Linda Bemis's Posts (28)

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2015 A Fast Moving Year

It is hard to believe, but we are into the last 90 days of 2015! It is encouraging to see many more intercessors from many different regions of the globe connecting as we listen to the Bible in 90 Days and pray for those remaining people groups that still do not have Scripture in their heart language. [http://www.orality.net/weekly_prayer_focus]As we close out the year, we look back over the last few months to see monumental shifts within ION. We remember back to David Swarr coming on board as he led us in a call for the prayer initiative of 50 days from Easter to Pentecost. It was a season of stopping to listen. Since that time, we have seen a myriad of answers to prayer in the different regional areas where orality work has been ongoing, and where now great breakthroughs are happening.This is a new day in collaboration and unity. We want to bear witness and acknowledge God’s activity in allowing us to see with new eyes what is going on across regions.Let’s recap what we prayed for and how God has and is continuing to answer. Believe with us for more of God. We took the seven weeks to pray for a fresh, historic outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ION. We asked for a new anointing of the body of Christ to bring the Gospel to those who still wait to hear…in a way they can really understand and receive. We prayed specifically for the following:· Listen afresh· Looking out & seeking potential stakeholders who may not yet be a part of the network, but who have a desire to be connected· Focus our listening to really hearing the dreams, visions and aspirations you and others have for the movement· Explore the felt needs that the network should be serving. Who is still in need of Scripture?· Discover God’s view by focusing on a broad circle of those from around the globe who would like to contribute· See the potential of the orality movement and recognizing the next generation· Serve effectively. Stewarding the sacred gift of orality, so that the network can serve the Church with increasing effectiveness, fostering and encouraging a global orality movement to disciple oral learners· We rejoice for the new. May even more of this new be unfolded into the upcoming months. As we look into the future, believe with us for greater capacity and facilitation in each of the different regions of orality, to function within the context of the more – more being involved, more capacity, more effectiveness and more regions fully set for where God is leading.Pray with us, from Ephesians 3:14-21: “Now unto Him WHO IS ABLE TO DO IMMEASURABLY MORE than we can ask or imagine. According to HIS POWER that is at WORK WITHIN US. . .”- See more at: http://orality.net/blog/223/2015-prayerLinda BemisSenior Associate - PrayerInternational Orality NetworkVisit http://Orality.net
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Photo: Merry Christmas to our ION family & friends!<br /> NEW ION Prayer Focus<br /> DEC 2014 ION Prayer Focus<br /> <a href= (Photo: ION Prayer)

Merry Christmas to our ION family & friends!
NEW ION Prayer Focus
DEC 2014 ION Prayer Focus
https://www.getamericapraying.com/groupdocs/90_1416032484.pdf

 

PRAYING EACH THURSDAY - You are invited to join the ION Prayer Team at 2pm (EST) to link in united prayer for those working in Orality, UUPGs, Great Commission Partners & Oral peoples around the globe. *If you are available, please join us live…

Dial: (712) 432-0926
Access Code: 373000#
http://orality.net/weekly_prayer_focus

DBvF2dnScJ_vH-0yDBm5xg1-2WAOnkk2Fih-YU5OLMBl02XFwq04P20E0OMIEUPq1hLvA4tRKEvgE6sRflCyz7UxRhIx1Mgp-HdFBRa4O1IvtmfSEpHDi3mPoFXJpKo-lGIuDNcLHGNFX7kEm5-G36rVWGkIQdBXsFY6xJEOXZIt-QK7n0POcvwqKPt8Th4eJCXFRggoKaeT_mH38gZI8wgl3d1bzqjY4g5o7JuGquxlYy8=s0-d-e1-ft#%3Ca%20rel%3Dnofollow%20href=

Praying for the UUPGs & Bible-less Oral Peoples… Pursuing God for Spiritual Awakening and Global Harvest as we link in united prayer for those working in Orality & for our Great Commission Partners & oral peoples around the globe. Bible in 90 Days - Listening to the Scriptures Oct. 1st to Dec. 31st - How are you doing in keeping up with our 90 Days Prayer Initiative? You can join us anytime!

Believing for the last 1900+ languages to receive Scriptures in their own heart languages. 

- See more at: http://orality.net/weekly_prayer_focus
Persistently prevailing,
Linda Bemis
Director, Prayer
Email: IONPrayer@gmail.com
International Orality Network
-Influencing the body of Christ to make disciples of all oral learners
  70% of the world (5.7 billion) are oral learners and of that group 1.2 are children!
How are you using oral strategies in your ministry?
Isaiah 42:16 "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."
Read more…

Why Tell Stories from the Bible rather than 'teach' them? 
It is as simple as Matthew 13

by Linda Bemis

Director, Prayer

International Orality Network

Do you ever wonder why someone's passion keeps pushing them to share the thing that they love?

I wonder about that in my own life! Yet, God keeps re-igniting my passion for the Word & in particular "How to share what I have found with others in a way that 'they' might catch the fire?"

People are busy... people are usually too busy to even listen, really listen.

You all know how much passion I have for orality. But most of my friends and family probably just don't fully get what I am so excited about.

I have been pondering the truth that the most effective story model is to share the story in 3-4 minute portions?

