Throughout the four-day Arise Leadership Summit in Indonesia, participants were met not only with words, worship, and cultural performances—but also with a visual tapestry capturing the event’s flow in real time. Behind this artwork stood Wendy, a professional visual scribe from Singapore, who brought her distinct listening and illustration skills to bear in service of the global Church.
Wendy, who has practiced as a visual scribe for 14 years, said this was her first time serving at an Arise event, though not her first time working alongside mission agencies. Her role involved live-drawing key themes, stories, and moments from the sessions to create visual records of the conversations as they unfolded.
“This is not primarily a work of art—it is a work of witness,” Wendy told Christian Daily International. “The primary skill involved is listening, not drawing.”
Wendy explained that she serves clients across sectors—including government, business, academia, and nonprofits—but has long prayed for opportunities to use her gifting in the Church. Over the years, she has served local churches, seminaries, para-church ministries, and missions organizations, combining visual interpretation with a posture of spiritual attentiveness.
Her background is not in the arts, she said. In fact, she was previously employed in government and was highly trained in analytical thinking. “I never drew anything in my life,” she said. “So when something like this happens, you get the sense that perhaps it is our mysterious God at work—choosing to use the most unlikely people for a particular purpose.”
At Arise 2025, Wendy’s illustrated boards captured biblical insights, personal testimonies, and emerging themes from keynote sessions, panel discussions, and devotionals. She emphasized that visual scribing is most effective when speakers use stories and metaphors rather than abstract frameworks.
“You rarely get through to people just cognitively,” she said. “But when someone tells a real story—something personal, something vivid—that’s where the pictures come from. And that’s what makes the message stick.”
Serving as what she described as a “neutral mirror,” Wendy sees her role not as a commentator but as an honest listener who reflects what is being said. Her illustrations, drawn in real time during the sessions, are designed to aid memory, reflection, and collaboration among participants.
More than artistic decoration, the scribing process at Arise helped reinforce the summit’s core themes: intergenerational mission, Gen Z mobilization, collaboration across cultures, and biblical faithfulness in sending to the unreached.
Hosted in Jakarta, the Arise Leadership Summit brought together close to 300 participants from 22 countries across Asia and beyond. The gathering included plenary addresses, panel discussions, workshops, and times of prayer and worship—all aimed at equipping a new generation of leaders for global missions.
For Wendy, the opportunity to serve at the event was not only a professional assignment, but a deeply spiritual act of participation. “This is not about me showcasing my skill,” she said. “It’s about joining what God is already doing and bearing witness to it visually.”
