Report 2014, February 24 to March 1, San (Naro, /Gui, and //Gana), Botswana

• San Scripture Engagement 3rd follow through workshop (Naro, /Gui, and //Gana in East Hanahai)

Participants: Cukuri (//Gana), Meriam and Umpile (Kgalagadi with knowledge of the 3 San languages represented), and from Naro representing D’kar: Solex and Ncox'ae (husband and wife), Erkies, Osego, Marea (Naro Scripture Engagement Coordinator and workshop coordinator), as well as Naro representing East Hanahai: Qg'uba, Cgose, Tsaxae, Tsolofelo, Tsabu, and Debe (elder of the Reformed Church in East Hanahai part of the time).  Hessel and Coby Visser (leaders of the Naro Bible translation project, serving with SIL Southern Africa) were also mostly present, while Masenyani Baloyi (Bible Translation Coordinator of the Bible Society of South Africa) was our guest to observe the workshop, and Ruben Dubei (Wycliffe RTS Scripture Engagement Specialist as trainee to be mentored).

Topics to be covered in this and the next workshop:

1. What oral Scripture passages have been prepared until now and how well do people know them*
2. How are they used and are people engaging with these oral Scripture passages*
3. What do we need to different and how can we do things better*
4. Development of story sets
5. Integrating oral Scriptures and relevant engagement strategies into overall ministry work*
6. Practicing oral Scripture telling en engaging with the Scripture passages*
7. What is consultant checking*
8. The reason for consultant checking*
9. The relevance for and need to develop local primary level consultants*
10. The importance of addressing the key principle issues Scripture addresses*
11. The importance of making disciples
12. How to mentor and make disciples
13. The importance of repetition*
14. Evaluate the storying venues* and various communication art forms used in practice
15. Hone scripture telling  skills and do community testing*
16. Improve the process of internalizing (discover and own) the truths communicated in the Oral Scripture*

*topics covered in this workshop (in the context of other topics or specifically)

February 24:

• Meet with Merea and Coby for an initial progress and situational report in context finalizing the program for the workshop that would best meet the needs of the participants.  Baloyi and Ruben are also present.  It looks that except for Cukuri there may be only new people or no people be coming from New Xade (due to availability of those chosen to come).  From D’kar, Ncox'ae wants her husband Solex to come and help with their baby, while from East Hanahai there also will be two or more new participants.  The Bible story clubs in general have done very little, with East Hanahai being most active.  It seems that it is hard to get participants to come regularly and they have not gone out in the community to tell the stories.  One story was shared by Ncox'ae in church in D’kar and since Ncox’ae was very nervous she didn’t do very well and was made fun off, which discouraged the one story teller in D’kar.  In East Hanahai they shared once in church.  I feel that we need to build confidence and try to give multiple opportunities for the people to do community testing.  I also try to tie into things that already have been done by the Naro translation team.   They have developed three readers called ‘Good News’ in Naro with Bible passages from the gospels about the life of Jesus that can serve as great stories and I decide to select four passages to be learned for the week (which I later reduce to three to match the progress of the workshop).   Each day we plan for the attendees to go out into East Hanahai to get practical experience sharing the narrative in storying sessions.  We will share the booklets with the participants at the end of the workshop to help them look at more stories that could fit an initial story set and share the booklets with interested people in the community that don’t have a Naro Bible and would like to read the stories.
• Travel in the afternoon from D’kar to East Hanahai and set up camp.
• We meet for the first time, but nobody from New Xade has arrived yet.  I model Luke 17:11-19 and lead the people through the story using questions.  We also practice the story by two of the participants telling it back.

