How God’s Word transforms oral-communicating cultures

* Names changed for security purposes.

A StoryRunners® School of Storying training room in East Africa erupted into songs and dances of praise when two respected leaders of the local religion surrendered their hearts to Jesus. StoryRunners, a ministry of Cru®, brings God’s Word to oral learners in unreached people groups through Bible storytelling workshops. A group of pastors and church planters invited these two influential elders, Gebre* and Dejen*, to assist in translating Bible stories at the workshop hosted in their community. 

People in this region follow a mixture of religions, with only 1.3% identifying as followers of Christ. As community leaders, Gebre and Dejen gave invaluable input for making the stories understandable to those like themselves who don’t follow Christ. 

After four weeks of hearing Bible stories, one of the pastors, Kebede*, asked them, “Do you want to surrender to Jesus?” 

Gebre and Dejen said yes! Now, they both regularly attend Kebede’s church, are being discipled, and continue to share God’s stories in their community. 

“Stories are very valuable to our culture because we are nomadic people and an oral culture,” Gebre said.

Through their School of Storying workshops, developed in 2012, StoryRunners staff work with locals like Kebede, Gebre and Dejen for four weeks to produce oral Bible stories in their spoken heart language. These oral Bible stories are then used to launch church movements for those who don’t have access to the Bible in a way that speaks to their hearts. 

StoryRunners recently collaborated with Cru’s Global Church Movements ministry to create a church-planting training curriculum that can be taught without written materials or reading requirements, allowing new demographics of believers to join the Great Commission.

Experience the School of Storying firsthand by signing up for a virtual storytelling training today.