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• Leader to Leader: Remembering Dr. Kempton
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• Reaching Couples in Urban Spain
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• Phoebe Meets Jesus at English Camp
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The Language Journey

By Donna Messenger 5/28/03

Language is the voice of culture. Missionaries understand the importance of learning the language of their field in order to effectively reach that culture. But what is like to enter into language study for the first years of ministry? Imagine yourself as a missionary, starting the journey into the heart of a foreign language and culture.

The Journey Begins

You follow the Lord's leading to go to a faraway land. You travel for months or years to raise the support that you need to go to that field. You love the people of that land even before you meet them face to face. You tell everyone you know about the love God has given you for these people, their needs, and your desire to minister in this land that will become your new home.

Then the day comes that you leave to go to the field. The first days and weeks your eyes are wide with anticipation as you seek to take in every detail of this new place. Your dream is now a reality. You want to minister to these people more than anything else. But another reality sets in-you need to learn this language so you can communicate! You realize that your very existence depends on your command of this language. Life seems to stop, ministry moves to a back burner (or completely off the stove), while you struggle to focus on learning this difficult language.

You force yourself through the labyrinths of grammar construction and vocabulary, hoping that someday the two will intertwine and allow you to share the message that is so dear to your heart. You smile at your neighbors and the people you meet at church. You desperately want to communicate with them, but your conversations are limited to the weather, fruits, vegetables, and colors. For months you listen to sermons you don't understand.

Midway

One day, when you turn the calendar to another month and note that you are still studying language and not doing "real" ministry, a thought crosses your mind. Will I ever get this language? Some foreigners work with translators all the time. Maybe my most effective communication will always be with a translator. After all, the translator speaks in his mother tongue and can explain things in vocabulary I may never know, isn't it more important for me to get busy with ministry and the real reason I came here?

But then you recall your heart's desire in coming to this land. You want to communicate on a heart level. And you realize that if you're going to be effective-truly effective-you have to be diligent, work hard, shed some tears, and learn this language.

Arrival

Then the monument day arrives when you suddenly discover that you can function in this language for whole days and not feel physically and emotionally drained at the end of them. You realize that your conversations with people are lasting longer than two or three minutes. You are no longer petrified to answer the phone!

Much vocabulary remains to be conquered, but now you can participate in "real" conversations again. People suddenly seem friendlier than before. The conversations you once held through translators are now vibrant because you can communicate directly with your friends. Daily errands become pleasant tasks instead of dreaded chores. When opportunities arise to share the gospel or interact with a national Christian worker about ministry, then all the months of years of hard work and tears pay off. Finally, you are communicating on a heart level.

Pray for missionaries who are in language study. Understand that they are so eager to dive into ministry that the delays of study may seem like wasted time. Encourage them to be diligent and patient with the process. In time, the benefits will come. Their ministry will be 100% more effective when they can communicate directly with their national partners on heart level. When God calls us to a task, He provides everything we need to accomplish that task-even language ability!