Kenya

Three of us were on a short-term trip into the interior of Kenya. There were several pastors with us who translated into the local language. My wife is an accomplished storyteller but so far, the only storytelling I had done was in the safety of prayer groups and practicing with friends.

The setting was under a brush arbor that serves as a church for this small village. All of the people had walked a ways to be there. I began to tell the overall story of the Bible from Creation to Revelation. My version is quite long, really longer than it should be, but we felt that we might not see these people again so we should get as much gospel before them as possible. The crowd consisted of mostly women and children, about 15 in all. We had heard and experienced several times in this area, that the Gospel was for women. The men were occupied with other things, mostly concerning their cattle and goats.

We were delighted to see as the story had reached the part about Abraham that several tribal elders appeared out of the bush. They came into the little arbor and immediately were given front row seats by the rest of the crowd.

I continued with the story and as I did, these elders were clearly captivated. They never lost eye contact. They never lost eye contact. I continued through the stories of the foretelling of a coming savior and then the story of how the Promised Savior came to us, of His death and resurrection, what it meant and how His followers took His story to the known world.

When I finished with this overview, my team member told the story of the demon possessed man. The crowd was even more captivated. At the end there was much discussion during the question period. Then our pastor/translator asked if any wanted to know Jesus and these elders and 4 older women raised their hands.

When they showed up and listened so intently, God revealed to me that this was the way He wanted His story told. Simply, honestly and without input from me so that He could work in hearts that needed it.

One of the pastors later told me that none of these people had ever been in a church.

Used with permission of Tim W