Some Mistakes, but God Moves

My deafness has been a challenge. I find it harder and harder to do the things I need to do. Simple things like calling someone on the phone are not possible for me right now. My hearing is getting better daily, but in the meantime, this is a challenge.

One mistake I’ve been making is in modeling for Mr S how to lead participatory Bible studies. He is managing the Bible study time, but I am still facilitating the discussion. This is not ideal, because, it creates an expectation that a highly trained outsider needs to direct Bible learning.

Worse, with my deafness creating communication barriers, group participation in the Bible studies is weakening, as I’ve found it easier to talk than ask questions . So, I am not only creating the wrong expectation, I am giving the wrong model. Two mistakes.

That being said, God has been at work. Five of the eight regular participants are now baptized and two more plan to soon. Mr S has also shared with a work colleague about what God has done in his life. This will lead to a new home meeting in a new neighborhood.

Sorry that I haven’t written about the last couple of storying sessions. Maybe I’ll get to that soon.

Crutches and Hospitality

A little over a week ago, my wife slipped and fell while picking mangos from the tree in our back yard. The tree is on a slope of about 40 degrees. So, landing wrong is always a big possibility, when jumping. She rolled her foot and tore, or at least severely sprained a ligament. She’s been on crutches since.

She had a cast for 3 days, and now she is keeping the foot immobilized  and icing it down several times a day. Once the foot is well enough, she can begin physical therapy.

So, this time, I went to Mr S’s house alone. The hill is too steep and there are too many deep holes in the dirt road for her to even have a chance to climb. I am still deaf, so going alone was a challenge, but like I mentioned in the last post, we don’t want to lose rhythm.

I asked Mr S to manage the Bible study time as best as he could remember. So he asked everyone to share something they were thankful to God for. Then He asked them to tell about what was frustrating in their lives or what needed God’s help. He asked someone to pray. We talked about last week’s passage and who we shared it with.

I then told the passage of Acts where Luke records Paul and Silas’s journey to Philippi. The family recalled the story together, making sure to get each detail right (this takes a bit of time, but is always worth it.) We then observed several elements of the story.

• Lydia and her family being baptized right away.
• Lydia receiving Paul and his companions in her home for an extended time.
• The slave girl and her situation.
• Her healing and the reaction of the city.
• Paul and Silas’s reaction to being stripped, beaten and thrown in jail.
• God’s response to prayer.
• The jailor and his family being believing and being baptized right away.
• Paul’s insistence on a correct resolution to his jailing.
• The reunion at Lydia’s house with the other Christians.

The family began to make applications on two observations.

First, the way the gospel was spreading. People were being baptized right away based on believing in Jesus and not after being approved or passing a test. They talked about the importance of being baptized. They mentioned that one of their sons is being baptized in a local neighborhood evangelical church (today), and that they want to as well, but the church has a number of requirements for which they don’t qualify yet. They are considering if they should wait or just be baptized and start meeting as a church in their home.

Second, was how hospitable the new believers were. Lydia received a group in her home, provided for them, and held meetings in her home. The Jailer received prisoners in his home and took care of them. The family talked about how God brings people together. The family has been receiving a good number of people over for the Bible studies, friends and extended family, and even opening space for others to live with them. (This from a family of seven in a one bedroom house.)

Keep praying.

Cousins and Neighbors

We returned to Mr S’s house last night. No rain, so the walk was easier. His daughter is recovering quite well and will have her stitches out in another week.

We spent an hour or so just visiting and enjoying company before beginning the Bible storying. We have purposed to be friends and family. We want to set the DNA of the relationship as one of equals under God, and not any other thing. In the past, we’ve inadvertently set ourselves up as one who is above. This is the wrong way to start churches and make disciples. (Please read “We Ministered to Them” in my Beyond Outreach Blog)

Our start was the same as always, each person sharing something they are grateful to God for, and then each person sharing a need in their life. This is how we set the place for prayer at the beginning of home Bible studies.

After we finished this, I asked Mr S to pray, putting him on the spot. He stood up with all of us, trembling and frightened, and prayed. This was a major breakthrough for he and his family. It is the first time he led his family in prayer and prayed in front of  his family. It was a big deal for everyone.