Today fell into a nice website... Check it out, short snapshots of stories

Here is a link to see short segments in video.
http://christparables.do.am/load/parables_of_jesus_christ_on_video/1

CLICK on it, watch for a few minutes & then come back here...

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Key thought:
Well, it is really not that simple for those who are not oral learners! But remember oral learners make up 2/3 of the world, so why are we not trying?
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For those of us who are highly literate, did you notice the running caption for Chapter:verse in the bottom right hand corner? Well, don't, just learn to watch & listen. Just another example of the difference between oral & literate learners. The oral learner immediately began to listen, in order to "step into the story!

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Why tell the stories of the Bible?
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Matthew 13
The Message (MSG)
A Harvest Story

13 1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.

3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

Why Tell Stories?

10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”

11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:

Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
    Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.

16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.

The Meaning of the Harvest Story

18-19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

20-21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

22 “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.

23 “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

24-26 He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

27 “The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’

28 “He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’

“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’

29-30 “He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”

31-32 Another story. “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it.”

33 Another story. “God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises.”

34-35 All Jesus did that day was tell stories—a long storytelling afternoon. His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy:

I will open my mouth and tell stories;
I will bring out into the open
    things hidden since the world’s first day.
The Curtain of History

36 Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

37-39 So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

40-43 “The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?

44 “God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

45-46 “Or, God’s kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.

47-50 “Or, God’s kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That’s how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won’t do any good.”

51 Jesus asked, “Are you starting to get a handle on all this?”

They answered, “Yes.”

52 He said, “Then you see how every student well-trained in God’s kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13&version=MSG

Persistently prevailing,
Linda Bemis
Director, Prayer
International Orality Network
-Influencing the body of Christ to *make disciples* of all (5.7 billion) oral learners - 1/2 are children!

Email: IONPrayer@gmail.com
Visit www.Orality.net?ui=2&ik=455be46dd7&view=att&th=144d6471e96f2ee5&attid=0.1&disp=thd&realattid=1462935823356129618-local0&zw


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undefinedFree Ebook:

Unreached Peoples, Least Reached Places: An Untold Story of Lostness in America

by JD Payne

- March 3rd, 2014

I am delighted to share that Unreached Peoples, Least Reached Places: An Untold Story of Lostness in America is now available to download as a pdf.  It’s brief, about fifty pages. That is intentional.  You can read it quickly.

The pastors with The Church at Brook Hills are always asking how we can best equip our faith family for the work of the ministry (Eph 4:11-12).  Part of shepherding others to reach the nations requires painting a picture of the realities of lostness.  Therefore, I wrote this short ebook for our people.

Unreached Peoples, Least Reached Places is written to cast a vision of reality in the United States, and to offer some practical steps to move us along in disciple making and church multiplication.  We know much about lostness in other parts of the world; we know little about it in our backyard.

One of the convictions that we hold as a faith family is to give away many om advancement.  With this in mind, I am releasing this book to you.  I pray that it will be a blessing to you and your ministry.

So…

Download your copy.  

http://www.jdpayne.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Unreached-Peoples-Least-Reached-Places-Payne.pdf

If you do, tell others to get a copy.  Spread the word, far and wide.

Take it. Give it away.  Use it for leading your church to the nations in this nation and beyond.  If you do, tell others to get a copy.  Spread the word, far and wide.

---------------------------------------

Join us in praying for America to understand LOSTNESS right here.

Persistently prevailing,

Linda Bemis

Director, Prayer

International Orality Network

Visit: http://Orality.net

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Greetings from the ION Prayer Team!

 

Join us in asking the Lord of the Harvest to send His laborers to the fields around the globe. We very much appreciate your effort and continued support to link together in prayer for Orality/UUPGs & Great Commission Partner groups & in prayer for the 5.7 billion oral peoples around the world.

 

We invite you to join us, each Thursday at 2pm (EST) for the weekly prayer conference call.

Dial: (712) 432-0926 

Access Code: 373000#

Even if you can not join us for the prayer call on the phone, please DOWNLOAD this month's FEB 2014 ION Prayer Focus from this link:

http://www.getamericapraying.com/groupdocs/90_1391375915.pdf

 

We also continue with focused prayer for the remaining UUPGs who still need "boots on the ground" that are from the original "639 UUPG List" from Finishing the Task (FTT). These unengaged people groups are all over 100,000 in population. Let's unite in asking the Lord of the Harvest to send His laborers to these mostly oral peoples and for protection for those working in their fields.

 

Persistently prevailing,

Linda Bemis

Director, Prayer

Email: IONPrayer@gmail.com

 

International Orality Network

- Influencing the body of Christ to make disciples of all oral learners

     - 70% of the world (5.7 billion) are oral learners and of that group 1/2 are children!

Visit Orality.net

Isaiah 42:16 "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."

Read more…

On Mission With God in Prayer -What a Joy!

What A Joy!

19 July 2013

What a joy it has been to see what God had in store for me when I stepped out and accepted a position from Avery Willis to serve under him back in 2006 for a brand new, up and coming mission network. Today I continue to serve with that group, as the Prayer Director, for International Orality Network (ION).

