Last weekend was surreal.  On Saturday, we prayed with our Dutch friends, listening to their intercession in Dutch.  On Sunday, the service had two preachers: the first spoke in Russian, the second in French, with translation in Romanian.  Toss in some English (and the Spanish soap opera playing on the restaurant’s TV at lunchtime), and I felt like I was in an Introduction to Linguistics class!

The weekend brought back the memory of my early language learning and the struggle to pick out a few words of understanding.  Last weekend, I could understand merci and bonjour, but most of the French was just noise.  I comprehended most of the Russian, some of the Romanian.  The Dutch?  Not a chance.

When we moved to Moldova, I began to study Russian.  The first few months, I sat in church services and could not understand anything.  I began picking up a few words, and very slowly the conversations started making sense.  Each month, I began to understand a greater percentage of each conversation or sermon.

Today, I understand most conversations, but I can’t boast of 100% fluency.

It occurred to me that my multi-language immersion experience was a perfect example of our ministry.  We try to teach the language of God, His love, mercy, and forgiveness, to people that do not comprehend.

The girls at Freedom Home have known the language of shame and abuse.  The ideas of love and forgiveness are as strange to them as the sermon in French seemed to me.  Why do they reject it?  Because they’ve never heard God’s language before.

When we share with someone who only understands a work-oriented religion, how can they comprehend the language of Christ who desires a relationship based on grace?

If you’ve never heard a language before, you understand nothing.  It is just noise.

If you’ve only heard the language of self-centeredness, how can you understand Jesus’ sacrifice for you?  If you’ve only heard words of Perfectionism and Religious Deeds, can you comprehend undeserving grace and mercy?

When I became a follower of Christ, I only understood one word of that new language—Savior.  The rest of was just gibberish.  Over time, I started to understand a few other words—Provider, Healer, Refuge, My Peace, the One With Me In The Dark Valley.

I am still learning the language of God.  I don’t have it mastered, and I have stretches where it all seems so strange and incomprehensible.  Yet it is starting to make sense.

My journey with Christ is a life-long language learning process.  And as I learn His language, I can then help teach those words to another.

Learning and Teaching His Language,
Andy Raatz