Saturday, October 13
Kazakhstan
The October 2010 Bible storytelling conference was held in the capital. Almaty, and drew local Christian leaders from Karaganda, Taldykorgan, and Shymkent. The conference was designed to teach the principles of Bible story evangelism and understanding of the oral method of teaching. This method has proved to be effective in Islamic countries.
The speaker focused on how to tell stories from the Bible and explained several story models for evangelism. The lectures laid a solid foundation for how oral evangelism works. The speaker not only taught how to develop stories from the Bible, but also how to follow up the story with searching questions.
At one point, the speaker divided the audience into five groups, and each group composed simple melodies to accompany evangelistic Bible stories. This was a [particularly popular part of the program. The speaker commented, "I have never seen a group that was able to compose and match Bible stories to music so well.''
The attendees were quite receptive to Bible story evangelism. It harmonizes well with the oral tradition of Kazak nomadic culture and is an effective tool for use in villages where there are not yet churches. Although there are churches in big cities, church planting is no longer permitted in Kazakhstan. We trust that God will use this strategy to advance the Kingdom of God.
Because of the popularity of the 2012 seminar, we anticipate that future seminars will need an expanded venue to accommodate the attendees. In order to widen its imp ace, we will invite local leaders and missionaries from Almaty and trust that the influence of this teaching method will flow to villages beyond the capital because of increased exposure.
Let us join in prayer for:
Partners/Ministries
Please pray for people in mission in Central Asia
PC(USA) Agencies' Staff
Kim Saltzman, Board of Pensions
Alicia Samuels, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Let us pray
Gracious God, by the love of Jesus Christ, you draw people to faith. We ask that we would continually demonstrate that faith by proclaiming the good news in word and deed. We pray that you would give courage and vision to your church in this diverse region. In Jesus name. Amen.
Daily Lectionary
Morning Psalms 104; 149
First Reading Hosea 10:1-15
Second Reading Acts 25:13-27
Gospel Reading Luke 8:16-25
Evening Psalms 138; 98
