A Dream Fulfilled
When I encountered the young men and women in Madang (PNG) first, I was convinced that, readers or not, they would benefit from a style of oral communication in the ministry I was handed shortly after arrival back in May.
On my first Thursday morning Bible study that I was asked to lead I was determined to do a Bible story (STS—Simply the Story—style). The LORD gave me a challenge in that my first “story” was actually not a story, but a psalm. In obedience to His leading and wisdom, I told Psalm 1 to the audience of largely Papuan YWAM (Youth with a Mission) staff members.
They were a little slow initially at answering my questions and realising that this waiteman really did mean we would study together in conversation and that they were indeed expected to respond to questions asked. However, pretty soon they were off like calves let out of a stall after a long winter.
As I concluded the presentation and study in the psalm I walked outside and, to my surprise, found a row of young men absolutely “ballistic” with excitement about the way I had led the study in a story format with questions and discussion. They excitedly told me that “this was the way we learned in our village” and “this is the way our parents would pass on our cultural values to us children”.
Walking away from this encouraging encounter with these men, I began to dream and pray that God would send them a team of STS instructors to teach these men (and others) how to learn and present accurate, engaging Bible stories and lead others deeply in discussion.
After a couple more presentations on a Thursday morning in YWAM Madang one of the leaders of the base insisted that they would not wait until April 2026 when an STS team would be training in the South Pacific region, but they needed to have this training right away and this year!
To my absolutely delight, the week I was actually leaving PNG for Tonga, a team of international STS instructors came through, and, together with some of my Brazilian colleagues, with whom my wife and I had worked earlier this year, and who had already had taken the basic STS training in their homeland, a workshop was run on the YWAM base last month, and some twenty plus people began to learn how to use this powerful ministry tool to present the living Word of God in a way that is culturally appropriate to PNG peoples.
I pray that it does not stop here, that these ones (who were the first in the nation to learn STS) will advance in its use and continue to use and persevere to grow it in all the places of ministry in which the LORD will put them and has them. And also that other YWAM bases in the country will learn this marvellous way of ministry communication and see PNG peoples in multiple languages discipled deeply in the Word of God … the way their parents would teach them … through stories and discussion.