We all have a story: one that makes us well up with tears when we share it with friends, or one that never fails to draw a hearty round of laughter when retold around a dinner table with colleagues. Stories are woven through the span of our lives, from the first fanciful, brightly illustrated books we read to toddlers cuddled up in our laps to the true stories of courage, perseverance, and purpose that recount a life well lived.

Stories can be shared through books, movies, music, poetry, theater, and short videos. The Create Mobile instructors are teaching students how to tell effective stories with mobile phone videos. Here, in this remote, off-grid community? Yes, even here.  Stories need to be gathered.

The deep, warm tones and organic shapes of handmade Nakashima furniture are stunning. Several years ago, as we sat in the Andersen Horticultural Library, I found myself slowly running my hand across the black walnut grain. The centerpiece of that Nakashima collection is a coffee table crafted from a 400-year-old English oak slab. I love beautiful libraries. Everyone is invited to come, sit, and learn from the volumes.

As Beth and I prepared for this trip to Ghana, we realized something new: BiblePlus is actually a micro library. In the USA, we have an abundance of tools and materials for sharing the story of how God is involved in our lives and pursues us. Books, YouTube channels, and streaming music all provide a rich fabric for telling, exploring, contemplating, and enjoying scripture. From chubby little characters stuck to a felt board by Sunday school teachers to animated vegetables singing songs, we enjoy exploring our stories of faith, hardship, and God’s grace. Handel’s Messiah brings us to our feet, our voices trembling, as we join the choir and sing. Corrie ten Boom’s story of meeting, and then forgiving, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who came to hear her speak at a church after the war pierces our hearts. Could we lean on the Lord and forgive like that? Hearing Dr. S.M. Lockridge, a powerful Black preacher, poetically describe Jesus in his famous sermon “That’s My King” leaves us in awe. In the USA, our libraries are deep and wide.  

Northern Ghana is home to dozens of unique and diverse tribes, each with its own language and traditions.

In the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 8, Philip, one of Jesus’ followers, approaches an Ethiopian official riding in a chariot and reading from Isaiah. He asks,

“Do you understand what you are reading?”

“How can I, unless someone guides me?” the man replies.

Philip opens the Scripture and shares about Jesus, and the account ends with the Ethiopian being baptized.

For many tribes, all the books ever written in their language fit in less than a single bookshelf.

The cornerstone of BiblePlus is the Bible. Built upon that book is a powerful micro library: exciting choirs singing and dancing in praise, like an Anufo version of Handel’s Messiah; powerful preaching, like a Konkomba pastor with all of Dr. S.M. Lockridge’s enthusiasm and power; and heart-changing stories of faith in action, like a Bimoba version of Corrie ten Boom’s story. The strong and capable people of Ghana are building libraries in their own languages, and in their own voices and context. And now, with the training of these 21 students, short videos will be added to those libraries! Instead of traveling to a library building, BiblePlus will put a library into their pocket. 

But First, Practice

This past week, students started early and worked late into the night, building the skills they need to record and edit stories. They are eager and motivated. The five or six French-speaking students are working especially hard, since English is their third language, after their mother tongue and French.

The Create Mobile course includes plenty of practical, hands-on assignments, from mastering the “rule of thirds” for composing shots to rigging a shotgun mic to record clean audio.

Time to Roll Camera

After several days of basic exercises, it was time for the students to tackle a complete three-minute documentary: someone sharing a true story from their life. Issa divided the anxious, fidgety students into three teams. Each team would need to craft interview questions, frame the shots, and film B-roll, action clips that visually tell the story and are woven between parts of the interview.

Amazed

Oh, how I wish we could share the student videos with you! They were designed as vehicles for learning and growth, and the students were given plenty of room to make mistakes. These short films were like your first awkward attempt at poetry or your first creative writing assignment: an excellent place to start.

The stories they chose to document were incredibly moving. Each one retold real events from one of the students’ lives, from a family torn apart when the parents separated to a college student standing in the kitchen late at night, holding a knife and contemplating death. Every story ended with how the Lord had intervened and given them hope, a path forward, and peace.

Over the remaining three and a half weeks, the students will learn, grow, and make ambitious plans. We are praying that in the coming years these libraries will expand with short videos of faith, forgiveness, and kindness. The videos will be made in small, remote villages across West Africa and used to invite others to see for themselves how hearts can change. How big can we dream? Can we imagine three or four new videos for each of the 16 languages of the BiblePlus micro libraries?

Bold dreams, we know. Please pray for the students as they dream big and grow these libraries.