Presented by Andrew Haas & John Ragsdale of TWR-Africa Featuring Theo Asare, founder of Theovision International
Show of hands please… how many of you are aware of the orality movement that has been sweeping through missions in the last decade? For those who haven � t heard much about orality I would like to slowly and delicately lead you through a learning process… I would like to… but I simply don � t have time in one hour. If you � re in our workshop after lunch then you � ll experience what orality is and how different it is to abstract presentations. When you � re ready, I suggest you spend several days learning about orality and letting the implications sink. For now, let me ask another question...
� Because you and I have spent years (decades in some cases) in Western education environments our thinking has been adapted to speci fi c abstract ways of organizing knowledge. This is not a bad thing. The problem is when one of us tries to do evangelism, church planting or radio for people who don � t share our Western ways of communicating. We tend to communicate from assumptions that aren � t shared by our audience.
Video of orality and Ethiopia success story courtesy Rob Hughes of StoryRunners. www.StoryRunners.com
Augustine in UGANDA —“In each village where Samaritan � s Purse facilitates a Chronological Bible Storytelling Training, the staff hires a cook to prepare the food for the participants. One of the cooks they hired was a young woman named Dorcus. Every morning, Dorcus would bring tea to the participants. Every afternoon, she would serve lunch. She prepared her food directly outside of the church where the training was being held, within earshot of the things that were being taught. As the week went on, Dorcus began to sit on the church veranda to be able to hear the Bible stories more clearly. � One day, a Samaritan � s Purse trainer told the story of Peter healing a crippled man. As the participants answered questions and discussed the story together, God began to work in Dorcus � heart. She was fi lled with a joy she could not contain, and so she entered the church and went directly up to the trainers. In front of everyone, she asked to be prayed so she might be saved from her sins. � Afterwards, Dorcus confessed that she has attended church her entire life. This was the fi rst time she had truly understood what it meant to be born-again. She told the trainers, “Before, I could not clearly understand God � s message but the bit of training that I have attended has given me a lot of insights into God � s Word. I am so glad that I could bene fi t from the training even though I am only preparing the food.”
Pam Ammons, (an IMB missionary to the Asheninka people of Peru)—As I waited for a visa , I went to a nursing home and told Creation, Fall of man, then connected it quickly through the Line to Jesus. I informed them I would return other nights and continue the Story. A woman come up to me with tears afterward. She said she had never heard that before. She had gone to church her whole life, but had never heard the connection of Genesis to Jesus. Her eyes lit up and sparkled and she said, “I understand now, I understand.”
� In February of 1999, research began into the development and implementation of a program strategy speci fi cally designed to reach out to potential Muslim audiences, more speci fi cally, in the country of Malawi. The development of the program “Bwalo Lathu” which means “Our Meeting Place” in Chichewa, became the forerunner for a series of programs to be developed for potential Muslim audiences across the sub-Saharan region of Africa. “Bwalo Lathu” has been on the air via shortwave to the Muslim community of Malawi since its start in July of 2001. It is now able to be heard clearly on the FM Network which is broadcast from Blantyre FM.
� The success of the program has come through the encouragement of many � listener clubs � . These groups allow more than one person to hear the stories. As listener clubs form, they discuss the program. Many times they begin to corporately write letters to acquire more information about the stories which have been told. Many listeners have told how they often discuss the claims and morals of the stories which they have heard. The producers of the program have been invited to meet with these listener clubs to interact with them and clarify unanswered questions. In this process, a bridge is being built whereby Muslims in Malawi can respond to the truth of God � s word as they come to understand it more fully.
Tamajeq THZ Kanuri-Yerwa KNC 3.43 million .25 million Songhai KHQ Djerma DJE 2.18 million 1.38 million Soninke SNK Gourmanche GUX 1.6 million .6 million Moore MHM Hausa HAU 5.04 million 24.2 million Jula DYU Fulfulde-Gurma FUH 1.2 million 1.15 million Fulfulde-Kano FUV Dagbani DAG 8 million 7.6 million Several “World by Radio” languages are within reach of the Benin transmitter. (Statistics presented are from the SIL Ethnologue Web Edition) The OneStory partnership started in West Africa in 2005 and is close to sending TWR nine sets of chronological Bible stories for airing.
� Starting Saturday evenings 22:30 local time sometime in November from TWR � s Benin MW transmitter. It is a 15- minute packaged program and will follow directly a new Tamajaq “The Way of Righteousness” being produced in Tombouctou. � These stories were packaged for radio with a basic format. Retelling the previous story, and telling the current story twice divided by a song.
� � Because Aukaners have virtually no Old Testament background as a foundation to understand who Jesus is, it was felt that a signi fi cant portion of time needed to be spent in the Old Testament. The team looked at lists of stories using different resources (especially Lanette Thompson � s Evangelism Track). Some stories were included that addressed speci fi c Aukan worldview issues. For example, Aukaners have several spiritual beliefs about snakes, so the story of the poisonous snakes in the wilderness was included. Also, Aukaners believe in consulting with dead ancestors for decision making, so the story of Saul and the Witch of Endor was included. Aukaners have a very real sense of their slavery in their own oral history; therefore, the entire story of Joseph was included. A key story for our team is Elijah and the Prophets of Baal as this story clearly de fi nes the battle between God and false gods – a topic with which every Aukaner would struggle.
� BARRIERS A belief in multiple gods. Strong fear of upsetting the status quo/upsetting ancestral spirits resulting in sickness or death Distorted view of the Christian church. Traditional religion equated with Aukan culture – especially death customs Fear of what one � s acceptance of Christianity would do to one � s family. Emphasis on consensus decision making – very little room for individual decisions � BRIDGES A strong sense of ancestral history with resulting respect for spiritual ancestors. A strong belief in the supernatural. A belief in sin and the need for sacri fi ce to “appease” sin (libations) A culture in real transition – young searching for new answers to old questions. Recognition of the need for help of a higher power in every day lives Belief in the after life/Belief that God is the Creator
� A key component of our evangelism strategy in reaching Aukaners has to do with using Aukaners exclusively as our storyers. As stated previously, Aukaners view their history of slavery and oppression as something that occurred very recently (even though it has been over 300 years). As a result, we did not want to present a barrier to the stories being understood by virtue of our skin color or nationality. As a result, we worked along with several Aukaners to semi-translate Scripture portions for the Old Testament stories we had previously chosen for our evangelism track. We then had these Scripture portions read on a tape by a literate Aukaner. � This tape was given to an identi fi ed gifted Aukan storyteller (who is completely oral). This Aukaner is a believer who was familiar with most of the stories. We still asked him to listen carefully to the exact Scripture portions several times. After listening, he then told the stories one by one using common Aukan expressions; basically, he told the story “like an Aukaner.” Team members watched the Scripture portions to make sure that our storyteller did not leave out key events or portions. Once the storyteller knew the stories well, they were recorded on computer and in turn copied onto cassette tapes. One interesting variation we never would have known without signi fi cant Aukan input is the need for a “piki man.”(literally “answer man”) When Aukaners convey signi fi cant information, there is always another Aukaner who receives this information with af fi rming statements such as “yes, that � s true”, etc. The piki man was included in the recording process.
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