85. ¿Hablas español?

One Saturday evening, as I was sitting on the train back to school, a woman suddenly approached me asking, "¿Hablas español?"

What are the chances that a middle-aged Hispanic woman would ask a young Asian boy if he spoke Spanish?

"Sí," I responded.

She proceeded to tell me that she was trying to get back to the Elizabeth train station because she didn’t get off at the right time. She was very frantic.

With horrible Spanish, I tried to tell her that she could switch trains at the next station. I think I may have misinterpreted her problem because she kept trying to clarify. I also kept asking her what she was talking about.

From then on, I realized I could hardly understand her Spanish. Even though I could hear the words she was saying, I had to translate them into English in my mind. For example, she said quickly, “Si me puedas decir…” followed by a mix of other words. I was already stuck at “Si me puedas decir,” thinking about how to interpret her use of a conditional statement and subjunctive mood. By the time I figured out that she was using an indirect object pronoun in her “se” construction to say, “If you can tell me…”, she had already left to find someone else to help her.

I realized how under-prepared I was to evangelize in Spanish even though we’ve had Spanish Bible studies and Spanish MVP. If I couldn’t even help her solve her train problem, how could I help her discover salvation? Feeling utterly useless, I sat in my seat thinking about how I would blog about this experience.

She had gone to a man who spoke Spanish, and I was hoping she would come back, so I could give her a church card. I got out an Elizabeth TJC card and wrote the service times and church name in Spanish (They were in Chinese/English). After she spoke with the man, she walked away to sit down somewhere else. I felt that it was probably a lost cause because she had already decided to sit somewhere else. However, I prayed in my heart that she would somehow come back toward where I was sitting so I could give her the card.

At the station right before I needed to get off, she came toward where I was sitting to exit. Thank God! I walked over.

I tried to see if she found out how to get back, “Señora, ¿sabes como…uh…” Fumble.

“Sí, sí,” she affirmed.

“Oh okay. Um… Quiero invitarte a mi iglesia.” I handed her the card. She wasn’t too excited.

“Gracias, gracias,” she said.

Thank God I was able to give her a church card at the end. Perhaps things worked out this way so that I had time to write the Spanish on the card. Perhaps she may be inspired to come when she sees the card in her bag in the future. Or perhaps her husband might see it and come. Who knows? God will bring His sheep if they belong to Him.

Overall, I realized how much I still need to improve in conversational Spanish (applying the academic), especially for preaching. Even more important, I realized that no matter how much we physically prepare, everything is truly in God’s hand – timing, ability to preach the Word, etc. May God give us inspiration, strength, and power to do what He has sent us out to do!

(Visit http://tjcevangelize.tumblr.com/ for more blog posts about evangelism.)