Coaching at RashidatO.com | Social Activism at Whereveryougolove.com
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Did you know that English in NOT the most spoken language in the world? The number one spoken language is Chinese with over a trillion speakers in the world. Next is Spanish with over 400 million speakers. And finally English steps into the game with a little over 300 million speakers.
So how does a person connect with someone who does not speak their language to show the love of Christ?
It all starts with a warm smile.
Body language is a universal language. There is always someone watching you, how you react, how you live, and trying to get to know you through what they see. What are you showing them? Who are you showing them? Is it your flesh that they see or is it Christ?
Smiling starts wth being aware of your self. Are you able to hold a smile or dumb grin on your face no matter what you are doing? You should try it sometime! You will find that even just smiling all the time changes your personal countenance. It also helps to give off a warmth that says “I happy and open”.
In a recent post, I talked about experiencing racism here in Cambodia, but that is not the majority. Let me repeat, that is NOT the way the majority of people in Cambodia act when they see foreigners.
Most people look and as you smile, they smile back. As we walk down the street, many children come to the edge of their yard and say “Hello!” in English. And if you return the greeting, they may even ask you your name in English! The point is, you never know, but if you never try you will never find out.
It’s worth the risk to try…
Adding a wave to “hello” is another option.
I know this seems kind of over simplified, but when you have language as the main option for communication, you tend to forget the very simple basics. A wave can take it to the next level. Not only are you warm, but now you are welcoming as well.
Now you have an opening where you can try to connect, so live life in an area where someone has the opportunity to approach you.
We arrived at Lighthouse Battambang on Saturday evening after being on a bus for 6ish hours. As we stepped out of the truck, the simplest thing to do was to smile and look in the eyes of as manly people as possible. And that’s how it started…
We had dinner with our host the first night. He told us about his family, his mission, and what he expected of us during our stay with his ministry.
The next day, Sunday, was our Sabbath. Sun rise is at 6ish in the morning every single day so we were up early. We took some time to debrief our travel days at a nearby cafe and got caught in the rain as we ran back to the house.
When we got back to house, Kat, Kayla and I tried to hang out with the students, but actually just scared them away. #EpicFail So we adjusted and went to the lounge. I put on some music and we started to journal hoping that the music would draw someone in. It’s turns out that my weird combination of a computer was the conversation starter.
I use an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard and they had never seen anything like that. I asked “would you like to try”? And before you know it we were looking at pictures trying to talk about food and had about 3 hour dance party. It went from scary to fun for them real quick!
I tell you this story because it doesn’t take a lot to make a friend. America is a melting pot of people from all around the world. Bridge the gap to another culture. Let your own guard down. Take that risk!
It’s worth the try when you have an opportunity to make a connection, to love where we are… America or Cambodia.
