Non-believers urging others to listen to stories
I went to the mountains of Taiwan for a holiday. There were a group of 4 older women staying in my hostel. Naturally enough we talked (it is important to learn this skill of ‘getting to know people’.) They were curious about me and when they heard that I was a storyteller, they asked what kind of stories.
If I say, “Bible”, they might have been put off. Instead I said, “I could tell you one as a sample.” They agreed to this. Thinking I might only get one chance I told them the two stories from Gen 1-3. They loved that story and asked, “How many stories do you know?” I told them I usually started with a series of 14.
They then said, “How many nights are you here?” When they heard I was there for three nights they said, “Can we hear all the stories?”
So each evening after hiking all day I would tell five stories to them in Taiwanese (Hokkien). This was a challenge for me as Mandarin is my more fluent language and I wasn’t used to telling such big chunks of the story in Taiwanese. In addition, one of the ladies was quite deaf and so I had to speak quite loudly. Despite these issues it was a delight to share stories that these women had never heard.
On my final morning as I was about to leave for the bus, I went over to them as they lingered over breakfast to say goodbye. They said to some new guests, “You ought to ask this lady for some stories, she has some really interesting ones.”
So the young couple said, “What kind of stories?” Once again I shared Genesis 1-3. They started asking lots of questions and in the end I was forced to stay and tell six Old Testament story sections. After each story we’d discuss it because they had so many questions. They’d also say, “What’s the next story?”
In the end I had to leave to catch the last possible bus.
I rejoiced that that year we’d videoed the stories in Mandarin and put them on YouTube (LuTszLi 14-1 – 14-14) and prepared a name card with the YouTube address for just such a situation. So now if I only get an opportunity to tell a story or two, then they can still listen if they want.
Could you learn some stories for your language context, video them and put them on YouTube? Please let us know so we can link them with the website.
