Did you realize that three fourths of the world are oral communicators by choice.

50% of the adults in the United States are primarily oral communicators.

58% of the USA High school graduates have never read a book after graduating from High School.

42% of college graduates never read another book after graduating from college.

So what do we know about oral communicators?

• Oral communicators can learn as well as literate people and their memory is superior to the average literate person’s memory. The problem is not one of learning but it is the presentation format through which info comes to them. Info must come to oral communicators through stories, parables, poems, music, songs, and other formats.

• Most literates mistakenly believe that if they can outline the information or put it into a series of steps or principles, anyone, including oral communicators, can understand it and recall it.  Most oral communicators do not know how to process outlines, etc.

The point?  Most of the world prefers to learn through auditory means.  They like to hear stories and proverbs.

So what does that mean for people who can read?

It means that its time to simplify. It’s time to start from the beginning, from creation and tell the stories as they are recorded in God’s word. Most of the world is waiting for us to tell God’s stories to them.  Here’s one to start with.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.”
So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.  God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day.  And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.   God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.  Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.  And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day.  And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”  And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.  And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.  God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.  God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Several news reports over the last weekend in May are calling attention to pressure being applied to numerous Humanitarian Aid Organizations (NGOs) in Afghanistan. More significant than the impact on these NGOs is the threat to presumed Afghan Christians.

Over the last two days Afghan parliament has engaged in heated debate about accusations of NGO support for the spread of Christianity in the country. This situation developed as an Afghan allegedly posed as a Christian and provided youtube “evidence” that he had infiltrated an Afghan Christian meeting. He is making all sorts of unsubstantiated allegations while the Afghan government insists that there is no evidence against these NGOs.  In Afghanistan, real evidence is not even needed in order to do damage. Allegations are damning enough in such a volatile environment.  Reports suggest that Taliban forces are using the situation to stir up demonstrations and resistance to NGOs and the Karzai government.

So what can happen through incidents such as these? What has happened in the past in a country, a state, a city, or a village when Christianity begins to reach a critical mass to the point that opposing forces feel compelled to take action?

In China what happened?  Under oppression, the church in China went through a great scourging but the church eventually multiplied rapidly over several generations.  But what happened before that rapid multiplication occurred? There were many Christians who were brutally murdered.  There were others who denounced their faith – they could not withstand the torture, the imprisonment, the threat of execution.  In China, there were also those believers whose faith was fortified.  The human tragedy, the murders, the isolation of suspected family members creates unjust suffering in such a setting.

Afghanistan is not China, but we can surmise that events such as these could create immense persecution on any NGO that is rumored to have Christian origins or interests.  Churches around the world have compassionately responded in overwhelming fashion to the devastation in Afghanistan.   These compassionate efforts by Christians and non-Christians alike through NGOs could be severely restricted in the coming days, while Western troops fight for “freedom” for the Afghan people.

Confusing matters even worse, is the fact that there is conflict in the legal system in Afghanistan – one law would provide religious freedom and the other would insist on execution for conversion to Christianity.  Who can speak out for oppressed minorities in such a setting? There are  religious minorities in Afghanistan such as the Ahmadis.  Many Afghans call them apostate and subject Ahmadis to extreme persecution. However, Ahmadis may be at a level of critical mass to the degree that the Ahmadis have some ability to speak for themselves and turn to the Afghan and International Human Rights Commission.   Christians on the other hand, officially don’t exist in Afghanistan.  They have no official voice of influence to speak for them within government circles. Any group such as the Human Rights Commission, if they attempted to speak out for Christians, might not survive the onslaught of violent attacks even from within their own ranks.

So what exactly is God up to in Afghanistan? We obviously will not know for some time but we do know that the Afghan people and these NGO’s need our prayers.  Please take time to pray for the nation of Afghanistan during this crisis.

See Reuters Report Below

Afghanistan suspends two aid groups for Christianity probe

(Reuters) – Afghanistan’s government has suspended the activities of two Western aid groups on suspicion of proselytising, an official said Monday.

World Church Services (WCS) and the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) were ordered to stop work as part of a government probe into the activities of aid groups after a private Afghan TV channel accused them of trying to convert Muslims — an offence that carries the death penalty in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Economy, Sediq Amarkhil, said the government had no evidence against either organization, which started operating in the country during the rule of the Islamist Taliban, in the late 1990s.

As planning ministry in those days, the economy ministry oversaw NGO affairs.

“If proven after the investigation that they were involved in conversion activities, they will be introduced to the judicial authorities,” he said. “If not then they can resume their operations.”

Hundreds of foreign and Afghan non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are involved in essential humanitarian projects across the country — helping out in areas ranging from health to education — but some Afghans remain sceptical of their motives and suspect they could be a front for proselytising.

Officials from one suspended group declined to comment, while there was nobody immediately available from the other.

Proselytising is strictly forbidden in the Koran and illegal in deeply conservative Islamic Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of Western forces are fighting resurgent Taliban Islamists who want the expulsion of the troops as part of a holy war.

There have been bloody protests in the past in Afghanistan against the publication of images of Prophet Mohammad in some Western media.

Weeks before their ouster in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban detained several Western aid workers after accusing them of proselytising, but the group was freed in a raid by American special forces.

In 2007 Taliban insurgents kidnapped 21 South Koreans who were visiting as part of a church charity group and accused them of proselytising. Two of the hostages were murdered before the rest were released, although the government denied it had agreed to any ransom demands.

The latest development comes weeks after the government ordered 20 foreign aid groups and charities to close for failing to provide reports on their work and finances.

Some 152 Afghan non-governmental organizations were also ordered shut.

(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Editing by David Fox)