I’m sure you had that conversation with your spouse, child or friend in which they seem to smile, nod and give visible indications that they understand you and are on the same page…but then after you finish, they look at you and ask, “So what did you say”?
Similarly I am learning how to communicate with people from various ethnic backgrounds, religions and languages. In fact, on a practical note, when you text an international friend who has a more basic English level, it is important to send more smaller texts rather than one long text. The longer the text the more chance that their translator will garble it. So send multiple short texts.
Additionally, when it comes to talking about God and the Bible, especially with people from Muslim backgrounds, I’m learning how important it is to both explain simple terms and ask good questions. For example, they will say that they have stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, etc., but when you start diving deeper into the Biblical story, you find various differences.
This is where Bible storying comes in. Bible storying is where you memorize a 2-5 Bible story that is Biblically based and includes the important facts within the text yet in simple English. Once you finish sharing the story, you ask such questions as: 1) What did you like about the story? 2) What was hard about the story or difficult to understand? 3) What did you learn about God? 4) What did you learn about people? 5) If this story is true, what actions steps do you need to take?
For example, the other day we met at the Toledo Botanical Gardens with a family from Syria and had dinner together – Chinese and Middle Eastern food. While the kids were playing, I started to share the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000. Almost immediately, the friend said that they had that story too. Well, I decided to keep going and as I finished the main portion about the bread, the friend nodded in agreement. But then I added how Jesus said that the people followed Him for the bread and not for who HE is and how Jesus actually said that He is the bread of life.
This last part was all new for this friend and it was at this moment that I realized that even if they say that they have heard this or that story, I need to share the whole story and plant those Gospel seeds and then ask those follow-up questions to help further discuss it.
But I’m going to share another story with some friends soon and ask those questions, please pray that Gospel seeds take root and bear fruit too!
Turners at WFI 