STORY 2 - CHRISTIAN STORYTELLING HONOUR
REQUIREMENT 6
FOREIGN MISSIONARIES
Story title
Details of Your Story
Escape from Danger
Theme/Aim
That God protects us
Category
Foreign Missionaries
Main Audience
6-12 year olds
Other Audience
Intergenerational
Introduction:
[set the ‘stage’]
be concise
Body
[the main part]
Be clear, simple,
orderly
Outline of your Story
Who knows what a missionary is? Where do they go to work as
missionaries? This is a story about Pr and Mrs Oster and their daughter, a
missionary family who went from America to Persia [modern day Iran] in
1913. This missionary family stayed in Persia through World War 1 and
some other scary times you may have heard about, the Russian Revolution
and World War II. I heard about the story because when the missionary wife
was an old lady, she found all the letters she had written to her sister back
in America and she used them to write a book about what happened to her
family. Here is one of the stories in the book.
Pr Oster was out in the town talking to people about God. Some of the
people he visited told him that there was a rumour that Russian soldiers in
the town would be leaving because an enemy army was coming that way,
but when they were leaving was a secret. Pr Oster couldn’t find out what
was happening as none of the Russians spoke English or the Persian
language. He waited for a sign as he knew God would tell them if they
needed to leave. People were leaving the town every day heading north for
the border. But Mrs Oster had just had a baby girl and they didn’t want to
leave their home. One day when the baby was 3 weeks old, Pr Oster was
out in the street when a Russian officer spoke to him in clear English ‘You
must leave, the soldiers are leaving tonight.’ Pr Oster went to find transport,
but all he could find in the town was an old horse with one eye. He bought it
and the Oster’s packed a few things onto the horse and they tied the baby
between two pillows so Mrs Oster who was riding the horse wouldn’t get too
tired, holding her, as the journey would take several days. They left that
night, as part of a long convoy of people, wagons, horses and donkeys,
Everyone hoping that if the enemy caught up with them the Russian
soldiers would fight to protect their families and they and the other people
including the missionaries could get to safety in a town across the border.
Pr Oster pushed the old horse to go faster while he walked quickly
alongside it, they had to keep up with the soldiers, if they got left behind the
enemy might catch them. They knew God was protecting them but they still
needed to keep up if they could.
Climax
[the key part]
Short, dramatic
Suddenly the message went down the convoy, the enemy is getting closer,
throw anything away that is holding you back, we must go faster! Pr Oster
had tied the bundles onto the saddle very tightly and was having trouble
undoing them all. A big Persian man who was travelling near the Oster’s,
said ‘here, I will help you’ he started to untie the bundles from the back of
the horse and throw them over the bushes at the side of the road. First the
food, over the bushes into the ditch, then the bedding, over the side and
into the ditch, then before they could stop him he grabbed the pillows and
threw them up over the bushes and into the ditch. Mrs Oster screamed and
Pr Oster started to pray as he jumped over the bushes and down into the
ditch and looked for the pillows among the heap of things. The big Persian
man thought, ‘these American are crazy!’ Pr Oster found the pillows,
jumped back over the bushes and they undid the pillows, the baby was
safe! Mrs Oster held onto her tightly after that! During the journey Pr Oster
saw the Russian officer again, but when he spoke to him in English, the
officer couldn’t understand him, then Pr Oster knew God had worked a
miracle to get them out of the town.
Conclusion
[application of aim]
Be brief, don’t moralise
They thanked God as they travelled. The whole convoy arrived safely
across the border. They only had the clothes they were wearing but God
had protected them. And when they returned to their home weeks later, it
had not been touched, when every other house in the town had been
robbed and damaged by the enemy who had reached the town only a short
time after the Oster’s had left. God will protect us today just as he cared for
the Oster family through wars and revolutions for more than 35 years.
Where told
Date told