On my Honduran journey, I learned so much….how to lay bricks, mix concrete, ride a horse, play revolution (the card game not the Beatles song) but there were three things that truly stood out that God had for me on this trip. So, for my second lesson from Honduras…
Lesson Número Dos –
Have grace for those who don’t speak “your language”.
In the last year, I have travelled out of the country for missions 3 times. 2 times to the Philippines and now once to Honduras and Mission Lazarus. Both works are INCREDIBLE and are doing great things for the Kingdom of Heaven but there was one major difference. In the Philippines, I speak their language (most of them speak English), in Honduras, for the most part, I do not!
This was very frustrating to me. I am a communicator. I love to talk to people and especially to laugh with people. I love to lead groups by motivating them and verbally creating an environment for worship or fun or learning, etc. But in Honduras, I felt hamstrung from the very beginning. In people’s homes I couldn’t sing in their language or pray in their language or tell them how great God is. At the work site, I couldn’t ask the questions I wanted to ask or respond to questions or instructions when spoken to me.
I messed up the Spanish language at EVERY turn it seemed. I lead songs for VBS in Spanish and there is no telling how bad I messed that up. The worst time for me though was on the very first day. We were waiting on time to start VBS and were playing with some local kids at the public soccer field (a dirt field with some goals). We were playing soccer….um….I mean futbol, and throwing a Frisbee that Everett had brought. At one point, a little boy came up to me and said….something….I’m not sure what. One of the things I learned early was how to ask their name in Spanish, so since 
I couldn’t respond to his speaking, I asked his name by saying, “Te amo!” He looked at me…very confused…so I do what I always do when people can’t understand me, I said it LOUDER, “TE AMO!!!”. Here, I was, a foreign giant white man, leaning down to this poor little child, yelling at him, trying to figure out his name. The only problem was, I wasn’t asking his name (I later was reminded you ask that by saying, “como te llama”), no, I was yelling at him, “I LOVE YOU!!!”. How disturbing this must have been for this poor child!
Again, this was very frustrating to me, but what amazed me, and taught me so much, was 
the fact that they NEVER got frustrated with me! I never saw the roll of the eyes from anyone I was talking to. I never had anybody give up on me. I never once was made to feel stupid because I could not speak the necessary language to communicate even the simplest things. In fact, it was just the opposite, I was made to feel loved.
And this is what God was teaching/reminding me. It is very often that I get frustrated with people who don’t “speak my language”. Sometimes it is the English language I wish people would master and I get put out by people who want to come to “my country” but not learn “my language”. How arrogant and unloving of me. But even more so, I find myself getting frustrated with people who don’t speak “my language” in church. By “my language” here, I don’t mean the English language, I mean the language that we learn that is different depending on our beliefs or our surroundings or our backgrounds. I confess that I get frustrated with people when I judge that they aren’t as “enlightened” as me or they “don’t get it”. How arrogant and unloving of me!
This was not the example of Jesus…oh…if Jesus would have waited on me to “get it” before he had grace for me and compassion on me….he would still be waiting I’m afraid.
So, Honduras has reminded me to have more grace for those who don’t speak like me…in all of the ways that applies. To love those that disagree with me. To learn from those who I think might need to learn more themselves. To stop being so arrogant…ugh….
Father, thank you for Ishmael and Digna and Phillpe and Santos and all of those kids who loved me and had grace for me….no matter how dumb I was. Thank you for using them to remind me of Your grace for me. Thank you for your patience with me Father. And now I will be patient with those around me who “don’t speak my language”.
Doyle