My life certainly has changed from working within my denomination to becoming a free agent and seeing the activity of God all across the face of the globe. The opportunity to have input with global prayer leaders and work to influence prayer leaders all around the globe to begin to find out about "Orality" and "Oral Peoples" those who do not read as a part of their culture. And to work to be an advocate and educate others in how to pray for the Unreached People Groups (UPG) and the Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPG) across the face of the globe.

70% of the population of the world 5.7 billion are oral learners and of that group 1/2 are children! We have to get the gospel to them in a format that will allow them to really hear and an opportunity to hear the good news of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Not to mention the movement of getting the Bible the "Story of God" to the masses in a way that they can receive and make decisions for salvation.

The Gutenberg press enabled a print revolution and unprecedented spread of the Word of God. Before that the main way to receive the message of the Bible was only by oral means. The Gutenberg press opened the Bible to the ordinary man, but only to --those who could read. 

ION is asking the Body of Christ to devote energies, strategies, and resources to provide access for all oral learners to engage the entire Word of God through audio-digital means, so that every tribe, every tongue, and every people group may hear, understand, and have the opportunity to respond!

-See more at: http://orality.net/declaration#sthash.7ZrWA8Ag.dpuf

I was asked to write up what God had done with our team that would be used as a chapter for a book that was to be published and presented at the Lausanne CapeTown 2010 gathering. Maybe you might be interested to hear about our journey.

Here is a pdf of that chapter* - "On Mission With God in Prayer"

Prayer%20Chapter%20-%20Journey%20in%20Prayer%20On%20Mission%20with%20God%20in%20Prayer.pdf

You can order the entire book thru International Mission Board (IMB) at:

Using heart language to transform hearts is resulting in churches in many difficult parts of the world. Breakthroughs with indigenous partnership formations have resulted in brand new Bible stories in an oral format to reach the unreached....* The prayer chapter is included in the book

I am delighted to be able to help intercessors, prayer warriors, and pray-ers to see what God is doing in bringing the gospel to those yet unengaged and unreached, without scripture recordings or scripture portions. Did you know there are over 2,250 people groups who do not have even one verse! It is very exciting to be a part of seeing the completion of the Great Commission through the collaborative work of partner groups.

One of the things I get to do in sharing about this is to publish a monthly prayer focus which is available from our website at http://orality.net/weekly_prayer_focus

or you can come and find us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Orality-Network/143049235766186?ref=br_tf

The International Orality Network is made up of over 1200+ organizations, agencies and individuals. Our focus is to influence the Body of Christ to "make disciples" of all oral learners. Understanding about orality can be very complex, but at the core, it is simply sharing the gospel and the stories of the Bible in small portions that can be understood, received and reproduced. We would be under estimating the power of His Word to present the gospel for performance, but truely see God at work when ordinary men with an extraordinary God share His Story and step back to watch it directly have an affect upon the heart of the receiver.

Orality tools can also be in audio or video format. It now involves digital devices that have gospel stories loaded onto them In all kinds of different approaches. They may include songs, skits, dances or full productions that share the stories of the gospel story, God's Story. Sharing the chronological story of God unfolding His Story. This also includes biblical videos or short movies. At this point in history, we really are amazed each day at the creativity of the Holy Spirit to help to put new tools and curriculum out that would not have been possible in times past. With new technology mission agencies are collaborating and working together to allow the reworking old tools into new tools, such as with the Jesus Film being used by MentorLink in their leadership training curriculum, "Days With Jesus" using a 40 days format to show how Jesus led and shared who he was in groups all around the world. http://www.mentorlink.org/

Included in orality is the multifaceted mix of a re-occuring theme of the church, to bring scripture engagement back to God's people. Now through the use of audio digitization of scriptures as a daily part of personal study of the bible, discipleship and teaching. If you have not already found out about this, may I introduce to you two exceptional apps to check out http://www.Bible.is and http://www.YouVersion.com --both of these have multiple options for daily bible study directly from the scriptures that you can download into your computer, tablet or smart phone. 

You may be interested to know that 2/3 of the world "do not, will not and cannot ever" depend on literate (letters on a page) methods or formats to hear the Gospel. Different ways to get the message to oral learners are emerging. Some only using audio formats, some using multiple methods. ION issued a declaration to share our heart, to influence mission leaders across the globe to begin to step into God's movement in this area. You can read the declaration at: http://orality.net/declaration

If you have questions or want to talk, I would love to hear from you! 

Persistently prevailing,

Linda Bemis

Director, Prayer

Email: IONPrayer@gmail.com

International Orality Network

- Influencing the body of Christ to make disciples of all oral learners

       - 70% of the world (5.7 billion) are oral learners and of that group 1/2 are children!

Visit Orality.net

 

Isaiah 42:16 "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."

Read more…

 

9651004874?profile=originalIDOP  Official Website:   http://www.persecutedchurch.org/

 



Sunday 13 November 2011

 

12 Hour Prayer Call

for IDOP for the Persecuted Church

 

8 am – 8 pm (EDT)

  

Dial: 712.432.0031

Access is 452614#

 

Hosted by: The Persecution Watch

 

In collaboration with:

9651005276?profile=original9651005661?profile=original

9651004892?profile=original

     Greater Calling Ministries

     GreaterCalling.org

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) on November 13th is a global day of intercession for persecuted Christians worldwide. Its primary focus is to encourage intercessory prayer on behalf of persecuted communities of the Christian faith.

