Two languages at once

This is possible . . . in a group . . . not in one person at time. I am currently sitting at 4500 feet elevation at this hotel high up on the mountain, looking out over the mountain ranges to the North with 27 leaders from the Evangelical churches of Macedonia.

These men and women represent all the Evangelical churches in Macedonia. In many ways these 27 people represent the only Light shining into Macedonia, a country of 2 million people, seven major ethnic groups and a 1000 year history of war and hate and ethnic strife. In the local languages here, there is no "after the war" there is only "during the war" or "between the wars."

Marino and I are leading the music here and we are singing mostly in Macedonian, but an occasional song in English (for the sake of the guests that we have visiting from the States). Today Marino and I started with a Macedonian song, and then we followed that with an English song which we also happen to sing locally in Macedonian. About half waythrough the song it was becoming unbearable, because half the total group (50 people) were singing in English and half were singing in Macedonian . . . And it was terribly confusing for me, because the words don't quite match up rhythmically and I started losing my place in the song! Finally I got them to take turns in the song and it worked out in the end.

This confusing of languages is representative of the challenges that we face in every day life. We often try to communicate with people in our lives and ministries, but we speak different languages, even face to face. We don't hear what the other person is saying really. Or we don't understand the underlining message that is often there which is the real communication level. It takes an amazing amount of understanding, or time, or listening to Holy Spirit to get to that level of communication.

Now try to think about this in the spiritual communication arena. The confusing of languages in this area is that two (at least) different world views are at play or in competition. So the unconfusing of language is one of the primary tasks of any missionary or frankly, every child of God.

Getting to the same language and meanings takes alot of coffee and time in this part of the world. You will know what it costs for where you are, but this one thing saves us; that the language of love is pretty much universal.