CREATIVE ORAL TEACHING

 

The latest estimates place worldwide illiteracy at about fourteen percent for those fifteen and over. How can the Gospel be communicated to people who can neither read nor write? It needs to be communicated orally and visually.

Jon Melin and his company BY DESIGN VISUALS have dedicated themselves to that task by using a familiar, but often neglected tool—Flannelgraph. Don’t think of the flannelgraph you remember from Sunday School, however. Melin doesn’t use stock figures to represent multiple biblical characters. No one will ever confuse Noah and Moses in the materials prepared by his talented artist Ron Ferris. Each character is carefully crafted with authentic skin tones, period costume and appropriate facial expressions.

Jon considers his mentor to be Dorothy North, the originator of “The God Story Project,” which has produced an eighty-minute overview of Scripture in four hundred world languages. He is a Master Trainer in her Simply the Story project as well.

One outreach of “The God Story Project” is hundreds of Oral Bible Schools which are seeking to reach those people in the world who are still illiterate. By Design Visuals produces 230 flannelgraph stories from Genesis to Revelation. Each story has both a written narration which can be shared by those teaching the Bible as well as a recorded oral narration. Those oral recordings have been done in nineteen languages, with several others in progress. The translations can also be used by native speakers as they share the biblical stories.

“Flannelgraph is effective everywhere it has been tried,” says Melin. “It is interactive, conversational, provides a positive experience for the listener, and results in a memorable teaching tool.”

Recently, By Design Visuals acquired a large production facility which makes even greater expansion possible. For more information visit their website at By Design Visuals or write to Jon Melin at jon@bydesignvisuals.org.