 

Place and power of prayer:

  • 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 - Prayer is desired and required for persecuted believers.
  • Romans 15:30-33 - Our prayers help struggling believers.
  • 2 Corinthians 1:10-11 - God works as we pray.
  • 2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:10-18 - Spiritual battle requires spiritual weapons.
  • James 5:16b-18 - The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

Devotion

By Elizabeth Kendal International Religious Liberty Analyst and Advocate

Every Christian who has ever suffered persecution knows what it is to be tempted to doubt God's faithfulness. The wicked scoff and boast, prosper and advance. God's children suffer and die under the blows of tyrants and terrorist who have no conscience and no fear of God (Psalm 10:2-11). We cannot help but cry: "Why Lord?" (Psalm 10:1).

Yet Jesus warned us that persecution would come (John 15:18-16:33), indeed, that tribulation/pressure would be inevitable in this world (John 16:33a). "But," he added, "take heart! I have overcome the world" (v33b).

Our omnipotent (all-powerful) eternal God Yĕhovah is omnipresent (ever-present). He does not hide himself and is never far off, having promised: "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20b). (See also: Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 13:5-6). And all his interventions are defined and motivated by righteousness, justice and everlasting love (Hebrew: hesed).

When trouble rolled in, threatening life and liberty, King David exercised radical faith in his faithful God. He petitioned Yĕhovah (Psalm 10:12-18), confident that Yĕhovah would hear and not ignore the cry of the afflicted/humble (`anav) (Psalm 9:12).

You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry. (Psalm 10:17 NIV)

Our English translation is very soft compared to what this verse is actually saying, which is: Our eternal God (Yĕhovah) hears the desire / longings (ta'avah) of the afflicted / helpless / humble (`anav); he strengthens / makes firm / establishes (kuwn) their hearts, and always remains keenly, sharply attentive with ears pricked (qashab) to hear (Psalm 10:17).

It is in arrogance, folly and faithlessness that we invest our hopes in human beings (that are mortal), human institutions (that cannot save), human works (that are insufficient), political power (that is self-interested), military might (that is limited) and money (which can only buy what is unprofitable and useless).

If we will but petition our faithful God, then even if our cry is but a whispered prayer, delivered with heavy heart and failing breath from a dark and lonely place, our faithful Yĕhovah will hear because he has inclined / extended (natah) his ear toward us (Psalm 116:1-2). Sometimes, in wisdom and providence, God waits1 / tarries (chakah) to show grace and mercy (Isaiah 30:18a). That does not mean he has not heard. "Blessed are all who wait (chakah) for him" (Isaiah 30:18b). He has promised salvation. Cry / petition / pray / intercede with confidence to our faithful God who hears, and wait / keep watch (tsaphah) in faithful expectation (Psalm 5:1-3).

_________________________

1 Wait: as in "remain inactive in expectation (of something)" (Collins Concise Dictionary, Fifth Australian Edition)


 

Bible Readings pertaining to persecuted:

http://idop.org/pages/resources/bible-readings.php

 

Prayers for Worldwide Persecuted Church:

http://idop.org/pages/resources/prayers.php

 

 

Learn More Get Involved: 

Bible League
P.O. Box 28000
Chicago, IL 60628
Phone: 866-825-4636

Christians in Crisis
P.O. Box 293627
Sacramento, CA 95829
Phone: 916-682-0376  

International Christian Concern
2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW #941
Washington, DC 20006-1846
Phone: 301-989-1708    

Iranian Christians International
P.O. Box 25607
Colorado Springs, CO 80936
Phone: 719-596-0010  

Jubilee Campaign USA
9689-C Main Street
Fairfax, VA 22031
Phone: 703-503-0791 

Open Doors
P.O. Box 27001
Santa Ana, CA 92799
Phone: 949-752-6600

The Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 443
Bartlesville, OK 74005
Phone: 918-337-8015 

World Evangelical Alliance
P.O. Box 1530
Wheaton, IL 60189-8004
Phone: 630-668-0440  

World Help
P.O. Box 501
Forest, VA 24551

Phone: 434-525-4657  

Christian Solidarity Worldwide USA
P.O. Box 50608
Casper, WY 82605-0608
Phone: 307-235-4800  

Christian Freedom International
PO Box 535
Front Royal, Virginia 22630
Phone: 800-323-2273 

Gospel for Asia
1800 Golden Trail Court
Carrollton, TX 75010
Phone: 800-WIN-ASIA  

 

The Persecution Watch hosts a call for the persecuted church each week on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday at 8 pm (CST). You are welcome to dial in and participate.

 

Dial: 712.432.0031

Access is 452614#

 

Need more information?

Contact Blaine  the.persecution.watch@gmail.com

Read more…

Orality & Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPG) that may be two entirely new terms for you! If that is the case or if you have heard these terms but want to find out more, then this blog may help you.

UUPG's are groups of people who have less than 2% known Christians in their people group AND no known evangelical work among them to bring the Gospel to them... they have no portion of scripture, no gospel recordings/radio or no Jesus Film available in their heart language.

