The first night at Zoya's was a small piece of heaven. For the first time since we moved to this village, I didn't worry about someone banging on our door at night or wanting to throw us out. We are out of reach of the family and it was so peaceful. Zoya made dinner for us and we sat in our room and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Lots of stuff had been sold, everything had been moved, the money had been collected. I went back to our old house a few days later and it was completely different. They had already re-white washed, moved all of the rooms around and were settled in. It was bittersweet to realize we weren't missed and there were no regrets with throwing us out even though we ourselves were glad to be gone.
And then the ministry began. We had talked with the Ragu (*code name we gave the people group) pastor we knew two weeks earlier about working in the far off villages with the two groups that were struggling. These two groups were small; believers who were meeting together weekly with no one to lead them. They had a Bible but, again, they are oral so they wouldn't turn to printed literature for information. They were being persecuted by their villages and one village even tried to throw them all out! They fought back and were allowed to stay.
We traveled south making plans to see them. We were heading toward the border and therefore required special documents to stay there. We applied for them at the right office and they informed us it would be 10 days until they were ready. 10 days! We didn't have 10 days! Our time was ticking away as it was. So, we did what every other respectable person would. We took the back, dirt roads that the police didn't monitor to the villages and hid out in a house.
What an amazing time those 2 months were! We met with some women to teach them everything we knew about Bible storying. We taught them how to sit down with the Russian text and walk through a story and turn it into an Ragu* orally told story.
They were incredible. They caught on within hours. 3 of them would stick their heads together over text and come out with a wonderful story. I would guide them in asking questions like, "Why did you include that detail? Is it important for Ragu people? Will a general audience understand the terms you've used in this story?". They were adamant about not including any Russian words, which I was glad about, and were very good on making sure the story was accurate.
They gave of their time in the midst of running a house and having small children. They took the stories and shared them with the group. The head guy was thrilled and not threatened at all, which was a huge blessing. Everyone in the group learned the story and were told to tell it to others and they each came back with stories about when they did. It was so exciting to watch storying take off.
