Author: Simon Bartz, 29 June 2023
More than 3,000 people, many of them pastors, have attended Bible-storytelling sessions in the Gulf this year to strengthen their faith and help them spread the good news of Jesus.
The storytelling is crucial as many migrant worker believers are more comfortable with the spoken word than with written texts.
The sessions help church pastors become seasoned practitioners of storytelling, able to teach story after story to a congregation whose members will go on to share the stories verbally with others.
A discipleship book called A Strong Foundation is used in the sessions. To reach a wide range of migrant workers, the book has been printed in full in five languages, and in part in a further eight.
‘On behalf of the Urdu Christian community in the Gulf, I thank Bible Society for producing A Strong Foundation,’ said Pastor Isaac in Bahrain. ‘This book is like a manual for discipleship. Our desire is to train all those who attend our church regularly in discipleship and when they go back to their villages in Pakistan or move to other countries, they will be good Bible teachers. Since we have many oral learners in our congregation and also in Pakistan, these will be of great help.’
Twenty-five churches and prayer groups were visited by Bible Society in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait over the last three months, with 1,830 people attending to listen to Bible stories and receive guidance on how to tell them. That took the total number reached since the start of the year to 3,171, achieving the goal of reaching more than 3,000.
‘We love the storytelling method of teaching. Our leaders would like to learn more stories to engage more people and to make the Gospel relevant to them,’ said Pastor Joseph, who leads a congregation of Filipino migrant workers in UAE.
‘My team is desperately looking for discipleship material in Bengali. Thank you so much for giving me 150 copies of A Strong Foundation books in Bengali. We are amazed at the way God is meeting our Scripture needs through the Bible Society in the Gulf. God bless you,’ said Pastor Malcolm, also in UAE.
‘The storytelling project in the Gulf is in full swing,’ says Bible Society in the Gulf’s General Secretary, Dr Hrayr Jebejian. ‘Jesus Christ chose to use stories to engage his listeners and show them how to behave, how to treat others, and how to pray – in other words, stories about the kingdom of God. As you read about the impact of the storytelling tool in reaching migrant workers with the word of God, please, praise the Lord and pray for all the migrant churches in the Gulf that are doing their best to minister to their congregations and spread the Word of God through Storytelling.’
Hrayr’s team plans to upload all the resources that Bible Society in the Gulf has prepared so far to a secure website, a total of 79 books in 28 languages.
A thousand people (almost half giving online) have come together in the last few weeks to support Bible storytelling in the Gulf. You can join them today and make an amazing difference for the Gulf's churches and the migrant communities they serve.
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