidly. Pray that God's Word will go out and not return void!

Tara, Seng, Toby, and Bradley (OneStory team members)