It´s awesome how fast my Tamil friends have picked up Danish knowing how alien a story it must have been.  They speak Danish with certain limitations and do it when they must, -  at work, in school, when shopping, going to church, etc., but within the safe walls of their families, the language is of course Tamil.

I sympathize with them thinking of my own situation.  I speak and write English up to a certain point, but by and large it´s confined to what I may call spiritual matters. I would be rather stupid in a political debate, or in a discussion on sports, movies, the latest fashion, economy – you name it.  My English in those fields would be rather inadequate.

I find it humiliating, I must admit, but I can´t change that, and yet I pray that the languages I try to speak may be for the glory of the Lord and His gospel when, in the providence of God, an opportunity offers itself to point to Christ, whose ambassador I am whether it is in English, German, French, Portuguese or whatever. My small gospel folder (in pocket size) is in 5 languages, and I find it extremely exciting when I´m permitted to read aloud e.g. in French on foreign soil to get the gospel across that way.

So I do sympathize with my local Tamil friends who speak Danish when they have to.  My passion for the gospel makes it such a joy when I have to put it in a foreign language. It´s overwhelming to think of the many thousand languages spoken by human beings.  There are still many languages to go as far as gospel knowledge is concerned.

I knew a dear preacher many years ago.  His language was an “awful” mixture of Danish and Norwegian.  And yet it was said of him that the gospel was hardly spoken more beautifully than by that dear man.  That´s an example I want to follow - indeed, “for the gospel´s sake” (1 Cor. 9:23).

Never mind your accent nor your “bad” grammar.  You never speak so beautifully as when you witness for our Lord Jesus Christ!

June 1, 2015 - jn