The group that I work with International Orality Network (ION) seeks to influence the body of Christ to make disciples of all (4.35 billion) oral learners.

Are you aware that 2/3 of the world or some say 70% are oral learners. An oral learner is one who does not, cannot and will not read. They come from oral cultures. Since they do not read, you will need to use a different format than literacy to reach them initially. Tracts unless in picture form, will not be received. We must change the way that we present the Gospel to a format that they can really hear and understand.

Orality is a wide stroke and encompasses many different formats. The most widely understood form is called “storying.” Simply telling the stories of the bible. Orality can be songs, art forms, media, multimedia, film, or various formats. The ultimate goal of orality it to get the Gospel to them in a culturally appropriate way.

To begin your journey to understand these new terms and this new ORALITY movement, take a half an hour and watch this session from Call2All where Paul Eshleman explains what this is all about. Paul talks about Unengaged Unreached People Groups, this session was recorded by GodTV at the very first Call2All.org Congress.

GodTV - Call2All - Paul Eshleman (Finishing the Task) Interview and Session - 36 minutes

To view the session go to: http://www.god.tv/node/416

3400 groups where NO ONE HAS GONE...

2251 where there is not one verse of scripture available to them...

639 UUPG - people groups with over 100,000 in population that are classified as unreached, yet unengaged.

Finishing the Task - www.finishingthetask.com- for the update and listing for the 639 UUPG

Who are those people who have been neglected?

What can YOU, YOUR PRAYER GROUP and/or CHURCH do?

How can you link to the network of Great Commission Partners group!

Here is a challenge from Paul -- 82% of all muslims do not know of one Christian - Would you pray about inviting one muslim into your home for a meal and "demonstrate" God's love in a tangible way.

Matthew 24:14 - What if this is true?

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Oral Story Bible - Here is another great video/education piece that describes what it will take for an "Oral Story Bible" team.

Click here: http://www.call2allmedia.org/watch/7f092466c13bf42cd641/Oral-Story-Bible---Animated-Explanation


Food for thought... did you know that 2 billion of the 4.35 billion oral learners are children?

International Orality Network - Influencing the body of Christ to make disciples of all (4.35 billion) oral learners - PRAY for the children represented in this number...


Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPGs)


Right now there are still over 6,000 unreached people groups in the world. (An unreached people group being one with less than 2% evangelical Christian believers.)

Astonishingly there are 3,400 people groups who are not only unreached, but no one is even trying to reach them.
Mission strategists call them “unengaged.”

After 2,000 years, it should be unthinkable to us as the
church of Jesus Christ
that there would be any unengaged people groups left in the world. Finishing the Great Commission can be defined in different ways, but what is most important is that we start to finish the task. It will be accomplished primarily through local congregations planting indigenous churches among the people groups they adopt.

The 639 unreached, unengaged people groups referred to in this video is the number of UUPG's with populations above 100,000. The rest of the 2,700 groups have less than 100,000 people.

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To help you understand an “Introduction to Orality and the International Orality Network”

I have put together several articles that were taken off the internet... each is individually noted.

This following first portion was taken from the Orality section of the Call2All.org website.

ION is a founding partner with Call2All.org www.Call2All.org

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International Orality Network

The International Orality Network is an alliance of mission leaders partnering together to make God’s Word available to all oral learners in culturally appropriate ways.

ION relates to the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization and is committed to provide oral strategies to communicate the gospel, make disciples, train leaders and enable church planting movements among all peoples in ways that are reproducible by oral peoples.

It’s task forces are directed by world missions leaders representing Wycliffe International; International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention; Campus Crusade; Trans World Radio; Epic Partners; Hosanna/Faith Comes By Hearing; Discipling A Whole Nation; The God’s Story Project; The Jesus Film Project; Progressive Vision; The Seed Company; Scriptures in Use (SIU); visionSynergy and Youth with a Mission. All hold to the principles of the power of the spoken Word of God, the progressive revelation of Scripture, cultural relevance, and telling God’s story to all peoples in reproducible ways.

A Story worth telling

Imagine a people group with no written language. There are 2700 in this situation. Imagine communities with no access to the Gospel. There are 2.8 billion who have not heard.

Part of Call2All’s strategy to reach these people with the Good News is by sharing the Bible through story form.

Cultures that have no written language rely very heavily on story to record their past and to teach the next generation. They have an amazing memory capacity to remember details in stories, and when trying to understand a concept, will bring in a story to give explanation.

Samuel Chiang, Global Director for the International Orality Network. The Orality Network’s aim is to make disciples of all oral learners. Through the Network Samuel has seen significant success in bringing the Bible alive to unreached people groups.

He explains how it works: “Once you have identified the people group you want to reach, who have no scripture and no written language, you must first understand their worldview."

Then fifty to sixty Bible stories are prepared and crafted to engage in the world view of the culture. For example if the community has a matriarchal society, somewhere you need to address and respect that culture. The best way to do this is to bring out Bible stories that they will connect with, the Old Testament stories of Esther and Ruth for instance.

Alternatively if the culture has high regard for the spirit world, and evil spirits are revered, then to tell the story of Jesus delivering the demoniac in Luke 8 would have a huge impact.

