Wordless Communication
Communication without Words
“There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.” -Anonymous (pg. 2) The fear of going on my mission trip to Honduras was building up inside of me. I had spent the past three months brushing up on my Spanish so that when we arrived in Honduras, I would feel confident when I was speaking to the Natives. However, that confidence was now destroyed as my Pastor dropped the bomb that we were changing destinations to a NON-Spanish speaking country.
Political Turmoil The situation taking place in Honduras was referred to as a coup d 'état, which is defined as ‘a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially: the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group,’ according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The specific events taking place at this time, were that the military of the country had not only overthrown the leader of the government but had also exiled him to another country. Taking these things into consideration, we were still going to proceed with our trip because the people obviously needed help now more than ever. Unfortunately, a huge event had taken place that morning that the mission team was not aware of. A bomb had gone off across the street from the airport, which meant the airport had closed. With six days until our departure, we were now changing destinations to a small village in Guatemala that spoke Keechi. All that hard work relearning Spanish, and now it was of no use to me because we were going to be working with people that spoke a language I’d never heard of! How was I supposed to communicate the message of Christ to people that couldn’t understand what I was saying?
In a Panic The day finally came to leave for Guatemala, and as I sat in that airplane seat, I kept trying to brainstorm ways I could share the story of Christ to the teachers, families, and children that inhabited the village we would be visiting. If I wanted to
“There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.” -Anonymous (pg. 2) The fear of going on my mission trip to Honduras was building up inside of me. I had spent the past three months brushing up on my Spanish so that when we arrived in Honduras, I would feel confident when I was speaking to the Natives. However, that confidence was now destroyed as my Pastor dropped the bomb that we were changing destinations to a NON-Spanish speaking country.
Political Turmoil The situation taking place in Honduras was referred to as a coup d 'état, which is defined as ‘a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially: the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group,’ according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The specific events taking place at this time, were that the military of the country had not only overthrown the leader of the government but had also exiled him to another country. Taking these things into consideration, we were still going to proceed with our trip because the people obviously needed help now more than ever. Unfortunately, a huge event had taken place that morning that the mission team was not aware of. A bomb had gone off across the street from the airport, which meant the airport had closed. With six days until our departure, we were now changing destinations to a small village in Guatemala that spoke Keechi. All that hard work relearning Spanish, and now it was of no use to me because we were going to be working with people that spoke a language I’d never heard of! How was I supposed to communicate the message of Christ to people that couldn’t understand what I was saying?
In a Panic The day finally came to leave for Guatemala, and as I sat in that airplane seat, I kept trying to brainstorm ways I could share the story of Christ to the teachers, families, and children that inhabited the village we would be visiting. If I wanted to
Cited: Think Exist: Language Quotes. n.a., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. “coup d 'état.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010. Web. 20 Sept. 2010 Hamilton, Cheryl, and Bonnie Creel. Communicating for Success. Pearson Education Inc., 2011. Print (Chp. 4, pg. 99) About: Women 's History "Martha Graham Quotes" . Jone Johnson Lewis. http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes/qu_graham_m.htm n.a., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2010