And it did. We watched how one group began to grow and interact through the stories they themselves were crafting (taking stories from a text and turning it oral, usually in another language).
One day we took the stories we had worked on and went to a new village. There, one lady told the story of Creation. People kind of sat back, listened, joked, didn't interact with it much. We were disappointed. The next day we got together again and were planning just to move on. The leader jumped in and asked if anyone could re-tell the story from yesterday. One guy jumped up and told it almost word for word. Then the group began sharing about how almost each of them had retold the story to a neighbor, friend, co-worker, etc. We were amazed. These are people who are persecuted. People don't talk with them because of their faith. And yet they were sharing stories from God's word. It was awesome.
We spent almost our whole 3 months traveling in and out, helping to continue train and encourage nationals in Bible storying. I think what was most encouraging was how well they got it. I felt good about leaving because they knew almost everything I knew. They could do this and didn't need us. We, of course, would've been tempted to stay, to keep guiding. But I truly believe the God wanted us out. He wanted this to be an insiders movement, where it doesn't look like it comes from the foreigners. Although leaving was really, really sad, we felt confident that God moved us on.
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