At Simply The Story trainings, while discussing Bible stories in-depth with a group of people, Dorothy Miller started using the term "heart pocket" as the place where we store Bible stories. Over the years, many of the attendees began to change, growing in the Lord, and realized how easy it was to remember Scripture. These passages quickly moved from the mind, being just information, to our hearts. Once in our heart pockets, we found the Truth of God's Word guiding our choices, thoughts, actions, and relationships.

Contributing Hosts

Alex

Alex has been involved in so-called “full-time” Christian ministry (we believe all Christians are involved in full-time ministry) for 34 years, the last 21 years as a cross-cultural missionary.  Previously, he was a pastor in Beaufort, SC, and managed Montgomery Christian Educational Radio (WLBF-FM) in Montgomery, AL.
Alex’s area of focus in missions for the last 12 years has been Orality to evangelize and disciple oral learners, that are estimated to comprise 80% of the world’s population.  He teaches an oral, inductive Bible study method called Simply the Story, or STS (www.simplythestory.org).  To date, he has taught the method in 17 countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America.
Alex celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife, Beth, in June 2018.  They have three children: Rebekah, married to an Air Force officer; Anna, a music education teacher; and Daniel, a sophomore at the U.S. Air Force Academy. 

Andrea

Andrea serves as the Executive Director of The God's Story Project (TGSP), the founders of the 80-minute program God's Story: From Creation to Eternity and Simply The Story (STS). She served as the International Director for many years, as well as providing the production for God's Story in world languages. Andrea's responsibilities have taken her to every major continent to raise instructors in STS, the oral based inductive study of God's Word. Her experience in orality spans nearly two decades. Her passion is raising people to learn and live God’s Word, her family, photography and scuba diving.

Bryan

A missionary since January 1977, Bryan has worked on every habitable continent in a variety of roles with several organisations. His passion since the day he came to know Jesus in school has been to take this Gospel to those who have never heard. Bryan married Amarilis in the Dominican Republic in 1990, and his three daughters were born while he and Amarilis were serving in the Sahara desert in the 90s. Then, in 2005 Bryan founded story4all out of a belief that the Body of Christ needed to know about "oral communication" of the Gospel as a vital strategy for reaching and making disciples of the lost. Until recently Bryan spent part of his time getting the word out (through story4all's podcast) and the rest of the time raising leaders globally for Simply The Story, a training of the God’s Story Project. He spent 8 years as the director for Simply The Story and The God's Story Project in Europe.

Butch

Butch Vernon has been a Church Planter for over 30 years. After being invited to teach a group of Pastors in Haiti, he discovered that his highly literate teaching style was very ineffective, even among the Pastors in this area. This led him on a journey of discovery. Because of his commitment to the accuracy of God’s Word, he dealt with quite a bit of frustration as many of the methods he considered spoke of the same commitment but didn’t practice it. Then he met Dorothy Miller and the Simply The Story family. After hearing Dorothy lead a discussion on the story of the bent woman he knew he had found what he was looking for. Three years ago he stepped out of the pulpit and essentially into an airplane so that he might travel the world leading others to the life changing method of Biblical storytelling that affected him so powerfully. He now serves as the Latin American Liaison for STS. Butch has been married to his very patient wife Pam for 38 years. His two children and 5 grandchildren love to hear how God is using their Poppop and the Bible stories in places all over the globe.

Linda

Linda passionately seeks to not only put prayer first, but to model the priority of prayer as a foundational aspect of all ministry. She is an experienced trainer, mentor, facilitator in prayer and mobilization. She has a passion for prayer, a strong love for the body of Christ and leading others to seek the presence of God. Linda encourages leaders to fully engage and utilize the untapped "resource of prayer and intercessors" in the use of prayer as strategy in their organizations, agencies, and churches in a more tangible way.