Crossways tells Bible stories in pictures

In a modest cinder-block warehouse, an even-more-modest, salt-of-the-earth couple have created a worldwide empire.

Harry -- "Don't call me Reverend, I'm just a Lutheran minister" -- and Chloris Wendt were born in the Australian Outback during the Depression. These days, they travel all over the world for Crossways International, supplying churches and missionaries in more than 85 countries with their curriculum to teach the Bible. They estimate that their one-of-a-kind materials have been used by more than 5 million people in the past 30 years.

"Sometimes when I think of what two farmers' kids from the Outback have done, it boggles my mind," Chloris said. Lest we think that sounds the least bit boastful, she quickly adds that every bit of their success "is a God thing."

Crossways (www.crossways.org) has six employees working in a building snuggled into a corner of an Edina office park tucked up against Interstate 494.

Their teaching materials consist of pictures drawn by Harry, who has illustrated the entire Bible during his 54-year ministry. His drawings are popular with missionaries dealing with language and literacy issues, an approach reflected in the company's slogan: "Taking the Word where words won't go."

These aren't the typical depictions found in most Bibles: Mary and Joseph at the manger, for instance. His drawings illustrate concepts: forgiveness, redemption, rebirth.

"You have to start with the big picture," he said, no pun intended (but with him it's not always easy to tell). "You have to understand the Bible's big story to understand Jesus' story, and you have to understand Jesus' story to understand your own story."

"The reason we've been able to do what we've done is that nobody has invented what we invented."

Drawn to teaching

They met in college, but couldn't get engaged because it was against the rules of the seminary he planned to enter.

"So we got engaged the day after I graduated and got married a month later," Harry said. "It was kind of silly, but those were the rules."

In 1956, the newly ordained Harry was sent to a sparsely populated area of New Zealand. He and Chloris drove 175 miles every Sunday to conduct nine services, "sometimes for groups in small buildings and sometimes for a single family in their living room," Chloris said.

"It started with chalk on a chalkboard," he said. "The people in New Zealand responded to it."

He worked his way up the church ranks until he was called to a 3,000-member church in Australia. But he kept drawing, and associates encouraged him to publish his artwork. In 1979, he accepted an offer from an Indianapolis publisher, and the family moved to the United States.

The Wendts soon parted ways with the publisher and incorporated as a nonprofit ministry. They moved their operation to the Twin Cities 21 years ago.

There were two reasons for the move: "Traveling out of Indianapolis always meant flying somewhere else, to Chicago or St. Louis, to a catch a connecting flight, while Northwest flew direct flights out here," Harry said.

The other reason? "We're Lutherans," he said.

Harry is about to turn 80 but exudes the energy of a 30-year-old. Chloris is 76 -- "I think; I never pay attention to that sort of thing."

They split the duties of running the company, with him focusing on the educational materials while she handles the administrative side of things. He's the company's public face, preaching and leading seminars in the countries they visit, but she's always there to make sure everything goes according to plan.

"I'm his backstop," Chloris said, adding with a wry smile, "he does the teaching, I do the prompting."

Fifteen years ago, their two children, one of whom is classical pianist Stephanie Wendt, "told us that we should start to back out [of the business], but I think they realize now that this was better."

Nonetheless, they have started "thinking about" turning the company over to a younger CEO, but Harry admits they'll never pull out completely.

"We don't need much," Harry said. "We live very simply. We're working with people [in developing countries] who have nothing."

They have branch offices in 19 countries, plus two more in the United States: a prison ministry based in Missouri and a Spanish-language ministry in Arizona. They are finalizing an agreement with the Church Mission Society of Oxford, England, to be their official worldwide supplier of training materials.

"We're going to play a role in bringing religion around the world for decades to come," Harry said. "At least, that's what the folks in Oxford tell me."