What If You Can't Speak the Language

What can you do for a short-term ministry when you don't speak the language in a country with one of the most difficult languages in the world? The answer might be as simple as this: teach them your language. That is, of course, if your native tongue happens to be English.

Teaching English classes is one method the Hong Kong churches use to attract young people to church and share the gospel with them. The Hong Kong Field Council requested an IMPACT team of four college students to spend two weeks helping teach English classes. We missionaries alerted the fellowship of churches of this opportunity and arranged the number of classes to be taught by four IMPACT teachers. However, only two teachers from United States were able to come: Joanne Hines from New Jersey, and Dan Howard from Illinois. We saw this as a sign that the Lord wanted my wife and me to be the other two teachers. This pushed us from a supervisory role to a more active one. Our team taught in four different churches and at a YMCA.

My wife taught new immigrants from China. As she shared the gospel with them, she realized that, for many, this was their first time ever to hear the story of Jesus Christ. One Christian parent commented that the IMPACT team was "a tangible exhibition of God's love, because He sent people to teach their children English."

We are now able to hold follow-up events with the English students to guide them to a knowledge of the Living Word.