The key is to identify barriers, gaps and bridges between the story teller and those listening, so that what is being said will have the greatest impact.

Jesus was the greatest story-teller, following His example we can change the lives of those who cannot read by telling them a story. Log on next week to hear how sharing the Gospel in story form has changed communities around the world.

To find out more about ION visit their website at www.oralbible.com

Avery Willis, Making Disciples of Oral Learners

Two-thirds of all people in the world are oral communicators, who can't, don't or won't learn through literate means. Four billion people in our world are at risk of a Christless eternity, unless literate Christians make significant changes in evangelism.

Portions of this material were taken from the Orality section of the Call2All.org website. www.call2all.org

Read All About It?

67% of People are Non-Literate Oral Learners

The Challenges Print Evangelism Ministries Face In Meeting The Needs Of Oral Cultures

By Avery Willis and James Greenelsh

What do you think Mr. Guttenberg?

The year was 1488. A young boy accidentally left a wooden shape dripping with dye on a piece of parchment overnight. In the morning he discovered an image remaining after removing the wood. It was an “aha moment” that led to the invention of the printing press. That one insight changed the world we live in. The boys name, Johann Guttenberg. His idea lit the fuse on a literacy revolution that supercharged the field of knowledge. The bible finally came within reach of the common man. Christianity in Europe flourished. For over 500 years since then the Church in western societies has trumpeted the superiority of literacy.

I had thought for so long that the Guttenberg revolution was a worldwide phenomenon. I grew up thinking that literacy was the one thing the world needed to level the playing field for everyone.

Then one day, I made an alarming discovery: 500 years after the invention of the printing press—only 33% of the world are truly literate.

That single fact stopped me dead in my tracks. A banner headline. Extra. Extra. Read all about it:

Approximately 67% of the people of the world are non-literate oral learners.

If you printed that headline in every newspaper in every country of the world, in every language known to man and you threw it on the coffee table of every home on earth— close to four billion people couldn’t read it.

That should get our attention.

Let me ask you, if you had a business and you found that 67% of your target audience were non-literate oral learners, you can bet you’d tailor your business plan, dedicate your work force, and allocate a huge portion of your operating budget especially to reach them. That’s just smart business.

The world of missions is just now waking up to the fact that Oral learners are at the center of the firestorm to complete the Great Commission. The bull’s eye. Imagine. Four billion oral learners in the cross-hairs of redemptive history at the beginning of the 21st century. What are you, your church and your mission agencies doing to hit the bullseye?

If the term “oral learner” is unfamiliar to you let me offer a simple definition. By oral learners we mean those people who learn best and whose lives are most likely to be transformed when information comes to them through oral, not literate, means. Oral learners transmit their beliefs, heritage, values by means of stories, drama, songs, and proverbs.. They have built their customs, culture, and social fabric around storytelling.

What does this mean for us as we endeavor to fulfill the Great Commission?

We must start asking questions like these. How in the world do we share the Word of God with people who can’t. don’t or read? Who don’t write? Who may not even have a written language? HOW?

Listen to this story from a young Christian leader in Bihar, India. His name is Bihari Mukhiya.

I come from village culture. I want to tell you what it is like there. Most of the people in the villages are non-literate they have never been to school they have never read any books. Village people take interest in stories in music and in drama. In the village in the evening time people meet in the street, tell stories and sing village songs. They learn lessons from these stories and they put them into practice in their lives. They never read a book; they never have been to school. They are not literate, but they listen and then they learn.

I come from a Hindu family. In my childhood I used to join in Hindu customs. I listened to many Hindu stories. But when I reached sixth standard in the school I had a chance to hear the stories of Jesus. I had never heard such stories. I had been taught that there were many gods. But through the stories of Jesus I came to understand that Jesus is the true God. I committed my life to the Lord and began to tell people about Jesus.

After some time I went to Bible college to learn the word of God. There I was taught a literate western style of education. When I came back from the college I used the same western methods to preach the gospel but nobody accepted Christ. I was very discouraged and I was thinking I would leave the ministry. Then, I got the opportunity to learn how to communicate with oral cultures through training provided by Scriptures In Use. I learned how to share my faith and plant churches among non-literate people. I was influenced by the teaching and returned to the mission field and started using the same storying method. So many people believed in Jesus Christ through this method.

I witnessed so many souls coming to Christ by telling stories from the Bible. So many souls are being saved. I am now training many missions workers throughout Bihar. The training is going well, every month many people are accepting Jesus Christ. Each month 500 to 600 people are taking baptism and 50 new churches are being planted every month. Through the cooperation of several ministries, a church planting movement is taking place throughout Bihar.

Brace yourself for this headline: An estimated 90% of the world’s Christian workers present the gospel and do discipleship using highly literate communication styles. 90%. Throw that up against the 67% who are oral learners and what do you have? A strategic problem.

Let me put it this way. We can try all day long to install software on a Macintosh computer but if the software is Windows only PC, we’re out-a-luck. We can know that our customers need software. We can spend big bucks on designing great software. Our investors may be excited about the software. But it all means nothing if when we go to install it on our customers computer. We find out that two-thirds of them are using an incompatible operating system!

