StoryRunners Greatest Needs

Story Movements

“Before we went to the School of Storying, I was ashamed of sharing about Jesus,” Cedric* says.

“But, after the training, I said ‘No one can stop me from sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ!’” Cedric and Aristide* have no seminary training. In fact, they can’t even read. But, God is using their steps of faith to use oral Bible stories to plant churches!

There are extremely limited Christian resources for the 323,000 Mufid speakers, who predominantly follow voodoo and animism. The people pass on their traditions and beliefs through songs and stories. Cedric and Aristide participated in the Mufid language School of Storying.

The School of Storying is a residence workshop with local people who produce and are equipped to use The Promise, a series of Bible stories from Creation to the Return of Jesus, in their own language in just four weeks. By the end of the training, not only had Cedric and Aristide helped develop an oral Bible story set in their language, but they also left equipped to use these stories for evangelism, discipleship and church planting.

After the training, Cedric and Aristide planted a church in a village that previously had no Christian witness, all through telling Bible stories. Over 25 men and women have begun to follow Christ as God’s Word has taken root in their hearts! And, Cedric and Aristide are not yet finished. They have identified the next two villages that they will travel to in order to plant churches.

Your gift today ensures people like Cedric and Aristide are equipped to plant churches among unreached people living in oral cultures. Thank you!

School of Storying

Pastor Kiram* is from a farming people group in West Africa. He used to meet other farmers in their fields and preach to them; but, they could never remember the messages he shared.

A few years ago, Pastor Kiram attended one of our School of Storying projects as a translator. The School of Storying is a residence workshop with local people who produce and are equipped to use The Promise, a series of Bible stories from Creation to the Return of Jesus, in their own language in just four weeks.

The StoryRunners team uses translators like Pastor Kiram to ensure each oral Bible story is biblically faithful, easily learned and retold, uses everyday language and is appropriate to the local culture. StoryRunners also trains the participants to use the stories in evangelism, discipleship and church planting.

After the School of Storying, Kiram returned home and began to use the newly developed oral Bible stories in his language. Because his people are oral learners and best learn through spoken narrative, the farmers connected with the stories and could now easily remember what Kiram told them. They started to carry God’s Word in their hearts through stories, and they told those stories to others.

Soon Kiram was leading multiple story groups, or the oral equivalent of a Bible study; and, now Kiram travels far outside of his community to plant churches.In fact, Kiram has planted eight churches using these stories.

Your gift today will help local people participate in a School of Storying project to develop an oral Bible story set. Your partnership ensures that more unreached people who live in oral cultures can have God’s Word in a way that best speaks to their hearts: oral Bible stories.

*Name changed for security.

Equipment Package

Seven teams around the world run School of Storying projects, and gifts of vital equipment have helped them share Jesus with thousands in their areas.

“I think my laptop knows that I love it so much,” jokes Tanzanian StoryRunners coach Ruth M.

Technology like computers, audio recorders and memory cards serve as indispensable parts of the intensive process StoryRunners has pioneered to help people produce a set of Bible stories in someone’s heart language in just four weeks.

Coaches like Ruth play recorded Scripture for speakers of the local language; then participants spend time telling it and developing it into a story that is naturally and easily told. After checking with both coaches and local guests to ensure cultural appropriateness, the team uses high-quality microphones to record drafts of the oral Bible stories. Then other StoryRunners team members check the stories for biblical faithfulness, making notes using computer software.

For teams in places like Tanzania, where owning a laptop isn’t common, the gift of technology brings big smiles. Since Ruth’s team received laptops and other equipment in 2022, they have completed Bible story sets in eight languages and are preparing for more!

When you send technology to StoryRunners teams around the world, you help them to work efficiently and effectively. In this way, we can share the good news with more people groups so that the unreached can become reached.

Greatest Needs

“Baptize me! I want to be good soil!”

Declared John, a Zimbabwean game-hunting guide, after listening to the StoryRunners’ oral Bible story of the Parable of the Sower in his heart language.

Shovels came out and dirt began flying. Soon he was in a plastic-lined hole in the ground filled with water, and he was baptized to celebrate his new birth!

Today you can ensure that people like John, oral learners who live in unreached people groups, can hear God’s Word in a way that speaks to their hearts: oral Bible stories.

The vision of StoryRunners is to see followers of Christ in communities of faith in every unreached oral people group. Thank you for making it possible so people like John can hear God’s Word and respond in faith.