Here in Madrid, well not actually Madrid near a place called Guadalajara. Just chilling with the 24-7 Spain guys talking about the way forward and plans for the year. I enjoy being surrounded by Spanish speakers although most speak English and they have been very helpful with the language skills.
I know I have talked about this before, but it does make me think about people entering church for the first time and how important it is that we use inclusive and clear language.
I am also wondering if the church in the UK is very good at connecting with immigrants, I know there are some shining examples, but from my perspective if you turned up at my door and said I am a Spanish guy I am trying to learn English, you´d get a very warm welcome.
What if we started learning rumanian and polish and turned up at immigrants doors, they would love it. Imagine the the opportunities to reach out.
When it comes to immigration, my thoughts are this: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me"
There are missions fields opening up in the UK that provide wonderful opportunities for cross cultural engagement.
Just thoughts as I sit in a room filled with Spanish voices.....
3 comments:
I used to be in a cell group with some Spanish speaking people here in the UK. One night we asked Eder to pray over the group in Spanish and we really felt it unlocked something. There is now a big Portuguese community where I live. I feel challenged to reach out to them more and maybe even try to learn the language. The only community event to have happened between the Portuguese community and the locals was a riot when they knocked us out of the european cup and a near re-occurence at the world cup. Not a great advert for my town.
Enjoy the rest of your time in Madrid.
Hans.
PS. I now have an xbox, my username is hansiesgiantram. If you are still playing xbox then I would love to have a game some time.
I missed your birthday so, Happy 1335th Day of being alive. :-)
RIght on, a deeper teaching on tongues that engages the mind.
The Holy Spirit is quite enthusiastic about languages and helping us communicate - undoing some of the frustrations of babel.
I remember preaching somewhere and just before I got up to speak this black girl started proclaiming something in pure mandarin. I got up to the front and asked her if she knew she was speaking out a known language of this world... Afterwards someone gave her the interpretation of her fluid chinese... the look on her face was priceless!
And this post also reminds me of what just happened to Dar and I in Honduras a couple of weeks ago amidst some youth in a church in the "ring of misery" just outside Tegucigalpa. The Holy Spirit showed up in such power that these kids were bursting, receiving gifts, all kinds of stuff... and Dar and I were trying hard to keep up with it all through a translator... teaching them to pray through it, letting them know what was going on... and the funny thing was our translator had never witnessed anything like that before. It all came out of the blue and there's two Canadians who don't speak Spanish helping these kids understand the work of the Spirit... I think our translator was the most blessed of the whole bunch. She is an "interpreter" in more ways that one.
There is a lot to unpack in this thought Brian... thesis material for the creative mind :)
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