Oral learners do not have a literate operating system. They need different software. That’s what this young leader in India discovered. That one single insight should rock our world as it did his. It should stun Christian leadership. It should change our mission strategies for sharing faith, training leaders, and planting churches. It should radically change the focus of our Christian stewardship.

How do we fulfill the Great Commission among oral learners? We change our approach as Bihari Mukhiya did. He simply learned to use the stories of the Bible to communicate in a way that functionally illiterate people relate to and understand. That’s it. So obvious. So brutally simple.

He put away his printed books and tracts. He stopped communicating abstact theological ideas that he’d learned in Bible school. He started telling the stories of the Bible. Straight forward. He used these oral stories to cross natural bridges into the lives of his listeners. He used stories from the Bible to bring forth truths that challenge the worldview of the people in his culture. Then he watched the Holy Spirit speak through these stories. You can’t argue with the results.

The fact that we, as literate, print oriented, missionaries from the west, have missed this oral storying method for so long may be one of the single most serious tactical mistakes we have made in the last 200 years! I grieve over all the time, energy and funding that I have personally directed toward print evangelism mission endeavors that missed the mark for oral learners.

I finally got the picture. Literacy software does not fit two-thirds of the world’s population. Until we wake up to that fact, we will continue to expend manpower and resources in less fruitful endeavors, with inadequate tools, and methodology. The result? We miss our audience. We missing our opportunity to effectively share the stories of faith among oral cultures.

The development of oral strategies is not meant to detract from print evangelism or Bible translation. In fact, the opposite is true. The most comprehensive strategy for communicating the word of God in the heart language of an oral culture should start with an oral approach that leads to translation and literacy. The problem is, too often we get the cart before the horse. Or worse yet, we forget the horse completely. Without the horse. That cart isn’t going anywhere.

I’m convinced that if we take the unique needs of the oral learner to heart and if we make them a leading priority in shaping our all mission strategies we will make monumental progress in completing the Great Commission.

We urgently need ministries willing to rethink what they are doing. Ministries willing to create new tools, new methodologies, new approaches that put the needs of oral learners first.

In doing so God will enable us to harness the greatest force on earth for spreading the gospel and multiplying the church—the power of His stories reproduced by word of mouth over and over again among each unique oral culture of the world in culturally sensitive ways.

We need a movement of cross cultural Bible story experts who have the skill to train people to engage unreached oral learners with a complete set of Bible stories in the local language that are tailored to transform their unique worldview. It’s cost effective, reproducible and grass roots accessible.

It is the goal of the International Orality Network to influence the Body of Christ to disciple all oral learners. We envision nothing less than a worldview specific, word-of-mouth-Bible storying revolution in the mother tongue of each oral culture of the world.

This is our greatest hope for fulfilling the great commission among 4 billion people who have yet to hear the Story. It’s a simple insight with world shaking possibilities.

What do you think, Mr. Guttenberg?

"This article appeared in the October 2006 issue of Lausanne World Pulse, www.lausanneworldpulse.com, P.O. Box 794, Wheaton, IL 60189, USA."

Making Disciples of Oral Learners

Avery Willis

Two thirds of all people in the world are oral communicators-- who can’t, don’t, or won’t learn through literate means.

Four billion people in our world are at risk of a Christless eternity unless literate Christians make significant changes in evangelism, discipleship, leader training, and church planting. These four billion people in our world need a customized strategy delivered in a culturally appropriate manner in order for them to hear, understand, respond to the gospel, and reproduce disciples.

However, an estimated 90% of the world’s Christian workers are using literate communication styles that don’t communicate to oral learners. Literate approaches rely on lists, outlines, word studies, apologetics, and theological jargon. Making disciples of oral learners means using communication forms that are familiar within the cultures: stories, proverbs, drama, songs, chants, and poetry. Our issues group discovered that many churches and workers in relational cultures, have found significant benefits to the chronological Bible storying approach in evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and leader training.

During the Lausanne conference 2004 in Pattaya, Thailand we formed a Lausanne Task Force on Making Disciples of Oral Learners to explore and implement all practical means to advance the cause of making disciples of oral learners worldwide. The task force began the International Orality Network in Feb. 2005.

We challenge churches and other Christian organizations to join us and ride the next wave of Kingdom advancement by developing and implementing methods for effective oral strategies. Partners, networks, seminaries, mission agencies, conference and workshop leaders, and other Christian influencers are called upon to recognize the issues of orality in the world around them, become intentional about making disciples of oral learners, raise awareness, initiate oral communication projects, and train missionaries and local leaders in chronological Bible storying as an effective church-planting strategy.

Avery Willis, issues group convener and Executive Director of the International Orality Network said, “The Lausanne Conference catapulted the Making Disciples of Oral Learners issue to the forefront of the missions world. With the insights we are gleaning from research and collaboration, our prayer is that it will become as significant as Ralph Winter’s call to reach the “hidden peoples” of the world at Lausanne 1974. Christians have the opportunity to evangelize, disciple, plant churches and train leaders in these unreached people groups of the world in our generation, but only if we use appropriate communication styles with oral learners. The church today must embrace oral communicators as partners--together making disciples of all peoples to the glory of God!”