A cousin has come to live with the family. She has been participating for the last 3 weeks in this home Bible study. She is growing very close to God as well. The whole family is transforming. In addition, neighbors who are members of a local evangelical church have been observing what is happening in this family and are working hard to call them to join.  We will see what happens there. God is at work.

The Bible passage was John 9. I told the story in my own words, but 100% faithful to the scripture, not adding or taking away anything. We stepped through the story together, meaning the whole family recreated the passage, talking through the details until they got them all right. We then observed parts of the passage and found applications. We agreed together on how each of our families and each of us individually would put this scripture in to practice in our lives, and made plans to meet again next week.

(My current deafness is making this a little more difficult for me, but has been used of God in this whole process. He knows what he is doing. You can read about my deafness at http://smy2ci.blogspot.com )

Not Losing Rhythm

We went to Mr S’s home again on Friday. Once again, we had to go up the hill on foot, in the rain and mud.  We had not been sure if we would have our bible study this week. I have been adjusting to another unexpected season of deafness and his daughter is recovering from surgery. The family insisted that we not lose rhythm. They want to follow Jesus. We will not be a discouragement.

Mr S’s daughter is doing well, with a small bandage on her head, just like I had a few months ago. She was happy to see us and already excited about what is to come.

Shortly after we arrived, we got a phone call with some bad news. Really bad news. The kind that either sends you into fervent prayer or into despair. We just could not go forward with a regular inductive bible study (oral style), so we just read Psalm 90 and prayed. We prayed a lot.

Then the children put on a cd of praise. Mr S’s daughter danced. She can feel the rhythm. I believe she can also feel the newness of spirit that has overcome her family. Without a word, she praises.

Pray for us. We are in the midst of the storm.

Mr S’s Daughter

On the 24th, Mr S’s daughter is having her cochlear implant surgery. We met with the family on my birthday, Friday the 20th, for prayer. I went deaf again that morning. You’ve read about that kind of struggle on this blog before, I am sure.

This time, I will not post hearing updates here, rather I will post them on http://smy2ci.blogspot.com My cochlear implant blog. Please be in prayer for the both of us.

Instead of telling a story, this time, we made an agreement to read psalm 119 with our families over the next three weeks. Eight verses a day. We will talk about them and find a way to put them in practice.

Baptisms and Mr S’s Family

Yesterday, my family and I returned to Mr S’s house. We had to skip several weeks as his family travelled. When we arrived we were excited to see that the family has been walking together in the ways of Jesus.

In fact, one of his sons decided on his own that he needed to be baptized. He found a foursquare gospel church not terribly far from their home and is scheduled to be baptized there in February. Because of this all of their Mr S’s children went to that church last night. We stayed in the home with just the parents.

I told the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian. (By the way,  I discovered last night, that I have been pronouncing ‘Ethiopian’ wrong for the past 9 years) After we talked about the story as we always do, Mr S commented how similar it was to their situation. They planned to decide as a family about baptism and make a plan  for what they will do before next week.

Perhaps the family will all seek to join the Foursquare Gospel church and be baptized there. Perhaps they will ask me to baptize them and start a new church in their home. We don’t know yet. Pray for their wisdom.

In the midst of all this, their youngest daughter, who is deaf, will have a cochlear implant surgery on January 24th. The same doctor who did my surgery will do hers. Pray for her success.

In the Rain, in the Mud, Uphill

When we arrived at Mr S’s neighborhood, we left the car on the paved road. After I put a raincoat on Nilson, I took my hearing aid and cochlear implant off and put them in Loaise’s purse. We got out of the car, together with Mr S, and started walking uphill, about a quarter-mile. I carried Nilson, as it was raining and a muddy river was flowing down at our feet.

When we arrived at the house, Everyone took their shoes off and made themselves at home. I asked for a towel to dry my hair, so I could put my hearing aid and CI back on. I am deaf without them. Mr S gave me one of his shirts to wear,and I put mine on the line to dry a bit.

