A great question that has been tugging at my heart while I have been on the race is why did God take me overseas? Something the last six months has opened my eyes to is the truth that I have the ability to share the love of God and the truth of God every second of every day and I don’t always do it.
There are so many times in my normal life where I didn’t take the opportunity to ask someone their name or pray for them. As I have spent so much time now in countries where I don’t speak the language I have become convicted.
Why is it that when I was in the States and spoke the same language as everyone, I had the ability to speak truth and it be understood and I didn’t do it nearly as much as I could have. Ugh it was right in front of me!!
Now I am living in countries where I don’t speak the language and I have found myself asking the question, why here? Why did God convict me to share the Gospel more and sent me to a place that I can’t speak the language?
God invented language. Of course He is able to make Himself known despite its restrictions.
Being in Central America, I was surrounded by Spanish for 6 months and while I was far from fluent, I had been making progress and was able to converse to a limited degree.
Now I am in Romania (where they speak Romanian if you didn’t know) and I am back to square one. I am noe realizing that I knew more Spanish than I thought I did. I know about 3 words in Romanian now, far from close to being able to make small talk with someone let alone to get into a discussion about biblical truths. Thankfully there are translators with me most of the time and also some people in this country who speak some English.
But still I ask God, why here? Somewhere where I was fluent with the language would be so much easier.
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33
You WILL have tribulation. He never promised easy.
Do you know that as an American in Romania I can open doors with people that a Romanian couldn’t? In the same way there are doors here that they can open that because of my lack of language I could never touch.
For instance, the youth here are very international minded. What does that mean? Whether for good motive or not, whether it is right or not, the youth here (according to our host) are very interested in talking to Americans.
Whether it is good or not, that is actually an advantage I have that God can use as a venue to share the Gospel.
Additionally, I’ve spent a lot of time hopping around to the local restaurants and coffee shops in town. One of my favorite things on the race has been getting to know the people that work at these places and sharing the love of the Lord with them.
I could share so many stories about these instances but I’ll let you guys ask me about those later. What I can do at all these coffee shops is try to meet people where they are and risk looking like a fool while doing it.
Let me explain. The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend. I watched her look up how to say a phrase in Romanian and then proceed to go up and ask the barista that question in Romanian, completely and obviously butchering the pronunciation.
The barista knew we only spoke English and as my friend walked away I watched the barista break out into the biggest smile. It wasn’t a mocking smile. It was a genuine smile that gave away her thoughts; “I feel known because this girl looked like a fool trying to meet me where I’m at by speaking Romanian.” Beautiful.
It may seem like this small interaction wouldn’t mean much, but small things are often big things. I’ve seen interactions like this lead to prayer, lead to joy, lead to invitations to church. Connections like that lead to questions, whether over Google translate or with a real translator. It leads people to question why you love them.
I’ve seen plenty of English speaking tourists all over not try at all to speak the local language. It means something to ask a question. It means something to remember a name. It means something to wave and look someone in the eyes as you pass by. It’s planting seeds and God loves to create lots of life out of little seeds.
Man I love Romania. The ministry that we are working with is INCREDIBLE. I have been thrown right in and have had the sweetest interactions and conversations about truth, but I’ll share more about the ministry in another blog.
For now I’ll leave you with this: plant seeds wherever you can. If you have the beautiful opportunity to share the Gospel out loud don’t take for granted the opportunity. If all you can do is remember the names of the people you interact with throughout the day, do it. God is outside of time and language and fear. Don’t doubt His plans to use you for His Kingdom wherever you are.