Article was originally written for the Lausanne Task Force, Pattaya, Thailand in 2004.

Orality

What is Orality?

Two thirds of the world (that's 4.35 billion people) and 70% of the unreached people of the world do not understand the message when it is delivered by literate means. They don’t understand the concepts even when they hear them.

The writers of the Bible and Jesus used oral means before the message was written down. Jesus did not speak without using parables because only 5-10% of the people were literate in his day. Oral learners learn and remember through stories, proverbs, drama, song and chants. They are just as smart as literates but have not learned the skills of literacy. Their memories are better and they can easily reproduce what they hear. They are the key to beginning church planting movements and reaching the lost of the world. Stories from the Bible can be used to make disciples, train leaders and even equip missionaries who do not read.

I. How your church can start a storying project.

1. In the U.S.—visit www.RealLifeMinistries.com/leaders

2. In an unreached people group—visit www.FinishingTheTask.com

3. In a Bibleless people group—visit www.OneStory.org or www.StoryRunners.com

II. How to do Bible storying.

1. Storying Workshops - offered by various groups. See EVENTS at www.oralbible.org

2. CBS Chronological Bible Storying - www.ChronologicalBibleStorying.com

3. Oral Strategies website - www.Oralstrategies.com

4. Avery Willis website - www.averywillis.org

III. Orality Ministries.

1. International Orality Network - www.InternationalOralityNetwork.com or www.oralbible.org

2. OneStory - www.OneStory.org

3. Go 2 South Asia – curriculum for UUPG’s of South Asia - www.Go2SouthAsia.org

4. Simply the Story – Inductive Story Training workshops - http://www.gods-story.org/sts/

5. God Story Project www.gods-story.org/bibleatlast.htm or www.God-Story.org

6. Scriptures in Use - www.siutraining.org

7. StoryRunners – Campus Crusade Ministry – oral bible story teams - www.StoryRunners.org

8. Wycliffe – OneStory – oral bible story teams - www.WycliffeOneStory.info

9. Youth With A Mission – oral bible story teams - YWAM OneStory - www.ywamonestory.org

10. Orality Strategies – comprehensive oral approach website - www.OralStrategies.com

11. Global recordings - www.globalrecordings.net

12. Audio dramatized bible – Faith Comes By Hearing – Proclaimer & Bible Sticks - www.fcbh.org

Resources available for orality from www.imb.org for $5.00 each

Telling God’s Story Video

Making Disciples of Oral Learners (available in Korean, Indonesian and Spanish)

Orality Around the World DVD

Telling the Story” workbook—a primer on Chronological Bible Storying

Following Jesus: Making Disciples of Oral Learners—Seven audio modules of 400 stories

Order “Making Disciples of Oral Learners” AUDIO book for $5.00 at: www.Storyrunners.com/Resources/MDOL.aspx

“Basic Bible Storying” by Dr. J.O. Terry: http://www.churchstarting.net/books.htm

Orality

by John McGee posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 5:54pm

[A blog about Orality, one of the significant themes and highlights from Cape Town 2010. This particular blog though encompsses my own study of this movement over the past seven years and is a synopsis of my understandings, observations, conclusions and challenges.]

There is a significant movement in missions today focused on oral cultures. Some indications are that nearly 70 percent of the world’s population, either, cannot, prefer not or will not read to engage in learning and exposure to that which they did not previously know.

70 percent, that is a staggering number – more than 4 billion people around the globe. Read this again, we are not talking about cannot only, rather, 70 percent of the world’s population can not, will not or prefers not to learn through literate methods.

What does this tell us about the modern missions movement which historically has had as one of its main pillars to teach people how to read so they can read the Scriptures for themselves. This assumes that the scriptures will be translated and available in a language that can be understood.

Let’s start here. Of the 6,800 languages that are spoken around the world. About 3,100 have a portion of the Scriptures, a translation in progress, or a completed translation. The remaining 3,700 languages, whether spoken by millions or only a few hundred, have no part of the Word of God in that tongue. Only 450 languages have complete translations of the word of God.

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International Orality Network
- Influencing the body of Christ to make disciples of all (4.35 billion) oral learners
Visit us at www.internationaloralitynetwork.org

Greetings from the Prayer Team
This is your invitation to join us for the Weekly ION Prayer Call to link in united prayer together for those Great Commission Partners groups working in Orality & Discipleship specifically with the UUPG & UPG oral learners.
If you are free to link via conference call, join us in person...
United PRAYER each Thursday at 2 PM (EDT) for one hour.
Dial: (712) 451-6000
Access Code: 373000#
[You can join us by way of Skype]
Using Skype: Add skype name FREE CONFERENCING to your contacts.
At 2 PM (EDT), select FREE CONFERENCING and click Call button.
Once the call is connected, locate the key pad and enter the access code 373000# when prompted.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17:20-26

Persistently prevailing,
Linda Bemis
Director, Prayer
International Orality Network
- Influencing the body of Christ to make disciples of all (4.35 billion) oral learners
Visit www.InternationalOralityNetwork.com
or at www.oralbible.org


Isaiah 42:16 "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."

Save the DATE September 12-15, 2011
- Plan to join us at Ridgecrest Conference Center for the next ION Consultation.
Read more…