Jonah’s Journey To Nineveh, And A Similar, Modern Missionary

 

POY! SKIT GUIDELINES:

  • In a small group, participants might simply read their lines, or glance at their lines to get the idea so they can speak in their own words.
  • Most POY! skits require no practice in advance.
  • Have any small children play a brief part. Most scripts have an optional part for children, listed last under Participants.
  • Most scripts have a Narrator who should read the script beforehand to see how to keep moving the story along.
  • It is not necessary to employ costumes and objects, unless the skit recommends such.
  • It is not required to have an audience watch the skit. All present may participate.
  • Scripture and paraphrases, if any, usually appear in bold.

PARTICIPANTS:

(If you are a small groups, then simply read your lines, or glance at them to get the idea and speak in your own words.):
Narrator (Read through the script beforehand to see how you can move the story along. Small groups need not practice in advance.)
Jonah (make your hair wet and disheveled, make you clothes appear messy)
Citizen
Leader & Crowd. (Having a Crowd is optional, and it can be any number of persons, They are merely to repeat Leader’s words.)

SCRIPT:

Narrator

The first instance in Scripture of a foreign missionary is found in… Well, let’s see!

Jonah

(Limp in groaning, hair and clothes messed up.) Sir! Sir! Which way leads to Nineveh?

Citizen

Nineveh?! That evil city! Hey, man, you for sure don’t want to go to Nineveh!

Jonah

You’re right; I sure don’t want to—but the alternative’s been a bit worse! My name’s Jonah.

Citizen

Well, Jonah, if you must go there, (Point at audience) there they are. The Ninevites!

Jonah

(Shade your eyes as though peering at the audience from a distance.)
Oh, no! They look really bad! No wonder the Almighty sent me to condemn them!
They look like a bunch of drunks! 

Leader & Crowd: (optional)

More whiskey! More whiskey!

Citizen

Ooo! (Hold your nose.) You reeking of fish, Jonah! Yuk! You stink! Where’ve you been?

Jonah

If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.

Citizen

Of course I’d believe you; it’s obvious you’ve been some place really weird!
You smell as if you swallowed a raw fish!

Jonah

Well, it was sort of the other way around. Actually, I was… No, you’d never believe me!

 

Citizen

Sure, I’ll believe you. Wow! I have to believe you! Where were you?

Jonah

Well, I was sailing to Tarshish to avoid prophesying God’s punishment to Nineveh, when the Almighty sent a storm and was about to sink our boat.
It was my fault, so they threw me overboard. However, God had prepared a really big fish, a very special fish. It swallowed me, but God kept me alive. The third day it puked me up onto a beach.

Citizen

You’re right. I don’t believe you! Get out of here! (Raise fist, chase Jonah away.)

Narrator

The next scene takes place recently. A modern Jonah is in today’s Tarshish, the city to which Jonah tried to flee.

Jonah

Sir! Sir! Which way is Tarshish? I need to go there!

Citizen

Tarshish! You’re already in Tarshish!

Jonah

But the sign on the highway said (name of local city).

Citizen

That’s its old name. They forgot to change the sign.
Welcome to the new Tarshish, home of many dynamic churches!

Leader & Crowd: (optional)

Welcome to Tarshish! Welcome to Tarshish!

Jonah

Well, I’ve finally arrived! (To audience) I’m your new missionary, you straying pagans!

Citizen

What? Am I hearing right? Another missionary’s come here to our city?

Jonah

Of course. Here I am, you lucky people! Where can I rent a large, well-furnished house?

Ninevite

Hey, I’ve been pastoring here for 20 years! The last thing we need is another Western missionary come to turn the clock back! Go find a town where there aren’t any churches? Go to Nineveh, Yemen, Laos or Eritrea.

Jonah

But my great-great grandfather was a missionary to this country.
My sending church is familiar with this field, and it’s easier to raise support money to come here.
Also, my denomination doesn’t have a single church here yet.
Besides, those other fields are perilous. I’d have to make tents there, and I don’t like manual labor.

Citizen

So you’re going to stay here and start another turf war with our churches?
We’re no longer a mission field! We’re a mission force!
We send our own missionaries to neglected fields!

Jonah

Then, there must be errors in your doctrine; otherwise my mission-minded church wouldn’t have sent me here.

Citizen

What do you call your church?

Jonah

We’re the First Independent, Separated, One and Only, True Dogma Church!

DISCUSS:

What attitudes and plans would you advise the modern missionary to change?

 

 

Comments

  1. Alexander P Abraham says

    Very good story to share

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