For the
past few months, we’ve been doing a language exchange with a local
family. For me, this means meeting once
or twice a week with a girl around my age and her middle-aged aunt to help them
with their English and then practice speaking Arabic.
In some
ways, these meetings have been a huge encouragement. Besides getting to practice Arabic in a nonthreatening,
conversational environment, this opportunity finally allows me to build
relationships with locals, which has been my desire from the start.
In other
ways, though, it’s frustrating. The
little bit of English help and practice that I provide really isn’t changing
their lives, and my Arabic is still not quite at the level to have very deep
conversations. Although I love hearing
the women’s perspectives on life here, their views of Muslim/Christian
relationships, and their frustrations with their own culture, it is difficult
for me to direct the conversation or to really discern where they’re at
spiritually. They are Christians from
Orthodox backgrounds, and “being Christian” is clearly an important part of
their lives, but it’s hard to tell how much of that comes from true faith and
how much is just culture, society, and family.
So at times, though I enjoy meeting with them, I feel like it’s not
particularly fruitful.
This week, however, I was encouraged
when my two friends surprised me with a gift.
I was touched, not just because they thought of me and wanted to express
appreciation for our meetings together, but because each of the items they included showed
that these two women had been soaking in everything I’ve said over the past few
weeks. Their gift showed that they had
listened to (and remembered) everything from my favorite color to how important
my faith is to me. They hadn’t just
picked up random, generic items at a store.
They had clearly chosen each item for a specific reason: a pink and blue
scarf because I once mentioned that I love bright colors, several nail polishes
because we’ve discussed how I like to paint my own nails instead of going to
the salon (which is common for women here), lots of chocolate because in our
food lesson I talked about loving sweets, and a cross bracelet. Plus, they gave me a mug embossed with a
scripture (the one about salt and light) and my name, all in Arabic, so I can
continue to practice reading in Arabic.
I was encouraged
because I loved everything about their gift and because I know that, if
they listened to and remembered all those little details about chocolate and my
favorite colors, surely all of my comments about the Lord, the Word, and what
it means to follow Jesus are tucked away somewhere in their hearts/minds. And I think if they have gotten to know me
well enough to know what I like (despite my still-developing language skills),
surely they must also be seeing what I care about, what matters to me, and how
I try to live. Hopefully these things
will inspire them to pursue more personal relationships with the Lord. In sha Allah.*
*In sha Allah is a phrase commonly used in Arabic that means "Lord willing." It is typically used when talking about anything in the future, from what you plan to do tomorrow to what you hope will happen years down the road.