“I understand it all clearly for the first time,” exclaimed my language teacher as he stared at the words, characters, charts, and pictures I had drawn all over the board. It looked like a scene out of “A Beautiful Mind.” On Fridays we have been studying Christian words to help me learn the vocabulary for my real ‘job' here. My teacher is a mid-20's, 6-month old Christian – so Fridays usually turn into me teaching him the basics of the faith.
This Friday he came with a list of questions about the gospel, so starting in Genesis I spent our lesson explaining “the Story” (ok, I cheated with some pictures and English too). It was thrilling to see the light turn on as he began to fully understand the Good News for the first time. It was doubly thrilling because I know he is a member of a small fellowship of believers from a minority people group. And he plans to go back and teach all of those other young believers what he learned. As our lesson closed he turned to me and, in the words of a kung fu sage, said, “Today… the student has become the teacher.” Asia right now is a parched savannah. We get to light one stalk of grass on fire and watch a whole field ignite. May every last young person in this nation “understand it clearly for the first time.” And may everyone who learns become a teacher.