Breaking Down The Language Barrier

I was able to spend three weeks with 10 amazing people from the YWAM Recife organization.  In case you don't know, YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission, and Recife is in Brazil. There were 7 students, 2 leaders, and one of the leader's little girl. Their focus while they were here was to engage with various age groups in our church along evangelizing around the local area.

Before the YWAM team arrived, we were informed that many of them did not speak English very well. Hearing this, I did panic a little bit, because I didn't know any Portuguese. I was unsure how I was supposed to lead a group well when there was going to be a big language barrier. When the YWAM team arrived, I was relieved to find out that there was one fluent English speaker in the group. She was very helpful, but I soon realized that I couldn't always rely on her to translate for me if I wanted to get to know the other members of the group. Even though there is a language barrier, we found ways to still communicate with each other. I worked on learning simple, but very useful Portuguese phrases, and the YWAM team learned some simple English phrases. However, when these simple phrases were not enough, google translator was a brilliant tool.


There were some times when the language barrier made things more challenging, but eventually we would manage to understand each other, even if it did take us twice as long as it would without the language barrier. Then there were times when the language barrier was broken down and didn't matter. This was when we were worshiping and praising God. The power of God is so amazing that He is able to break down the language barrier and to help us realize that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. There are differences between us, but those will not stand in the way of all of us coming together  to praise and worship God, because these differences don't matter during that time. It is amazing to see how when God is involved, challenges become less difficult and more manageable.

The three weeks that the YWAM team was in Bookham was amazing! I enjoyed getting to know each and everyone of them, and have made some friends that I will never forget!