When the Silent Ones Come Alive

It had happened before, but it was different this time.

When I presented a passage of Scripture as a story last month In the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base in Madang, and then led out in discussion with the audience, most of the Papuans present were pretty shy. It was not like pulling teeth by any means, and afterwards there were several strapping gentleman queued up o talk to me outside and they were beside themselves with excitement (“this is the way we learned our family values as children”, etc.). And they wanted my “notes” (of which I had none as it was an oral presentation)!

However, the unfamiliar aspect in my presentation of my inviting them to “talk with the preacher” (storyteller, actually) was definitely challenging, but conversation happened nevertheless.

Yesterday was completely different. The Papuans had cottoned on that when I meant “interactive”, I was serious. The story was “The Storm Story” (from Mark iv 35-41).

Even when I asked them to repeat the story (I had just told) to their neighbour, they were like young calves let out of the stall with the first sign of Spring! It was noisy in the room and they were all engaged. Hard to bring to order too!

Then came the conversation time. There was hardly a question I asked that did not elicit a flood of hands, raised by people wanting to share what they were receiving from the story. The half hour I had for the whole presentation could easily have gone on for one to two hours, judging by the energy and discovery in the room.

I watched and recalled with a smile what I had been told by someone last month, about Papuans not going to respond to this kind of ministry, because “they do not talk” in such settings, and are normally “silent in meetings”. They certainly were not talking about these fellows!

It was exceptionally demanding steering the group to a conclusion when my time was up. Still, so much was discovered by these dear men and women and, as one of them said later, about how he could not get the story out of his head, I knew the LORD had heard my prayer, and they would be remembering that story and drawing from it for a long time to come.