How brave and how awesome are these women. I admire and respect them. What more important job could any of us have than to share Jesus. I will pray for the people of this village that they may all come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was so glad to read this testimony. I may not believe in those “celebrity” signs and miracles, but I DID believe on what happened in that Mali village (the rain). GOD is wonderful and he is working miracles through his REAL children. May THE LORD bless you all. Thank you.

I am familiar with One Story because our son is a One Story missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators and is crafting stories in [a Southeast Asian language]. The living conditions these Journey(wo)men are experiencing are carbon copies of other areas of the world. Their commitment speaks of their love for God, these people, and their commitment to complete His project in sharing The Story. I thank God for the wisdom and insight of the organizers of One Story. God will be glorified! I thank God that various missions organizations see the wisdom of working together to get the message to “all the world.”

Thank you for obeying His call and sharing His story among the nations. May God bless your work and cause it to produce much fruit.

The harvest is ready but the workers are few. How will they hear unless they are told and how will they know unless someone tells them…

The task at times is overwhelming. It truly is a race against time that we are fighting. Daily people are living in darkness with no hope because they have yet to have access to the gospel. As I would drive through parts of West Africa, passing tiny villages, I often found myself asking “Lord, how will they ever hear”? Thousands upon thousands in West Africa have little or no access to the gospel. The task is urgent.

After being back in the states for a few months,the Lord is continuing to teach me about the urgency of the gospel. I pray that that sense of urgency never fades. I pray that we as believers don’t become complacent. I pray that no matter what the cost, we will go.

God bless all the onestory teams that go out in foriegn areas to teach God word. My prayers will go out for all of you and the people that you are trying to bring to our LORD. thank you for doing what i am unable to do. I know god is working miracles through your teams.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Krystal and hearing her tell of her work with the OneStory team in Mali. Krystal is a wonderful young lady, so dedicated to the Lord’s work.

[...] rest of this story can be found here at [...]

One gets the impression from this video that Krystal and Monica are the first Christians to minister to the Sanara Senoufo of southern Mali. Having spent 2 years in the region as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I can tell you that this just isn’t the case. Protestant missionaries have been working in and around Kadiolo for years; they even set up an FM station (Radio Yeelen) there in 1998 broadcasting the Gospel in multiple local languages. There is a Catholic mission in Diou (where the missionaries also learn Sanara Senoufo quite well). Krystal and Monica are only the latest in a long series of North American missionaries to work in the area. Another thing: nowhere in the video is it mentioned that the vast majority of people in this part of Mali (upwards of 90 percent) are Muslims. The missionaries I’ve known who’ve worked there will tell you that winning converts among them is a long, slow, difficult process. After all these years of evangelizing, Christians still make up only a tiny fraction of the population.

Thank you for your response. You’re right that there has been other work with the Syenara Senoufo and other people groups across Mali. We understand these girls were the first to do this type of work in these particular villages.

The radio station is a critical distribution point for the OneStory recordings throughout Mali. We’re glad it’s there.

I had the wonderful blessing of teaching / fellowshiping with the Yalunka Tribe in Mali. (June’08′) and now I’m addicted. I long to go back to those wonderful people. I also had the honored priviledge of meeting and spending a few days with Amy and Susan. The Lord has His hand on these two wonderful women and I’m so glad that the Lord blessed me by meeting them.

The Bible stories are good, but what about discipleship? Who will stay and teach these people how to live out their new-found life in Jesus? Who will teach them about what Paul and Peter and others were teaching? Is there a Bible school available to train pastors to shepherd these new Christians? Please don’t let them wither and die when pressures of their families and culture seek to turn them back to Muslim ways.

Helen, you raise some good questions. The Oral Peoples Strategy Team is assigned to follow up in the villages after the One Story teams return home. This report from the leader of that team, edited for length, may answer some of your questions:

What happens after they leave?
As Connie and Amanda completed their journeyman term they were happy about the baptism of seven believers among their Malinke village near Kita. But their hearts were heavy because there was no one to shepherd them. One of them, Nam, asked us to pray for them to be able to withstand the evil deeds done against them because of their obedience to follow Christ. We did, while assuring them they could also pray directly to the Father.

A special Easter celebration
Looking for a special way to celebrate our Easter holiday this year, a colleague and I decided to go to Kita to celebrate with the new believers. They were surprised and excited to see us drive up on the eve of Easter. We were equally surprised and excited to hear that their numbers had grown from seven to over 30. When asked how the others came to follow, the leader of the group said, “We shared the stories.” They met together several times a week to pray and worship together as instructed.

They planned to make the hour walk to the nearest gathering Easter morning, but since we had come they decided to celebrate in their village. “We’ve never done this before, so you have to show us the proper way to celebrate,” they said. Not wanting to introduce our culture into theirs, we first explained the significance of the holiday, and then suggested they do whatever was in their hearts — sing, pray, tell stories and have a big feast. That’s exactly what we did all evening and the next morning — not only the brethren, but any who chose to come.

As we met together, they asked if we brought a songbook with us. I did, but we encouraged them to sing and even begin making up songs in their own language. ‘Eve’ made up her own song, a simple one, but it was beautiful. My colleague told a few stories beginning with ‘Lazarus’ and the ‘Crucifixion,’ then we discussed them. Nam led a song and then prayed.

It was special to see how much the brethren had matured in six months. Nam identified Ham as the leader of the group, but Nam himself prayed boldly and confidently on behalf of us and his people. Eve requested to know the Father and Son better.

Sprouting churches
Three weeks later we returned to our Malinke brethren. We found three of them in a village an hour away attending a five-day seminar. It is so exciting and refreshing to see them so hungry for Truth. While many of the teachings are the same as ours, there are some concepts such as the principles of baptism that differ greatly and have caused confusion, so we brought along a pastor from another region to give them instruction. We gathered at 10:00 p.m. to worship. Eve led in singing even more songs than last time, all from memory. Nam then shared with the group what the three of them had been learning and the pastor answered questions.

Not only are there five more in this village who want to be baptized, but we discovered that Eve, Ham and Nam have been going to other villages. Eve said five women in a nearby village are following and want to be baptized. Nam has been going to two villages and has six new followers. Ham has been going to three villages and there are 10 new followers. The numbers continue to grow. Ham confessed, “We have a handicap. Since we can’t read well, it is difficult for us.” my colleague reminded him of the stories they have … to listen to them, learn them and continue sharing them.

The fields are ripe but the workers are few. Who will come and shepherd this new beginning? Ask the King of the Harvest if it is meant to be YOU.

Amy, I happened upon this this morning and it blessed me to see this video of you and Susan! I miss you friend and still pray for you often!

“I pray that God will continually raise up Ruth’s all across this faith family and all across this church. Women who forsake earthly pleasures and worldly security and comfort and boldly, with adventurous faith trust DEEPLY in God. Women that do what makes no sense to the women around them. Do what seems to forsake all the good stuff this world has to offer and say, I will trust in YOU, not just now but for all of eternity. Bold, abandonment, humble devotion. This is the picture of Ruth.” – David Platt

A picture of these two ladies.

I want to second what Bruce Whitehouse says here. The Christian & Missionary Alliance planted a church among the Senoufo Supyire 60 years ago. SIL was invited in in the early 1980s and worked with the church to translate the New Testament in Senoufo Supyire. This was dedicated in december of 2008 in a room packed with Supyire believers and christian workers from around Mali.
World Venture and the Catholic church also have work among the Supyire

Of course, there is much to be done and the OneStory approach provides a nice inroad to people who much more open to an oral approach. Keep up the good work!