February 25:

• Cukuri and Meriam have arrived from New Xade and join the workshop.  The group practices telling the story to them and also leads them with questions through the story.
• We talk about the plan to daily go out into the community and practice and that we have a set of stories to use this week that can belong together.  I use the stick person to explain the concept of helping people initially getting a basic picture about who God is and the Bible.  I also use the Bible to show how we should progress connecting to things people already know.
• We discuss any key terms that need to be tested and there seem to be no issues as leprosy is translated to being a contagious skin disease and priest was transliterated to ‘peresiti’, which is similar to what is used in Setswana.  We also discuss if people normally would know who Jesus is and they feel that people know.  Still we ask them to tell us who Jesus is and we end up with quite an exhausted list.
• They practice telling the story and asking questions two by two.
• The first session in the afternoon we review what has been happening in New Xade:
  
  • Lack of leadership, so not much has been happening
  • Lack of interest… other things of life are more important
  • Merea had planned ahead for a visit with the people in New Xade, but when she visited they first had to find the people of the Bible story club.  They agreed to meet later in the week as a club, but nobody followed through.
  • Cukuri has made a plan to start with the following two passages because he wants to see people confronted with being unfaithful to God and that they need to respond to the light God has given them:
    • Deuteronomy 18:9-13
    • John 3:16-19
• The second session in the afternoon we review what has been happening in East Hanahai:
  
  • They have been meeting three times per week (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday) for a couple of hours with about six people (Kenewang, Qg'uba, Cgose, Tsaxae, Tsolofelo are core members and also the elder Debe has been attending some)
  • It seems hard to find new people who want to come to the church and be part of the Bible story club
  • Since the last workshop they prepared and practiced three Scripture passages:
    • Romans 15:1-6  (as a song) because they wanted themselves and others to embrace the virtues
    • Matthew 13:1-9 (performed as a drama) for people to consider what kind of soil they are
    • Matthew 25:1-13 (told as a story) for people to be prepared for the coming of God
• At the end of the afternoon I try to finish up by asking engagement questions to our narrative from Luke 17:11-19, but the group is tired and it is already 5 PM, so we postpone this to the next morning.

February 26:

• We start to look at engagement questions and once more talk about who Jesus is, this time looking at the kind of things Jesus does and did.  Again in general there is a good understanding in the group of this.
• The weather looks like rain later in the day, so we start early with the first community testing and people go out two by two.  They are asked to share the story twice and then ask the questions and discuss the story.  I suggest that the outside leaders don’t go to provide greater freedom for the people to share without us looking over their shoulder and for the people of East Hanahai not to feel invaded by us coming to their houses.  The final question they plan to ask is ‘who do you want to be in this story?’  They return late in the morning and they are asking if they can also go to the other side of the village to do more testing.  Many of the groups have already shared in four places and they are eager to do it again with some teams returning only at three in the afternoon, taking their lunch plates right into class.
• We reflect on the community testing and people report with excitement, while at the same time showing concerns for people in the community expressing some divisions in separating the people of East Hanahai:
  
  • People were interested
  • They answered the questions
  • They asked questions
  • One side of community does not feel free to come to Reformed Church
  • People asking them to come to other people living in outlying areas
  • People express that they like the stories
  • One Tswana person has only old Tswana Bible and would like Setswana Bible to read at own time (they told story also in Setswana)
  • Some people said that it was a good thing to know stories like this
  • Some expressed an openness to God
  • Most welcomed them and said it is good and that they would like to have stories time and again
  • The story tellers were encouraging people to come to the Bible club
  • One boy told his story of having a dream being in Ghansi and he was baptizing others and it made him humble himself after the dream coming twice… he was asking if people not from church could come to the Bible story club (they told him that he could join)
  • Drought relief workers… 7 people, then 12more and 12 more (3 sessions)
  • Sometimes they pray before and after the session
  • One place husband went out but let his wife listen… she had issue about a workshop in D’kar and felt left out and because of that is not coming to church
  • 4 men at another place, 2 ladies at another place and they wanted Naro audio Bible since they couldn’t read
  • Other small group… from Reformed Church but not going right now because of conflicts (asked for elders for visit)
  • Meriam told the story in Sekalagari as needed
  • One testimony of a person clearly burdened to be like the Samaritan
  • One person didn’t want whites to come (we didn’t) so their group listened
  • One person remarked: ‘Why are people not doing more like this?’ (these were not attending church)
  • Cukuri asked four questions and received the following responses:
    • What does it show that only one man returned to give thanks?  The answer he heard was: ‘He has faith, he trusts and that’s why he goes back to thank Jesus.’
    • How about the other nine… are they doing what God told them to do or what?  They said that these didn’t trust in God but they would continue to go to the priests. 
    • Who of these would you like to be?  They answered that they wanted to be like the thankful man. 
    • How many churches are in East Hanahai… answer three.  Then Cukuri answers: ‘Go like the man who returned to Jesus to the church of your choice.’
  • Three old ladies stopped them before end of story and told them they want this, can they not come more.
  • 2 boys speaking //Gana storying went well, came in the past to church but not anymore (possible problems and making excuses of no time)
• Baloyi: we know there are problems always… do you have solutions… if not yet, seek out solutions… you would become zealous to go to difficult side of village… you are not zealous enough if not resolved
• Ruben was encouraged by diligence and amount of work of the participants… they worked much longer than asked and initiated also going to other side of the village
• Ruben leads the last session of modeling our next narrative from Luke 10:25-37, leading them also through the story with questions.

