I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
I love to tell the story
‘Twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story
of Jesus and His love
I love to tell the story; ’tis pleasant to repeat
What seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.
EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD STORY
Everyone loves a good story, and we know the most incredible, life-changing story ever told. Our mission at Cafe 1040 is to mobilize the next generation to finish the Great Commission, to help them go into all the world to tell the story of Jesus where it has never been told. We love to tell the story for some have never heard.
HOW TO ‘STORY’
In Southeast Asia this semester, we taught our students how to story, that is to share the Good News in an engaging, story-telling format. Across the world, this method has been especially successful among people groups who are oral—they remember and pass on information by telling stories. We challenged our students to share at least one story from the Bible with a local friend using this method. At the end of the semester, the students recounted their experiences sharing the story with their local friends:
“Today I met with a friend for coffee. She shared her struggle with loneliness and her fear of disappointing her family if she wasn’t successful enough. I told her about what encourages me, the story of a Man who lived a perfect life, but had the same struggles, and chose to die because He loves us and wanted a perfect relationship with us. She listened intently and seemed encouraged… I then explained the story and how God provides for all our needs and also deserves all the honor. I spent the entire time praying that one day she would understand the truth and believe.
“Last week we hosted a big Christmas in July party at our house to share a “Western” holiday with our friends. We had nearly twenty locals attend, and together we ate dinner, exchanged gifts, and shared the story of Christmas. Our friends had a blast experiencing our culture and many were very interested in the Christmas story presentation. This party sparked up many conversations that have led to us having several recent opportunities to share the good news with a few locals, as well as many other opportunities to share other stories from the Book. I personally had the privilege of sharing the good news with my friend, John, this last week, and he is very interested in learning more about Jesus. He is currently reading the good news on his own, and will be meeting again very soon to talk more. I cannot even begin to express how exciting and encouraging these last few weeks have been for us, and I am anxious to see how God chooses to work through our friendships with the locals.”
“While we were dividing up jobs [for the Christmas party], I got the story job. What I decided to do was have our friends act it out, that way it could be interactive and still be light hearted, since we were, after all, having a party! One of Kristin’s friends, who is actually a believer, played the angel who appeared to Mary and Joseph in their dreams, and she translated what I told her to say into her language so that everyone could understand (which was the coolest thing ever). The funniest part of the story was the boy that asked to play the donkey, but apparently he thought I said monkey, so he was the comic relief to our story! After I told the story in our fun party way, I explained why the Son is important and why we celebrate His birth. The story opened opportunities for the rest of us to talk to individual people who didn’t quite understand or who wanted to know more.”
“After the party, Paul invited his friend Sam over to talk about the story of the Book, and I knew Sam a little so I was invited to join the conversation. Paul shared the good news with him, and I was able to participate in a conversation where he stated why he did not believe. Sam said lots of things that I have heard in America… he knew a lot more than he had ever let on! The conversation with Sam was completely unexpected on my part and has been one of the highlights of my summer! Hopefully the Father will use it to plant seeds for the future. Paul and I invited him to talk to us again before we go, so we are looking forward to that!”
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” -1 John 5:11
