Our 11th month has been very different and in some ways a little frustrating.
To help us with the transition home, we have been given a lot more freedom this month. Our squad is living all together and we no longer have teams or our normal team obligations. We can choose who we want to work with this month and what we want to do for ministry.
This isn’t the first time I’ve done this kind of “Ask the Lord” type of ministry. We did it a lot in Malaysia and I’ll be doing it a lot in Month 12 as I hike the Camino and evangelize. I came into this month ready to hit the ground running, walk outside my front door and talk to whomever was there, contact some church members to see if they had any connections, volunteer at a coffee shop etc.
And then it dawned on me as we went on our first outings and began exploring the city. I don’t speak a lick of Spanish, and no one here knows English.
You would think having been so many places I would have run into this before- but in Serbia a lot of people spoke English and well, Romania a little less but we got by, Bulgaria the same. Malaysia took a lot of pride in how much English it spoke, and in Thailand we had translators. In Myanmar we taught English and so while it wasn’t always easy to communicate we used it a lot. In Africa we met many English speaking people and when we ran into a tougher spot like the northern underdeveloped tribes of Zimbabwe we had translators to help. In Haiti English wasn’t a thing but being a French speaker I didn’t experience the language barrier the same way my teammates did. So yes this is the first time I have experienced the frustration of a serious language barrier, and to be honest it’s been really hard.
But of course God always has a plan. My roommates and I needed to go grocery shopping so we Ubered to a nearby store. Of course before shopping we just had to stop at the Sweet Frog shop just outside the store – because frozen yogurt.
We walk in and a woman stops us. Yup there it is- another divine interruption. Amber is American and wants to know where all these other Americans are coming from- apparently this part of the city doesn’t see many, and we’re the second group to come by in the last 10 minutes. We stop and talk with her for awhile and come to realize she lives not even a 5 minute walk from where we are staying. We quickly make plans to meet up soon and before we know it we’re exploring caves with her and another American friend Kimberly.
They are both strong Christians and we have some amazing conversations about the Lord, what He’s done in our lives and on the Race, and what we hope to see Him do in the future. Kimberly lives in Bani, an hour north of the capital and a very different kind of lifestyle. She invites us up for the day to meet her husband’s family (he’s Dominican) and to evangelize with her.
Yesterday we took the bus up to Bani. We ate lunch with her husband and their family and then went to visit his cousin who had been badly injured in a motorcycle accident- and by badly I mean shouldn’t be alive today. We spent time talking to him about the freedom Christ offers from a worldly lifestyle, his mother, and grandmother- encouraging them in the Lord and praying for them. Then we went for a walk and visited another family member who is pregnant but has diabetes and is at risk. We talked to her for a bit and also got to pray over her and for her parents.
Kimberly did an amazing job translating for us. We could not have communicated otherwise. Even in a place where no one speaks my language- God provides. I’m so excited to spend time with our new friends here, to pour into each other as the body of the church and spread the Gospel these last few weeks before our Race comes to an end. And I’ve learned that even in moments where ministry is frustrating- God’s always got a plan- sometimes you just have to stop for frozen yogurt.
Ps, Praise be to God I am already 25% funded for my trip to Evangelize in Spain on the Camino. If you want to join me in spreading the Gospel in July check out my Go Fund Me Page! https://www.gofundme.com/camino-for-christ