February 27:

• Ruben continues to lead the team in learning and processing the Luke 10:25-37 narrative.  He talks about the following list of words that need to be discussed:
  
  • Expert or teacher of the law
  • inherit
  • Law (of Moses)
  • Soul/life (used what is in Naro Bible)
  • Neighbor (Afrikaans: naaste)
  • Priest
  • Levite
  • Samaritan
  • Compassion (used ‘pain of the heart’ from Naro Bible)
  • (olive) oil
  • Wine
  • Inn/guest house
  • The money paid by the Samaritan to the inn keeper (two denarius)
• Ruben leads them through asking questions to learn the lesson, also asking them what questions they would ask and he gets the following response:
  
  • Which of the people that past the wounded man would you want to be?
  • If you want to do something for your neighbor, what could you do?  (good application question)
  • What does this story show you?
  • What does it show what happens between Jesus and the teacher of the law?
• Ruben lets them practice the stories and questions.  One person also asks what the risks of the Samaritan are:
  
  • How if the person that was nearly dead died and others think you actually caused the death…
  • Robbers could have come back
  • How if the robbed person was actually one of the robbers pretending
• In the afternoon they go out in two groups.  One goes to the fields, while the other goes back into East Hanahai.  Erkies goes with Coby, Baloyi and me to West Hanahai and shares both stories with an old elder of the church there who is not able to get out.  The teams don’t come back until after six in the evening.
• The next day Marea will lead in helping the trainees learn and process Luke 8:4-15 and she comes to me asking if it is okay to use drama in learning the story. I think that it is a great idea and within no time she gathers the people together and they practice in the evening for more than an hour.

February 28:

• We start off with the trainees performing a drama of Luke 8:4-15.  Marea next leads us through the story by asking questions and then we give some feedback on the drama.  They acted it out well, but instead of finding some rocks and thorny branches they use their notebooks for the different kinds of soil.  Baloyi notices that they seem to specifically sow in the different kinds of soil, while the story says that the sowing is general and some seeds end up in the diversity of soils.  Part of the problem is that they don’t visual the sowing as they do it normally (from side to side), but by throwing seed directly on the different soils.  They try to follow the story which addresses the soils one by one (and actually the New Media Bible Luke video shows it the same way… one by one).
• Next we review what happened the previous day in the community check:
  
