Bible stories, past-tense verbs and two Spanish rookies — that’s what led Brenda, a Catholic by tradition, to the Lord.
"She was our Spanish teacher during our six months of language school, and she was helping us learn phrases and words that we needed in order to do our jobs," said Allen Stoudenmire, who along with his wife, Laurelle, serves as an International Mission Board missionary to Guatemala.
The Stoudenmires took Brenda a copy of the book "Una Historia Para Todos" (A Story for Everyone), a compilation of short, easy-to-understand Bible stories in Spanish compiled by fellow missionaries Alan and Melodie Lyons and Keith and Penny Stamps. The stories, which range in topic from the authority of the Bible to the crucifixion of Christ, are used for Bible-storying work among Guatemala’s Spanish speakers and several groups who speak indigenous languages.
"She thought the stories, which were all written in past tense, would be great practice for us in learning past-tense verbs," Laurelle Stoudenmire said. "She wanted both of us to tell those stories the way we would with our work."
The Stoudenmires began taking a story a week as an assignment, each telling a story to Brenda "for practice" and then fielding her questions.
"At first, she was asking lots of questions for our benefit, to see if we had learned the Spanish. But soon it became evident that she was asking questions for her own benefit about the stories — and many were pretty deep questions," Allen Stoudenmire said.
And, he said, by the time they finished the book’s last two stories — one on the resurrection and then a final one titled "Jesus Te Invita" (Jesus Invites You) — it was clearly time to ask her the most important question.
"I asked her if she had invited Jesus into her heart, and with tears in her eyes, she said yes, she had," Allen Stoudenmire said. "It’s amazing how God is using those stories to touch lives." (TAB)
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