“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” - 1 CORINTHIANS 3:6 NIV Your prayers and generous giving produced a harvest of spiritual fruit in the lives of oral learners around the world in the LAST 20 YEARS!
A baptism during the School of Storying in the Shona language in Zimbabwe. Pastor Nhamo Chigohi baptized his brother, John, who served as a translator for the project. You made it possible over the last 20 years to help lost oral learners become followers of Christ in communities of faith! Your generosity has been life changing for people whom you have not met! The apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:13, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” These new brothers and sisters in Christ now have God’s forgiveness, peace, love, joy and purpose in their lives. Even though they come from another country, culture and language, you are united in a common fellowship with them because of your mutual fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. StoryRunners® launched in 2003 as a partnership with three other mission agencies called OneStory to fill a missional gap to reach unreached people living in oral cultures through oral Bible stories. Our experience with OneStory provided the foundation to launch the School of Storying, an innovative workshop to produce a series of oral Bible stories in just four weeks. Today, each School of Storying project has a follow-up training to equip church planters who use these stories to plant churches in their local areas. An exciting development is that we have even expanded to train teams in other countries to lead their own School of Storying projects. Thank you for your partnership in the gospel, whether it be from 20 years ago or more recently. Your investment is continuing to bear fruit and transform lives for God’s glory! For those waiting to hear God’s story, FROM THE DIRECTOR
REACHING ORAL LEARNERS Eighty percent of the world’s population identify as oral learners, many of whom live in unreached people groups. While many oral learners cannot read, some can read but prefer to learn orally. To reach oral learners with Scripture, they need to hear biblical truth in the way they naturally learn. Oral Bible stories communicate the Word of God in a way that is relational, concrete and memorable. StoryRunners® reaches oral learners by equipping people to produce oral Bible stories in order to launch church planting movements among those who don’t have access to the Bible in a way that speaks to their hearts.
BEGINNINGS A OneStory team, circa 2006. 2003 Cru® launched StoryRunners® in 2003 to take God’s Word to unreached people living in oral cultures through Bible storytelling. StoryRunners began in a partnership called OneStory with other storytelling ministries. Over the course of two years, OneStory practitioners lived among an unreached people group and developed an oral Bible story set with local people. From 2003 through 2011, OneStory teams completed story sets in 74 languages in 24 countries.
THE SCHOOL OF STORYING StoryRunners’ passion for oral Bible storytelling provided the impetus that led to a new ministry approach called the School of Storying. The School of Storying is a workshop hosted on location, typically with a Cru® or partnering ministry. In just four weeks, local people produce The Promise, a series of oral Bible stories from Creation to the Return of Jesus, in their own language. These local speakers tell the stories in their communities and develop story groups, the oral equivalent of a Bible study, which then become the setting for future house churches. A StoryRunners® team ensures each story is biblically faithful, naturally told, easily remembered and appropriate to the culture. Your partnership laid the groundwork and launched School of Storying projects in 25 countries since 2012 to provide oral Bible stories in 63 languages throughout Africa and Asia. Recording stories during the Awadhi language School of Storying in South Asia. (Above) Teaching oral Bible stories in the Philippines..
