Friday, October 10, 2008

"Mighty" team member reports sharing stories...

I met with the teams today, well at least 1 or 2 from 5 of the 6 teams were able to come to “Pan” town to submit their stories. I was honestly very impressed with the quantity of work they have done – they have each completed about 5-6 stories- including back-translation into the national language, and at least partially anchored the stories with scripture. They have not yet back-translated it from the national language into English- I think they are counting on me to do that!

We reviewed crafting and testing of the stories and I gave a few comments about things the teams weren’t quite sure about or weren’t doing right. For example the “Ag” team had started writing out their stories, checking it with each other, and then recording it- I think by reading the written story. We talked about how this would cause any naturalness to disappear, and how it’s important NOT to write the story…the writing comes only after the story is recorded, and then it is a transcript of the recorded story. This keeps the naturalness intact.

The last time I met with the teams in August, we talked about the importance of testing with those who aren’t familiar with the stories. Most of the teams have been doing this. I was most encouraged by one of the “Mighty” team members who has actually told most of their stories to the local religious leader. The leader explained that in his heart he believed in the One, but couldn’t stop his work in the temple because it was a source of income, and there were hundreds of people who would kill him if he renounced his beliefs. The “Mighty” team member said he is unsure how truthful the priest was being, however, it was an encouragement that he didn’t argue or discount the stories. The priest also stated that he knew the stories were about the One and Only Truth.

This “Mighty” team member’s home was flooded (along with several thousand others) when a water dam broke several weeks ago- he and his wife were on their roof of their home for 18 days waiting for water to go down. Several thousand have been affected, and refugee camps have been set up in surrounding areas…One of the “Ag” team members has dysentery due to helping in the refugee camps where he has been able to tell stories as well.

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