Do you speak their language?

Have you ever traveled to foreign lands? Have you ever tried to communicate with people who spoke other languages? I have, and it’s so frustrating and terrifying at times. 

One particular trip to a communist country comes to my mind immediately. I was traveling to a small village with my daughter, Isabelle, and her teenage friend to meet a pastor who had suffered over 26 years in prison for his faith. The train trip to his little village was treacherous. All the signs were in the local dialect, and English was non-existent. I felt so nervous and anxious. Our tour guide was supposed to translate for us, but he fell sick a day before our departure.

Can you imagine my fear? I was responsible for my daughter and her friend, but I couldn’t read the signs. So I ran around the central station in an attempt to find anyone who could help us. Eventually, God helped me find someone who spoke broken English and loaned me his phone to call my sick guide. Hallelujah! 

I can only imagine the tremendous surprise of the 120 people in the upper room when they could suddenly speak foreign languages: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4, NIV) They were given a gift from God to help them reach people for Jesus.

I believe that God wants to give you gifts as well. He loves people, and He wants to use you to learn their languages so that you can draw them to God. I’m not saying that we will all become linguists or multilingual. I’m saying that everyone has a love language. Everyone has interests and hobbies. 

You can listen to someone and learn his/her love language. It might be cars, words of affirmation, quality time, baseball, art, music, or cooking. Once you learn that person’s language, you can help build bridges for him/her to meet God. 

The world is lost and hurting, but the Bible says, “‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.’” (Matthew 5:14, NIV) So take a little time to learn more love languages so that you can win more people to Christ. Because you are a miracle. 

Your friend, Paul Marc Goulet