THESE STORIES CHANGE LIVES! “Since we’ve been working on these stories of Jesus, I have so many questions. Jesus is in our religion’s tradition, but now I’m hearing the real stories, and I want to follow Him! I have worn this bracelet as a sign of our traditional religion, but today I take it off! I prefer freedom!” -Gounou, a School of Storying participant in the Bariba School of Storying, Benin, 2013 “I’ve never heard of that god!” Babula, a local witch doctor in South Asia, had always served and worshiped the monkey god of his religion. But one day, two trainees at the School of Storying approached him and asked, “Do you know the true God?” Babula replied that he did not. “But please tell me about him!” So they told the story of creation. “He is more powerful than your monkey god, who created nothing,” they told Babula. He then said, “I want to know more about this true God!” The pair invited him to come and hear more Bible stories, and before the School of Storying ended, Babula decided to follow Christ! Awadhi School of Storying, South Asia, 2015
GOD CAUSES GROWTH CHURCH PLANTING TRAININGS In 2019 StoryRunners® began a partnership with Global Church Movements (GCM), the church planting arm of Campus Crusade for Christ International, to reach people in oral cultures. GCM exists to establish one church for every 1,000 people worldwide. Together StoryRunners and GCM developed a church planting training based on the oral telling of stories from the Bible. After every School of Storying, local ministry leaders host a church planting workshop to equip church planters to use oral Bible stories in their language. During the workshop they hear, learn and discuss stories to draw out church planting principles. Since 2019, StoryRunners and GCM have completed 22 church planting workshops resulting in more than 130 more churches planted. Adam (right), a church planter from Tanzania, coaches a participant to use stories in ministry during a church planting workshop in West Africa. “Recognizing the unique giftedness of StoryRunners to present the gospel and training processes orally in clear and compelling ways, we have developed partnership with them. As a result, our church multiplication training process is now available orally in multiple languages and already making significant impacts around the world.” -Dr. Bekele Shanko, Cru Vice President, Global Church Movements Chairman, GACX
GOD CAUSES GROWTH LOCAL TEAMS Developing oral Bible stories is transferable, a key Cru® distinctive. In 2021, the national team leader of Cru in Tanzania asked StoryRunners® to train his own School of Storying team. Over the course of five School of Storying projects, this newly formed team received on-the-job training to become certified School of Storying trainers. Not only have they led School of Storying projects themselves, but they have also gone to Nigeria and Ethiopia to train other local teams to lead School of Storying projects! Other local teams are following in the Tanzanian’s footsteps. Local teams in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Asia and Togo will complete their training over the next 18 months to lead School of Storying projects. Justice, a recent college graduate, joined a newly formed team of Tanzanian School of Storying trainers. “We are looking forward to reaching even more languages,” Justice explains. “Tanzania, with its nearly 120 tribes, many of which are unreached, presents a vast mission field.” Justice signed on as a Cru staff member in Tanzania this year. You’ve made his story possible! The Tanzanian School of Storying team.
Creig with Gounou during the Bariba School of Storying in Benin. Creig is not only a ministry partner but has also volunteered on five School of Storying projects from 2013 through 2017. YOU MAKE IT POSSIBLE! Whether from 20 years ago or more recently, your investment as our ministry partner is continuing to bear fruit and transform lives for God’s glory. “When we learned that 80% of the world’s people are oral learners, I knew we had to help ministries that are reaching into those cultures. StoryRunners is doing just that–reaching into oral cultures with the gospel in oral Bible stories. They keep improving on what they are doing, and we are excited to be a part of it!” -Lavonne, ministry partner since 2007 “My wife, Joy, and I first learned about StoryRunners in 2012. We joined StoryRunners as volunteers. Over the next couple of years, I was able to participate as a trainer in five School of Storying projects held in several countries in West Africa. I saw many local people who didn’t follow Jesus come to test if the stories were easily understood, and several made personal decisions to become followers of Jesus Christ. Joy and I have partnered with StoryRunners financially since 2013. We continue to partner with StoryRunners because they equip local Christian leaders to bring the good news of the gospel to their own people through memorable Bible stories that speak to their hearts.” -Creig, ministry partner since 2012
OUR VISION is to see followers of Christ in communities of faith in every unreached oral people group. A story group in Togo. Recording a story during a School of Storying in the Philippines.
YOU MAKE IT POSSIBLE to see followers of Christ in communities of faith. Thank you! FOR THOSE WAITING TO HEAR GOD’S STORY 100 LAKE HART DRIVE, MC 1100 | ORLANDO, FL 32832 [email protected] | 407.826.2396 | STORYRUNNERS.ORG