  • First place in field with 2 people who asked if this is just a one time visit or something to be happening regularly. They answered that they were telling stories from Bible and that they had a Bible story club.  The people wanted to hear and share stories too, so they asked if they could join their group
  • Second place in the field with 5 people there were some that didn’t read and they asked for literacy classes (they have been in East Hanahai in the past, but obviously they didn’t know). They wanted them to come back regularly to tell stories, they had good questions and interaction
  • Third story with 3 people in the field.  They understood the story, but one asks who has mercy on him… asking for them to come back and share more stories
  • Another person said she had devil in her that restricts her from understanding… after explaining further she may understand if she wouldn’t be undermined… she is not a believer anymore due to the fact that her church undermined others. She is in the dark because of having been mistreated… not having been visited. (there is more to the story, but that is not part of the field visit, but she seems to blame God for whatever wrongs she feels done by people from the church)
  • In East Hanahai the group asked: ‘Who is your neighbor?’ and the people said that it is everyone.  They wanted to be the goodhearted man, the man who helped.
  • A young lady told she didn’t know who God and Jesus is and also asked who the devil is and who created him… The group responded by saying that the devil is an angel of God who boasted and made war with God and was defeated… his name was Lucifer and is devil… some say brother of Jesus but that is not true…
  • Next were some Tswanas and story was told in Setswana… same questions… these people sometimes went to Unity church… they were invited to the Bible story club
  • Last visit same questions and the people said that they need something like this story telling and asked for prayer  They invited people to club… these people sometimes went to Unity church
• The rain persists and in the afternoon Marea lets everybody tell the story one by one in the group.
• We continue our review to see what happened in the other places where Bible story clubs were to be started:
  
  • D’kar has two regular people (Ncox'ae and Erkies) meet with Marea on Wedensady for three hours and on Friday for one and half an hour.  Since all of them are readers, they work from the printed Naro scriptures and themn practice telling the passages without the Bible open.  The group didn’t grow because people say they are too busy to come or they have jobs during those times, while also there was an expectation by some that they should be paid. They prepared two passages and Erkies stories the first for us in the group:
    • Mark 13:32-37
    • Mark 13:3-13
  • Tshobokwene and New Kanagas didn’t get their Bible story clubs off the ground yet
• Next we discuss the importance preparing the oral passages with great accuracy and that they should be in natural spoken language and very clear to understand.
• Accordingly we talk about checking key words and that this is in essence like consultant checking and the better the words are tested, the next check will be by Marea as the S.E. Coordinator and finally by Hessel as consultant.  Then we can make a recording, which becomes the oral scripture passage to be added to forming an oral Bible.  For the /Gui and //Gana these will be the only scriptures, while Naro also has a printed New testament with an Old Testament on the way.  The better they check and test these key words, the easier the checking and finalizing of the passages.
• We follow through with discussing that audio recordings are very important that from March 11-13 Rob Veith, LBT Scripture Engagement Coordinator and Vernacular Media Specialist, will be in D’kar for recording work and he may be able to record some checked oral passages as well.
• We finally discus creative ideas as to make the Bible story clubs more effective:
  
  • If the club meets twice per week, then meet one time as a club and go out the other time into the community and tell  the stories
  • Share stories at the clinic, bar, feeding programs, hostel, Sunday school class, schools, etc.
  • Have courage and don’t be afraid to go out
  • Make a poster, buy cooldrink mix, have a meeting, and ask people to act out story (could be done periodically, like monthly)
  • Tell stories at home with spouse, parents, children and other family, as well as neighbors and friends
  • Go to those that are shut in, the elderly, the sick, a wounded person
  • Teach each other stories

March 1:

• It finally is dry and the trainees one more time go out three by three for community testing Luke 8:4-15
• We review how their storying sessions went:
  
