Storying

Tuesdays are story telling days. The women on our team have undertaken the daunting task of teaching a group of women and children in our neighborhood Bible stories. At the first meeting only two adults and a handful of children out of a group of around 40 had heard the story of creation.

Do you remember the first time you heard the good news that there was a God who created the world and that there was sense to be made of your life, there was hope?  Living in Kotido among the Karimojong people has showed me what life can be like with that gnawing feeling that there is something out there behind the scenes, hidden and unknown, that has power over this world.  It is unsure if this being is good or bad, maybe both,
and it is unsure what it wants from us.  These are the questions that confront these people and remain unanswered.  The joy that we have in a living God who is Holy and just, righteous and merciful, demands that we make this known.  

We are excited that we have begun to shift our focus towards church planting a little more these days.  We have not stopped working with Shalom by any means, but we have sensed God leading us to start concentrating more on planting churches.  So where do we start?  How do we teach the Bible to a people in which 8 out of 10 cannot read (and that number is much higher in the villages)?  We have started the journey of putting together and writing 40 stories from the Bible that go from creation to pentecost.  We will then be taking these stories into the villages so that people can learn who God is and how he has been working through history to redeem mankind to himself.  The plan is to story several days a week in a village over the course of 2 months.  At the end of the stories there is an invitation to become a follower of Christ.  We will begin meeting regularly with those who choose to follow to study the Bible and disciple them.  

Please pray with us as we do this.  This is our heart for doing discipleship in Karamoja and our hope for reaching our people with the gospel. We are excited to see what God will do!