If you’ve never played Telestrations, you can think of its counterpart, Telephone. You have a sentence; you pass it on to someone, who in turn passes it on to someone else. You just hope that in the end, it turns out the same! The difference? In Telestrations, you alternate between writing sentences and drawing pictures. What can be lost in translation, even within your own family, is incredible!

Asia Lutheran Seminary’s new roll-out of TELL sometimes reminds me of Telestrations. TELL doesn’t just teach the Bible; it trains people how to share it. We have a message, and we’re trying to pass it down like Paul. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Tim 2:2). If Paul were the first one to draw on his Telestrations sheet, there would have been four people involved in that game! We are teaching others, to teach others, to teach others.

This doesn’t come without difficulty! Challenge #1: Even though our student’s English levels put any of my second languages to shame, it is still not their heart language. Challenge #2: The sheer diversity in our classes. This game has players throughout Asia. One is trying to gather a small collection of house churches in a predominately Muslim country in South Asia, and another is a police officer in the Philippines. Yet another is a chieftain of an indigenous tribe. Another is a cancer survivor turned Christian from India who has read through the book of Romans over 500 times without formal training. Everyone comes from different cultures and backgrounds, so you better believe they will draw different pictures!

And that’s a good thing.

While language and culture barriers occasionally cause misunderstandings in the classroom, these are precisely where the TELL program shines. Each culture has its own picture of what things like love, honor, and forgiveness look like. One of the most beautiful things about TELL is that we train and entrust “local artists” to draw the message more clearly.

What is our message? The Word came down to Earth and gives us the words of eternal life (Jn 1; Jn 6:68). Scripture perfectly draws that message for us. The Message (the Word) became flesh to explain and live out our salvation. Christ, the Word made flesh, is the message we hold and want to hand down.

With a message that important, we want to make sure it’s handed down well. We work hard to ensure that the message remains the same despite the picture looking different. We give feedback between “each round” as students submit the Bible study they have created. Sometimes, we receive videos of students using their final project to teach others. This has been one of the most remarkable moments as a teacher! Also, after completing eight courses (1–2 years), students may work with a counselor to deepen their training and work towards fellowship.

We’ve only started working with TELL in Asia in the past few months. Still, it’s humbling to see how eager students are to refine their understanding and improve their “comprehending” and “drawing skills” for sharing the gospel. I am humbled to be able to teach the students who join our classes.

Please pray for TELL in Asia. Pray for the handing down of the Word from culture to culture and from generation to generation. Pray that this handing down and drawing of the message would bring a lot of joy, not because the picture looks different, but because it matches the face of our Lord when he comes again.

Written by Rev. Justin Steinke, world missionary for the Asia Oceania Team based in Manila, Philippines.