  • The first group asked the following three questions:
    • Who are in the story?
    • Which seed do you want to be?
    • Why don’t you want to be the seed that falls on the rocks?
  • They share in two locations
    • At the first location are four people and one person is asking about literacy classes
    • At the second location is with an old sick //Gana lady and her daughter, who says that when she goes home she wants to tell it there
  • The second group shared also in two locations
    • At the first place there are four people and one man shares that it was good and he encourages them to do this more and then he could follow them.  He also tries to generalize the story but the group brings him back to the story.
    • At the second place there are four ladies who don’t understand the story, even after the group explains it.  They complain about the church as they feel they are received with ‘terrible eyes.’  The team guides them back to God and suggests to maybe even try another church, but they didn’t want to hear
  • The third group shares in six locations:
    • They start across the street of the church and they explain first who the whole group is that has been there for the week and what we are doing, then they ask and receive permission to share the story  They like that the group shared with them and they also answer the questions and want to be the seeds that fall into the good soil
    • Next they share with a group a children and one lady.  The children are shy but they understand the story
    • Then they meet two couples (one of the ladies leaves for unknown reason) and they also want to be seeds that fall in the good soil
    • The next place invites them to get together again
    • The fifth place asks them also some questions outside the context of the story
    • Then the lady who left wants to hear the story in her place and they share with her
  • Hessel notes that they will suggest a literacy class in East Hanahai for May because of the requests for people wanting to learn to read Naro
  • Hessel shares that it is good to show God’s love to people who have differences, not judging them and welcome people to the church in love
  • Hessel also suggests that one could not only ask where one wants to be in the story (or who one wants to be), but also where one is currently in the story (or who one currently is like one of the characters)
  • I also suggested not to try to solve the problems brought our as a visiting team, since it may not even be our problem.
• We review the ways story clubs can work and think more about creative ways to do scripture engagement in the community:
  
  • A club doesn’t need to meet at the church, they can also meet at a home or a neutral public place
  • Using Naro music and instruments may also be attracting people, it may be less foreign and more Naro
  • It is important to find the best times of the day to meet, which may differ for different people in the community
  • They may set up regular times to go back an visit people who wanted to hear more
• We use the Naro ‘Good News’ readers that have Bible passages about the life of Jesus for our first story sets as the story set concept is still a bit difficult for most of the group and also we haven’t had time to process it fully due to the priority to help the participants to get practical experience sharing in the community.  They also can get as many readers as they need to share with people who don’t have a Bible, but who would like to read the stories in Naro.  Those that prepare the stories should use their Naro Bibles, since that translation is more up-to-date.  Each group will prepare four stories from the readers before the next workshop.
• Those that know enough English and are interested are also offered a booklet by the Naro Bible Translation Project called ‘Keeping the Word of God in my heart’ (published by UBS).  It is a children’s workbook that uses the Contemporary English Version (1995) with the aim to help children the Word of God by heart and it also includes 14 songs.
• We ask all participants to identify at least one person within their community that could be trained in preparing and/or telling oral Scripture passages and possibly come to a next workshop. Eventually we also need people to be trained as audio recordists and first stage consultants.
• We finish up with an evaluation, which shows their appreciation to have gotten the experience to share publically in the community.

March2:

• The pastor at the Reformed church in D’kar preaches from Luke 17:11-19 and Ncox'ae is asked to narrate/story the passage.  She does an excellent job and then follows through by asking questions about the passage and the congregation responds well.  At the end of the service she invites the congregation to become part of the Bible Story Club.

My overall impression is that it went excellent.  It was crucial for the participants to get some practical experience through the community testing effort.  The assignment for the next workshop we agreed on for each individual is to:

1. Identify at least 1 person that can be trained to help with the oral scripture program (a local story teller and/or a person to help preparing oral scripture passages.
2. Each group learn 4 new stories from the Naro ‘Good News’ booklets that were passed out that can work together (and the list is to come to me via Marea by the second week of March).
3. Tell the new stories at least 5 times publically each week

Currently most of these people still don’t have access to easy transportation, some of them have electricity and running water, but most of them do have mobile phones and many of the Naro that can read have a Naro Bible.

In checking on their Olympus audio recorders I learn that they haven’t been used yet due to the unfamiliarity with the equipment (even after having been shown), but they are all working and in perfect condition since Coby had sewn little protective pouches for them.  Marea will teach them once more to use them.

Respectfully submitted,

Durk Meijer, Wycliffe RTS Ethno Communications Specialist

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