Story Telling and "Tears of Milk"
LARRY DINKINS
Dear Story Tellers,
Today I read this in Nightlight's newsletter (Human Trafficking ministry in Bangkok):
"Another young woman, also trafficked from Uganda, was so worried about her 2 sons. Her predicament placed big financial burdens on her family back in Uganda, so much so that the school fees could not be paid and her sons were forced to drop out of school. "Eleanor"’s trafficker stole her $5,000 savings and now, not only was she stuck in Bangkok, not able to afford a ticket home, her sons now cannot go to school. She cried many times on my shoulder about this. Her mother’s heart was breaking for her sons. She needed money to go back to Uganda AND money for her sons. This was overwhelming for her. But, NightLight intervened and raised money to not only pay for her flight, but to cover her sons’ schooling fees for the next term. When she was told this good news, she cried huge thick “rivers” of tears and could not speak. I knew she was grateful and I wasn’t requiring any words from her. She hugged me and sobbed. Finally, she said “Yesterday I was crying because I was so sad. Now I am crying because I have joy. I am crying so much I am about to cry tears of milk.
I asked her what “tears of milk” meant. She told me that her gratitude was so heartfelt and pure that surely the tears would soon be as white as milk because white is the color of purity. Now, she will go back to Uganda with one less burden."
.......After I read this, I immediately thought of a Bible story that could have been told to Eleanor during her ordeal. Which one would you have told her? I thought of 2 Kings 4:1-7. In that story there is a woman without a husband and burdened with a huge debt, who has a huge concern for the well being of her two young sons. God intervened in 2 Kings through a miraculous provision of oil. In the case of Eleanor it was another miraculous provision by God, but this time through the loving ministry of the staff of Nightlight. I imagine that when the creditors were paid off, that the widow also cried "tears of milk".
During the STS workshop at Jaisaman Church back in March, I approached the leadership of Nightlight (which is on Sukumvit Soi 6 - same as Jaisaman) and asked if they could send some of their staff to the STS training...they did! Do pray that the stories they were trained in will be shared in the Nana Entertainment district of Sukumwit: stories that have the power to help both godly widows in 800 B.C. as well as bar girls in 2013.
P.O. Box 27
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email address: larryd...@usa.net
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love each other deeply | 1 Peter 4:8
Matthew Veldt
I just read the same story from NightLight. You may not be aware that
one of our former partners from Uzbekistan, Komilla, will be moving to
Bangkok this fall to staff NightLight's safe house. She will be
coming to Chiang Mai first and working with me choosing stories, a
whole story set to use while working with the Uzbek somen. She is
already using story in Uzbekistan (mainly because STS went to Tashkent
and trained our team there). The widows oil is one of the stories we
have earmarked to learn and use while talking/meeting women in the red
light district. Komilla will be in Chiang Mai as soon as next week.
I'm still in the US with my mom as my dad passed away 4 weeks ago
today. In regards to storying I have had several awesome
opportunities. My old prayer group allowed me to come and I invited
myself to share a story (a bold move on my part) They LOVED IT! One
of the women there was also at the missions mtg the next morning. She
asked me to do the same thing for the missions committee and share the
story for them. Which I did. They also loved it! Later that night,
my friend, Karin, who hosted the prayer mtg the night before, met with
me at Starbucks. While we were talking a young girl walked up and sat
down behind us. She was crying! We went over to talk to her and
after asking her a few questions about why she was crying, I asked,
"Do you mind if I tell you a story?" I told her the story of Jesus
quieting the storm for his disciples. Karin shared her testimony. We
had more conversation and prayed with her. After the girl left Karin's
first thought was, "Molly, I'm AMAZED at the power of story!" She
loved how easy it was to say, "can I tell you a story?" It was
disarming for the girl, she stopped crying, and listened and it was
really a spirit-filled moment. Beautiful! I am even more excited
about storying after being in the US these weeks.
Thanks, for all you're doing!
molly
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