This was our third meeting his family. Our first meeting had featured the parable of the sower. Last week was the wise and foolish builder. We have been modeling for the family how to have an inductive Bible study with mutual accountability. (A way to help one another obey scripture).

Last week, Mr S and his family made a commitment to having their own weekly family Bible reading. They had chosen John 3 as their passage and read it together during the week. They did not understand a certain part of the passage and prayed for help. God certainly answered their prayers.

The passage I’d chosen for the day was the Bronze Serpent. First, everyone shared things for which they are grateful to God and needs they have. After that each one shared with how we obeyed the scripture last week. I had Mr S read verses 14-16 of John 3. Someone else read the passage from Numbers. Then I told the passage in my own words.

What followed was a great discussion, with each person having some input and participation. As they discovered God’s justice and mercy in providing a way to escape death with a bronze snake, they noticed how much better it was than just removing the snakes.

When we finished and re-read John 3:14-16, each one in the family shared that they believe that we must look to Jesus, just as the Israelites looked at the bronze serpent. Faith is growing quickly in this family.

Mr S and his Family

I recently had a cochlear implant surgery. You can read all about that on another blog http://smy2ci.blogspot.com. The surgery introduced me to a whole new world of people who have been going through and will be going through the same experience.

 

One example is the family of Mr S. His daughter is deaf and will have a cochlear implant early next year, God willing. We were invited to his house yesterday. Nilson, my son, played very well with his daughter. Loaise and I talked with them about my experience with the surgery.

 

After a while we sat down for a Bible story. I told the story of the sower of seed and the four soils. After a walk-though, but no retelling, we talked about what kind of soil best represents our own lives, and which we would prefer.

 

This storying time was well received. We modeled how to have an inductive Bible study. The family agreed that they need to change some things to become good soil, and that is what they want. I hope to see this whole family baptized in the next few months.

 

We were invited to return next Thursday. We will keep this up for several weeks. In the next two weeks I will help Mr S begin to lead the discussion, and soon afterwards, I will teach him how to learn and tell stories for his family. I hope to see this family baptized in the next few months. Not sure whether to point them towards a traditional church or to help them start a house church.

 

I am being presumptuous, but I believe God will move quickly with this family. Pray for them.

Planning a Short-Term Mission Trip

I have been a trip volunteer, a trip leader, a receiving volunteer, and the receiving missionary. I've participated in every aspect of short-term missions. This post from Guy Muse (SBC Missionary in Ecuador) is a must read for every pastor and volunteer.

The key affirmation in this article, for me, is that many... most come unprepared for evangelism. Pastors, get your short-term missions teams experienced in evangelism before the trip, please.

Read this great article...

The M Blog: To all our friends who come down for mission trips...: "Summer has arrived. We begin what is traditionally the season for volunteer groups coming down to help in our mission work. We are always gr..."

Trip to Santarém with STS

Here is a post in pictures of the Simply the Story workshop in Santarém in the state of Pará, Brazil. This was the first STS workshop in Brazil, and I am honored to have been a part of it. I was called up at the last minute to help as a leader and translator. God's hand was in this at every step.



Demonstrating how to learn a Bible story accurately and quickly in small groups.




Listening in on a group talking through one of the Bible stories and finding spiritual treasures.

More Lessons Learned: How to be a Missionary

As I mentioned in a previous post, these are lessons I have learned along the way as a missionary.

• Walk, don’t drive. My experience has been that in general taking a car cost much more than it helps. One example: When we needed to go and visit a family about half an hour up the mountain walking, we were tempted to do it in 5 minutes driving. We walked. As we walked with one of the family members, we told Bible stories and listened to her stories. By the time we got to the top, we were in the company of nearly a dozen. All of them hearing these stories. We were then introduced to another dozen people who wanted to hear more. When we got to her house, we stayed for a 15 minute visit. By car, that would be 15 somewhat superficial minutes with a family. On foot, that was over an hour, and highly intimate. We met a dozen more people through an existing relationship.
  
