"STORYIOR"
By: Tara Rye

Almost nightly Grant pleads, “Mom, Zeke and Gafar?” This question echoes on the walls of our home nearly every night because our boys love a good story. It became the habit of Grant and Junwoo (our nine-year-old foreign exchange student from Korea) for me to tell a story every night before they went to sleep. Our current tale has lasted well over six months. It is about an American named Zeke that travels to a far and distant land to climb a mountain with Gafar—a native mountain guide. I never know when I sit on the edge of Grant’s bed what might happen to our favorite mountain climbing men. But, one thing is for certain, I always use my tales to weave in truths about God, His character, His Word, His Son, and even how to share the gospel. In our story, it took nearly two and a half months for Gafar to believe in Jesus, but the other night, Zeke, Gafar, and Ed (a seventy-year-old hermit mountain man they found) came upon a village that had never heard of Jesus.

Zeke said, “Our greatest mission field is with the ones we are with. If we are with them, then it is our mission field.” Gafar nodded his head in acceptance of his friend’s simple wisdom.

This became the lesson for the night. I want my boys and daughter to know the importance of telling the stories of the Bible well, so Zeke and Gafar began to chronologically tell the Bible stories to the villagers.

One morning, as Zeke and Gafar arose, the villagers ran up to them and said, “Storyiors! Come! We want another!”

Grant interrupted me, “Mom, what is a “storyior”?”

I just made up the word for the story, so I said, “The villager’s language was very simple. They somehow combined the word for “story” and “warrior” to create “storyior” because it was obvious to them that Zeke and Gafar were God’s story warriors. The boys loved the idea and paused to enjoy the new word. My boys were learning through Zeke and Gafar that the greatest battles enjoy victory through the telling of truths found in God’s Word. At this point, our story took a pause as Grant and Junwoo practiced how to spell “storyior”. For each of us the word "storyior" connected to a deeper truth. This is the power of a word fitly spoken. We want to be "storyiors". God's story warriors!

As I reflect on today’s lesson, tears well up in my eyes because Stephen truly was a “storyior.” Let us join Stephen, as his face brims with Holy Spirit's light and the grace of God, as he tells well the greatest story ever told. He is one of our finest examples of a “Storyior” for Jesus.

Taken from Tell It Well, Week 7 Day 1, page 140