Language Barrier? No Problem
God’s Smuggler
In the late 1950s and early 60s, a Dutchman called Brother Andrew started traveling into communist countries, seeking out and encouraging persecuted believers. One of the major things the Christians asked for were Bibles in their own language. So Andrew became an expert at smuggling God’s Word past the watchful eyes of Communist border guards.
Two Great Challenges
Entering a new country, Andrew usually faced two tough challenges. He seldom knew the name of any Christian living there. Even worse, Andrew often couldn’t speak the native language So by faith, he trusted God to connect him up with a Christian who could be his translator.
But one day, the Holy Spirit let Brother Andrew down.
A Novel Way to Communicate
Behind the Iron Curtain, Brother Andrew found himself seated before a pastor and two other men in the pastor’s private study. Andrew knew Dutch, English and German. But unfortunately, the pastor and his people spoke only Romanian, Czech and Polish. The four men gazed at each other hopelessly. The language barrier blocked any ministry from happening.
There seemed to be no solution.
Suddenly Brother Andrew noticed the Pastor’s Bible, resting on his desk and had a unusual idea. Taking out his own Dutch Bible, he ruffled through the New Testament until he found the verse he wanted. Smiling, he pointed to the book’s name, then the chapter and verse numbers.
The pastor’s eyes lit up. Quickly he opened his Bible to 1 Corinthians and found the verse Andrew had indicated, 1 Corinthians 16:20 “All the brothers here send you greetings…” Everyone grinned. Within a minute or two, the pastor “replied” to Andrew, using the same technique. It became a fun game, searching the Scriptures to express ideas, offer help and share information.
For the next hour, Brother Andrew and the pastor “talked” together.
My Spiritual Point:
Our God is endlessly inventive. Centuries before, the Lord inspired believers to develop a chapter and verse numbering system, But who knew the Bible would work so well as a language translation tool?
only God did.
Both images come from Pixabay.com. The green highlighter was added by me.