  
• Do copiable things. Today I found out that another friend of mine started reading the Bible with friends at work when he started a new job. I never told these men that they needed to go and make disciples in their workplace by reading the Bible or telling Bible stories, but that is what they did. They saw us doing it, and when they left our company to work in another place (and even country) they did what seemed natural to them.  They had seen it done, easily.  So some of our disciples have gone and made disciples and we never knew about it until much later.
  
  
• Spend the Night. This idea is related to the first. We would go into a small community and have a Bible study with one family, visit another and then take the bus home. We always had to alternate which family would get the Bible study because of time. One night, the family told my wife and I. “Look, you can stay here. Go ahead and miss the bus, take the one at sunrise, you will be back in your city by 7:00.” They gave us their own clothes to wear to bed. The result was that we spend a long time sitting around the kitchen table talking with them and drinking coffee. You know how those kinds of conversations go. In one night, we became family. There was a bond that formed that was stronger than 3 years of weekly 1-hour visits.
  

Widely Accepted Missions Strategy

I read this on a site. I’ve seen this dozens of times with other organizations as well. I want to point it out.

The objective of the work of the Generic Missions Agency can be outlined in three stages:
1. Learn the Language.
2. Begin creating a phonetic alphabet and training in literacy.
3. Through the translation of the Bible, transmit the word of God.

I would propose a new strategy if I were permitted to give my opinion. It would look like this:

1. Learn the language.
2. Tell God’s stories orally.
3. Disciple using an oral Bible.
4. Begin creating a phonetic alphabet and training in literacy.
5. Translate the Bible as a supplement and codification of the oral bible, making recordings as you go.

Why should reading or literacy EVER be a prerequisite to evangelism and discipleship?

Interactive Bible Storying with Children

Yesterday, I was invited to tell some interactive Bible stories to a group of children. I expected about 40, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw busloads of kids arriving. There were over 300!

The neat thing about stories, is that once you’ve told them a few times, you don’t forget them easily. (In the case of Bible storying, I would say you should tell every Bible story you know at least once every six months to keep them fresh in your mind.) Once you have learned a number of stories, you can string them together into a bigger narrative. This is a wonderful experience for both the storyteller and the hearer.

Since the children were all sitting on the floor, and rather disorganized, I knew I would have some trouble keeping their attention, so I used a hand sign to represent each story before and after I told it. Every time I got to a new story, I would do all of the hand signs with them from the beginning and say something that would remind them of the story. Most of them were “two-minute stories.” They were only a few verses long. So, I was able to tell these stories straight from the Bible.

Here are the stories I told and the hand signs I used.

Lessons Learned: How to be a missionary

Since I began Bible storying, my strategy in missions and ministry has transformed a great deal. Here are some of the lessons I have learned from both success and failure. (I am going to do this over several posts)

• Don’t spend your time trying to create groups. In 2004 and 2005, I spent a lot of time trying to coax five families into meeting together for a Bible study. I got three of them to finally do it. As soon as we started to make progress, as I defined it, Satan broke up the group. He caused confusion and mistrust to separate the families in a brutal way. I spent 3 years trying to corral families together for Bible studies and was unsuccessful engaging many willing families, because I could not form the groups I wanted.
  
  
• Disciple groups that already exist. The families on the hill is one of the biggest success stories of this blog. A major reason for the success was that they are a family with already existing ties and relationships. There is a bond there that is not easily broken (though Satan did try again). Existing groups will generally either accept or reject the gospel as a group, rather than splinter and disband. When they do decide to follow Jesus, discipleship is natural and often faster than expected.
  
  
• Give preference to oral communication. I had tried several times to start a Bible study with the families on the hill. At one point, I was going weekly for a long period of time, but making no headway in evangelism or discipleship. The day I suggested we put away our pens and notebooks, and began telling the scripture was the day they started “hearing” the message. This happened in a lot of places, even among the highly literate.
  

Not Forgotten

It has been a long while since I have written consistently in this blog. I have been blogging regularly at Beyond Outreach. I do intend to return to this Bible storying journal soon. I do have a couple of examples of Bible storying in preaching if you are interested, both in English and Portuguese. They are on my Media Page. I should be back to posting updates here soon.