Learning more than one language definitely has it’s ups and downs. For instance when you learn a new language you spend many days with your brain feeling like mush to the point that you don’t even want to talk in your first language because it requires too much mental energy OR you start to forget words in your native language because your brain is working so hard to think in the new language so you end up looking ridiculous not ONLY to the people who speak the new language you are trying to learn but to the people who speak your native language…lol. There are also many benefits to knowing 2 languages. For example: when you know 2 languages you can communicate and minister to more people OR you can spy on people who don’t know you know 2 languages and find out what they’re saying about you or other people…hahahaha!
Another benefit to knowing 2 languages is you can serve as a translator for people who don’t know the language. This is a benefit that Dylan and I have been able to use many times to help others. We now have the opportunity to use our dual language skills to help others again and in return we get to do something we’ve wanted to do for a year.
Last year, when we went on our outreach trip to Jacaltenango to complete the last part of our missions training, we were talking with the missionaries who serve there. They told us how every November they have a mission team come down to serve in the area of healing. One of the men on the team has the gift of healing so they go around and pray for people in the community. They have seen many people healed during their years of coming here to Guatemala. We have never had the opportunity to be a part of mission team like this so we were excited about the possibility of joining the team. However, we didn’t have the money to pay for this trip last year so we didn’t go.
This year we have been given the opportunity to use our language skills to be translators for this team and one of the benefits of being the translators is that all of your costs are covered. So from November 6-16 we will be serving with this team and seeing all God has in store. We are so excited to get to be a part of this and cannot wait to share more with you when we come back.
We are so thankful for the time we had in language school to learn Spanish. While we are definitely still learning and growing in this area it is such a blessing to know the language of the people we serve and be able to connect with them on a deeper level. Although, our time in language school was challenging it is something we count as one of our most valuable experiences. And no we don’t think that JUST because we get to spy on others who don’t know we know the language 🙂
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