One way is to not just tell them what to do but show them. Don’t just tell them what multiplication is, show them what is looks like. Some people may be familiar with the M.A.W.L. acronym. It’s a way to remember the different stages through which, at some point, your training should shift: Model, Assist, Watch, Leave.

 

After planting three churches we were stuck. For a while, though we had emphasized from the beginning the necessity of retelling the stories they were learning with friends and family and anyone who hadn’t yet heard, those three churches hadn’t gone to another village to share stories. We encouraged them every time we met to go. Their excuses were no different than ours: What if they ask me to explain something I don’t have the answer to? Something more important came up. We need to learn the stories better and then we can go.

 

One day, we pulled into Kilimary. We had already pushed them to think of which village they could go to first. The gave the name of a nearby village. So when we arrived, we asked them how their visit had gone. “Oh, we haven’t gone yet. Something came up.” We asked them what they were doing right now. They looked at each other. “Nothing.” So we said, “Ok, let’s all go to the village and share the gospel.” The Mahafaly are not an expressive people, especially not fear. This village chased off cattle thieves and got shot at on a weekly basis. They were scared.

 

We all got in the truck and a few minutes later pulled into the new village. Everyone was a little awkward at first. We gathered the village elders and sat down under the meeting tree. When asked why we had come, they bravely responded, “We’re not sure. The missionaries are here to tell you some stories.” We took our cue and explained to them how we had come a few years earlier and began sharing stories from God’s word with Kilimary. Now we wanted to share those stories with them. The elders were excited and said they had heard about the church in Kilimary and had asked their friends to come and share so they were glad we had finally shown up! We then turned to our leaders from Kilimary to come up with a gameplan. Here’s how that conversation went:

“What do we do now?” they asked.

“What did we do when we first showed up in your village?” we asked.

“You told stories.”

“Yep . . . ”

Furrowed brows. “Should we tell stories?”

We nod. “That sounds like a great idea.”

“Which story should we tell?”

“Do you know the story of Creation?”

They looked at us like we were stupid, “Uh, yes, we know the story of Creation.”

“Ok, do you think you could tell that story now?”

Once again, looks of incredulity, “Yeah, like we said, we really know that story.”

 

And they were off. We had to stop them after the story of Abraham because the sun was setting. Together we brought the stories around to Jesus and explained how following Jesus was different than following the ancestors. Our leaders came alive to tell how their village had changed because of the gospel . . . but still hot-potatoed the stickier questions our way. But the seeds for the church at Andohasatra were planted that day, and Kilimary had just multiplied itself.

At the next gathering of leaders, we asked if anyone had gone to the new villages they planned to evangelize. Everyone shook their head. “That’s funny, because I think Kilimary actually did go to their village. Do you guys want to share what happened?” The next few minutes, Kilimary explained how they had actually gone to share the gospel with another village. And whether it was more inspiration or just plain, carnal envy, the other two churches began to share as well. Yet, even still in those cases, a missionary (and in some cases national partners also) walked them through the process for the first village. After that, after Modeling in their village and Assisting them share in another village, we just Watched. Then, even when we did Leave, the churches continued to multiply.