Bible Stories to Reach West Africa

Bio* is a master trainer, helping translate Bible stories into his heart language and training up other believers to do the same.

On our last day of recording, Bio received a call from his wife, explaining that the military had just ransacked their home. They were investigating because Bio spent time with people from another people group, one associated with extremism.

In truth, Bio has been sharing Bible stories daily with a small group of men for nearly 10 years and has allowed them to establish small shops on his property.

While they have not yet professed faith, they refused to participate in the community’s annual fast, signaling that they no longer followed their former faith.

The men’s decision not to fast so outraged local leaders that they reported Bio to authorities and accused him of assisting terrorists.

As Bio shared about the situation with the younger men, he explained that following Christ comes at a cost. He encouraged them to count the cost and remain faithful.

Bio reminds us all that following Jesus is an act of obedience. It is not a call to an easy life but to an abundant one (Luke 14:27-28).

Partners like you have been praying for our work in northern Benin, and God is answering those prayers!

Despite another religion dominating the region’s culture and lives, more than 20 people have already been baptized. These Bible stories recordings pave the way for forthcoming Old Testament translations.

You are an important part of our team through your gifts and prayers for this ministry. We appreciate your faithfulness and obedience to the Lord!

Please join us in prayer:

• Praise the Lord for Bio’s consistent witness over the past decade and the fruit it is producing. Ask for protection and perseverance as he continues serving Christ.
• Pray for the men who have made this initial step of turning away from their former religion. Pray they soon accept Jesus as their Savior.
• Ask God to use these 248 Bible story recordings and more than 4,000 gospel conversations to draw many to Jesus.
• Pray for our team as we travel for long seasons.

Thank you for partnering with us to get Scripture into the hearts of Sub-Saharan Africans through Bible stories! God is using you to make Himself known to those who have never heard the gospel.

*Name changed

Thank you so much for your generosity to this ministry and the people in Togo and Mali God calls us to equip to reach their nations. Your prayers and sacrificial giving offer the gospel to 17 people groups in their own languages and in a way they can understand. Your gifts provide StoryTogether Bible training, giving Christian leaders across the region renewed access to God’s Word.

A Bible storying explosion! We continue to see fruit in this method of evangelism and discipleship training. Because of this fruit, the Togo Baptist Convention has commissioned a national training for all Togolese Baptist pastors, church leaders, and their wives. It is exciting to see the convention invigorated by evangelism! Now, we must train new leaders to teach these workshops across the country.

An older pastor with an advanced theology degree attended our last training. He said, “Since I graduated from school, I have attended many different courses and trainings, but this course in storytelling is by far the most practical, simple, and effective for all environments.”

The latest training in the northern part of Togo trained 39 people. These participants shared gospel conversations with 144 local people and saw four people accept Christ during the two evangelism outings!

We are so thankful for you, our partners, who make this project possible. Your sacrificial gifts and intercession are truly transforming lives as we partner together to solve the world’s greatest problem, lostness.

God is multiplying His kingdom across West Africa through your support of Bible storying workshops in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Long-term workers are training believers to evangelize by sharing Bible stories crafted into their language and cultural storytelling style. God has used your gifts to this project to draw hundreds of West African into His kingdom.

The Living Word of God Transforms Lives
A young Malinke man, Sandy,* from Mali attended one of these training workshops. Like over 4 million other Malinke people, Sandy had no Bible in his own language. Living in a Muslim country and with no access to Scripture, Sandy had never been discipled. When he attended the workshops, he engaged the God’s Word like never before. He also spent time with godly African men like David,* the workshop leader, for the first time in his life.

After two years of learning from these men in iron-sharpens-iron discipleship, Sandy “wasn’t the same person,” a believer in his region said. His level of understanding and application of the Scripture transformed him completely. He now works with new Christians in his region, discipling them as he was discipled by David.

New Hope Trauma Healing
Recently, David led Trauma Healing training in Burkina Faso. Each trainee was required to have a small group in place before starting the training to ensure they would use the material when they returned home. From the original 27 women who attended the conference, 212 women have now participated in trauma healing small groups. Time and time again, women have asked their small group leaders, “How did you know this training was just for me?”

After she received the training in a small group, God put someone on Sarah’s* heart who needed to hear the good news of God’s love in the context of trauma healing. The woman had lost her husband to COVID, and her daughter had been recently injured in a gold mining accident. Sarah went to the woman and shared what she had learned. As she walked the woman through the stories from New Hope trauma healing, the woman accepted Christ as her Savior and is now asking to join Sarah at church.

Testimony
Anna, a long-term worker in West Africa shared this story of God’s transforming power: “As we were working with Phil* to translate the story of Peter at Pentecost, he mentioned sharing a recently translated Bible story with his church, and many people responded to the gospel.

“I discovered that the location of Phil’s church was among a people group who are very opposed to other religions, especially Christianity. I asked him, ‘How did you reach people in this area who are so opposed to the gospel?’ David quickly answered, ‘We told them the stories you taught us.’”

God is at Work
Participants from four language groups attended the Bible storying training, and each team recorded 41 stories. They shared the stories in their home villages and towns and a new church was planted! Throughout this project, we trained multiple levels of trainers, and each trainer is disciplining others.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that each person we trained will implement their training in their communities.
• Pray that other Christians in the region will be open to utilizing storying to share the gospel with their own people.

*Names changed for security