The Power of Story

December 13, 2013

by an Alliance medical worker serving at a medical center in West Africa

The following is an adapted excerpt from a recent update.

Rolling over on the thin mat, I awoke to the first rays of sun. In a few minutes the hint of morning coolness would be swallowed up in a blazing sun. For now, I would enjoy the thin breeze.

I raised myself onto my elbows, taking in the sights of the village courtyard. Women were already stirring at the other end of the compound near the garden, drawing water from the well and attending to small cooking fires.

Issa

The heat had made sleeping inside the little mud hut impossible, so I had moved my mat out under the shade of a gwa—a small shelter made with four posts and a cornstalk roof. My friend Issa had joined me outside, and he, too, began to stir to life.

We were here to visit the family of our mutual friend, Israel.

Although we’d known each other for a couple years, Issa’s shyness had kept us from talking in depth. So I was quite surprised when, 30 minutes later while I was reading my Bible, he pulled up a chair next to me and began a conversation.

“Do You Understand?”

“I have a small Gospel of Luke in French that I read a lot. I really like the stories,” he confessed. Issa’s words tumbled out as if it had taken all of his courage to say them.

I asked him which stories he liked the most, and with a near flawless attention to detail he began recounting the miraculous fish catch and blind Bartimaeus narratives. I was astounded by his recall.

“Do you understand what these stories mean?” I asked, looking at him with some incredulity.

This was, he said, precisely the reason he wanted to talk to me.

Someone Special

He knew there was something different, special about the Jesus in these stories. But he wasn’t sure what this meant or what he should do about it.

That morning we talked extensively about the good news and its meaning. Every time I mentioned a gospel story or event, Issa would light up and tell me what had happened before or after it.

As we continued our conversation over the next several weeks, I felt like the apostle Philip (Acts 8), who asked the man reading a scroll of the Book of Isaiah: “Do you understand what you are reading?”

It was evident that the written Word and the Living Word had already done their work in Issa, and he responded by making a firm commitment to follow Jesus. I was simply there to connect the dots.

I suppose I should not be surprised by the power of these stories. They are, in fact, what won me over to this Man of mystery, love, and miracles—Jesus our Savior.