Storying Week- By Brita

What a blessing it was last week that my parents came to spend time with our kids so that I could be in class!  The kids had a blast and I learned about a valuable tool to use on the mission field.

God could have chosen to just give us the law and that's it.  He could have just given us a list of do's and don'ts.  But he didn't. What he did give us is a story.  A story that follows through all of history with one purpose.  Not only that but he made us to learn through stories, to enjoy them and even to crave them.  The tradition of learning through orally told stories has been around since God created man.  Storying is still the way that many people groups around the world still pass on information. 

I was able to tell Acts chapter 3

 Last week I was able to be in class to learn how to take a portion of scripture and craft it into a story that is told accurately to convey what the theme of the passage is, told in a natural way, using commonly spoken language for today.  The acronym we used was 

BONA
B- Biblically accurate
O- Orally reproducible
N- Naturally told
A- Appropriate to the culture

It's harder than I thought it would be.  The temptation is to end up basically quoting the passage straight from scripture.  But that ends up sounding less like a story and more like reading scripture.  It was a challenging week!  We each learned 4-5 stories and at the end of the week told the story for everyone on campus in a set of 20 stories spanning from Jesus's baptism, through his death and resurrection, to his return.  It was incredibly powerful and real to hear Jesus's life told in this way.

Josh told Act 8:1-8 and 8:26-40

Most of the world is oral or only a functional literate- meaning they can read for necessity but they really learn orally.  What a blessing to have yet another way to explain the gospel and the truths of the bible. 

Here is the whole bible storied from beginning to end by Matt Papa.  This story is better than any blockbuster movie.... and it's reality!  Enjoy!