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.
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."
