Sometimes all someone wants is an ear to listen.
We are finishing squad debrief- a time of rest, sightseeing, one-on-ones with squad coaches and mentors, team debrief sessions, and squad worship/talks, before our next month of ministry starts. On Sunday, I was just sitting in the grass in a park in Quito, Ecuador listening to a sermon podcast on my iPad while a few squad-mates were in their hammocks in nearby trees. Twenty-three minutes into the podcast, a young man named Jose approached me, asking if that was a Bible in front if me. I told him it was and he continued to sit down with me and tell me “Yo queiro aprender sobre Dios” (I want to learn about God). Wait you’re kidding me, right? …These are the moments I dream of, meeting people that are searching for Jesus and being given the opportunity to answer their questions. But this time it was in Spanish…yikes. He continued to say how he needs more evidence for God and creation and how he has a hard time believing in something he can’t see. Everything I wanted to say was flooding in in English, but how the heck do I say this clearly in Spanish?
I told him simply, as best I could, that sometimes it is hard for me to believe too, but we need to have faith He is here. I don’t understand it all either, but I trust that Jesus is the truth.
He told me he was searching for the truth. How can God be good if I have so many problems?
He went on to talk about how he doesn’t have any friends here. He said people think he is crazy.
He said nobody ever listens to him.
He said he is ready to live a new life. His friends drink and do drugs all the time and he doesn’t want to live that life anymore.
He told me his family is all spread out and nobody in his family is a Christian.
He even asked me to pray that, among other things, he would be able to believe in Jesus.
My brain was spinning a thousand miles per hour, trying to comprehend at least part of what he was saying, as he started to cry.
I chimed in at various times to tell him how God wants a personal relationship with him, that God is always listening to his prayers, that God loves him when other people don’t. I shared how we are all sinners, but Jesus died for all our sins. Often he would nod and help me finish the sentence, like when I totally butchered the Spanish words for both “sin” and “died.”
The reality, though, was that Jose just wanted someone to listen to him. And for over an hour, that’s what I did. I didn’t need perfect Spanish or even the ability to totally understand what he was saying, to show him that I cared about him and that he is important and loved.
A day of debrief when I was planning on just relaxing became one of my favorite moments of ministry so far. And through it I was reminded of three things. First, people around us are so hungry for Jesus, some to the point of even asking a complete stranger from a different country sitting with headphones in about Him. Second, there never really is an off-day from ministry. And third, simply a continued presence and a willingness to listen can be just as effective as profound, well-structured words. Within 2 minutes of meeting him, he was sharing his life with me and opening up about his struggles, all because I took out my headphones and offered a smile.
I think I was able to piece together so much of what he was saying, even though I didn’t understand every word, because he was talking about such familiar things. Just like Jose, we are all hungry to be loved, to be known, to be heard, to be valued. Whether we know it or not and whether we let Him satisfy us of not, we’re hungry for Jesus.
