Practical Ministry Opportunities

Spanish
          For a period of time after Hurricane Katrina, groups from the Campus Church, of Pensacola Christian College, made several visits to the some of the stricken areas in Mississippi. The purpose being to offer work assistance where needed or just encouragement to the relief workers. I was able to go with them several times. I want to share one particular incident that I count a blessing to have been a part of during one of our visits to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
          The Campus Church had organized a Saturday evening dinner to honor the many workers and I had gone to help serve the meal. After the meal, a short message was presented to those in attendance. As the message began, those of us that had been serving sat down to eat and at this time a group of about 12 Hispanics came in. Our group quickly returned to the serving mode and prepared plates of food for them to eat. They listened to the message while eating, however, I could tell that they didn’t understand English. At the conclusion of the message, I quickly contacted the speaker to inform him of the situation and ask if he would present a brief message to them and I would translate to Spanish. He agreed and presented the Romans Road to salvation. To the Glory of God, two of them were saved and one indicated he wasn’t quite ready to make a decision. They were given information about a local church in the area and were invited to other dinners to be planned for the area.

Sign Language
          In 2005, during a Parent Teacher Meeting, one of my students' grandmother came with another lady to whom I was not immediately introduced. I soon discovered the other lady was my student's aunt and that she was deaf. Since September 2004, I had been taking a sign language class through the Campus Church and was able to use some of my “3rd language” to communicate with her about her niece. I extended an invitation to the Campus Church where we provide an interpreter during the worship services. She was delighted to hear this.

More Spanish
          I used to share an apartment with my sister, Rebecca, who also taught at Pensacola Christian Academy.  That year she had a new student admitted to her 2nd grade class from Costa Rica (Central America). She needed to call this student’s parents about a class matter; however, the family’s communication is somewhat limited in English. My sister knows some Spanish but has had limited opportunities to use it since high school so she asked if I would translate for her during this phone call. Rebecca said she could almost hear a sigh of relief from the mother on the other end of the phone when she understood that the phone call would be provided to her in Spanish.

Spanish Preaching to English Sign
          The preaching had just begun at our biannual Fiesta Latina in Pensacola.  I noticed a mom and her daughter come in late.  We quickly got them food.  About that time I noticed them signing back and forth.  They decided to wait to eat their food until the speaking was done.  A friend was trying to interpret the preaching for Latasha, the 16 year old daughter. The friend however, didn't speak Spanish.  I was able to jump in and sign listening in Spanish and signing in English. God gave grace for my first sign language interpretation of preaching ever, and the only time I have had to double interpret using one language I know and two that I am learning.  Later that night I was able to introduce Latasha to two ladies that work in the Church's Deaf Ministry. They were able to clearly present the gospel and invite her to our church. Latasha has become a regular attendee at our church services. She is learning about God and is asking more questions about salvation.  Please pray that Latasha will soon trust Jesus as her Savior.

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