Email Update- Travel to South Asia TODAY!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

NOTE:  If you don’t read anything else, please do say a quick prayer for me as I travel over the next 48 hours by plane, train, taxi, bus, jeep, and by foot to South Asia.  I am primarily going for a Story workshop, but also plan to return to my ‘home’ where I lived for 2 years of my life – to see my ‘Kahani’ friends again for the first time in 2.5 years!  (P.S. My mom asked especially for prayer for the late-night taxi ride to between the airport and train station- especially considering there was a recent terror alert in that area).

SHORT VERSION:

1-“HI LIZZZZY!!!!” – The response heard on the other end of the phone when I finally got through to one of our ‘Kahani’ storytellers, after not talking with her for almost 2 years!  I CANNOT wait to see some of my dearest friends and also ask them if they have listened to the Stories we left with them.

2- “CODE NAMES?” – I recently asked for help on Facebook with code names for the 7 teams I’ll be meeting with in  ‘Tea Town.’  For this round of storying teams, I decided to use my friend Ruth’s ideas :)  So, when praying for the teams, think SPICES!!!  More specifically: Black pepper, Masala, Ginger, Basil, Bay leaves, and Turmieric, Thyme.

3-P&P

4- “WHAT IS CONSULTING?” –See a line from a story from the Thyme team – and the consultant notes I made on it.

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LONGER VERSION:

1-“HI LIZZZY!!” – I leave in a few hours (3pm on Sunday, Eastern Standard Time) to travel to South Asia to help with a story workshop in Tea Town.  On my way, I will take a side-trip to ‘Kahan.’  A place where I fell in love with village life and the Kahani people.  I place where I trekked on paths that no foreigners had been on before.  A place where my closest friends are on a different life Path, and the only Stories they have heard are the ones I’ve shared with them.  A place where electricity is rare, water is carried in buckets on your head, and you are thankful that you have the same food to eat every day, because it’s either that or nothing!  A place where I gained a greater appreciation for His Story – A story which compelled me to take it that far.

2-CODE NAMES –After a very brief trip in ‘Kahan,’ I will travel to ‘Tea Town’ to meet the 7 teams who will gather for a story workshop – this workshop is focused on taking the Stories they have been working on into other areas and initiating Small Groups.  My main role will be consulting– discussing particular aspects of their stories with them to help keep the stories accurate and understandable by the culture.  I have been working on several of their stories over the past few weeks and am looking forward to discussing some important elements of story-crafting and testing with them in person!  Communicating in 2^nd and 3^rd languages is hard enough when you are face-to-face, let alone through email, and then sometimes through a third party altogether!! 

3- WHAT IS CONSULTING? This is a large part of my assignment right now -- Scroll down and you’ll see a real story line from the Thyme team and my comments to them!

P&P

-Praise for ESL contacts in Orlando.  I was able to share the Creation Story with my new friend ‘Kim’ – which amazingly led to conversations about what people do with the guilt that they have from their own lives or their ancestors as well as how to outwardly show an inward life-change!  Who would have thought that discussion would have come from the Creation story!

-Prayer for travelling to South Asia, and in particularly travel to ‘Kahan.’

-Prayer for the ‘Tea Town’ – ‘SPICE’- Story teams I will meet with – prayer for good communication and understanding of the consultant notes for the teams, as well as understand for me of the concerns and struggles they have as story teams.

TIL ALL HAVE HEARD,

~ Elizabeth

========3- WHAT IS CONSULTING?=======================

Let me take a few minutes to explain what I mean by consulting! :)

Wherever I am in the world, I receive stories (that are back-translated from the village language into English) by email.  These stories are accompanied by anchors (Scripture references), and retellings of the stories by those who have never heard them, as well as question-answers about the story. I take analyze all of this information based on my experience in storying, and using exegetical resources available to determine if the way the story was crafted is in line with Scripture.  I make comments to the story-crafter about possible changes or other things to test- to see if the cultural background of the people group has an accurate understanding of the story, and if they can retell it.  Let me take 2 lines of a story and give you an example.

This is taken from a ‘Three Wise Men’ story from the Thyme team:

THEIR FIRST LINE OF THE STORY: Jesus was born in Bethlehem during the time of king Herod. During that time three wise man from east came to Jerusalem, and asked where is the child born to be the king of Jews?  We saw his star and we came to worship him.

Anchor: (Mat.02.01)

Retelling 1 (rtl1)- During the time of King Herod Jesus was born. During that time three

wise man from east came to Jerusalem, and asked where is the child born to be the king of jews? we saw his star and we came to worship him.

Retelling 2- (rtl2) - Jesus was born in Bethlehem during the time of king Herod. When Jesus was born three wise man from east came to Jerusalem, and asked where is the child born? we came to worship him.

HERE ARE MY COMMENTS TO THEM:

1-[ANCHOR]- You should include verse 2 in your anchor, but you should probably divide this into two lines – see LN LENGTH comment below.

2- [LINE LENGTH] - This line is too long.  You should divide it into 2 lines.  This will help you check your scripture references more accurately and see how the retellers retell each part of the line.

3- [RETELLING] - Notice that RTL1 didn't retell 'Bethlehem.' and RTL2 didn't retell "Jews."  You might want to think about taking out one of the names in this line.  You have "Jesus, Bethlehem, King Herod, Jerusalem, and Jews."  Those are a lot of names for someone unfamiliar with words from the Book. Think about what names are most important or are used in other stories, and find a way to help people remember those names.

4- [STORY FLOW/TESTING Q] - Do you think “Thyme” people would understand what is meant by "saw his star?"  Can you ask a testing question about this?

5- [TESTING Q] - Can you ask, 'What do you think is meant by 'three wise men?'  - Why would someone be called a “wise man?”  AND 'Why do you think they came to worship him'

6- [KEYTERM] - "Worship" is a key term.  Can you make a Language and Culture note for it and include information like, "In ‘Thyme’ culture, who or what is worshipped?  Who worships someone or something else?  What does it look like when someone worships something else?  Is this word used commonly, or by certain religious people?  Would everyone understand the meaning of this word?  Is it the same word as any national language scriptures?  If it's not the same, why did you use a different word?

*And this is only the first line of the story!!  Multiply that by approx 20 lines/story, by 25-30 stories/team, by 7 teams!!!

*Also note that this is a story crafted by a team who is still in the beginning stages of learning about storying.  After several rounds of consultant notes, teams begin to learn what makes a easy-to-remember story as well as how to keep it accurate.