Language barriers can be one of the hardest things on a missions trip. You know exactly what you want to tell someone, but when they don't know your language it makes it so much more difficult to get that across.
While we were passing out Bibles in the mall and sharing with people, we ran into a man who has been deaf since birth. Not only was this man unable to speak English, he was unable to speak at all. One of the girls in my group spoke up and said, "Go find Claire. She knows sign language." I looked around frantically for her and finally found her having a conversation with a man on a bench. I waited patiently for her to finish then urged her to come with me to talk with the man we met. She was shy at first and had a moment of self doubt, but it didn't take long for her to jump right in and start a conversation. The man's face lit up as the two started to sign about his life and family. We were all amazed to see how she broke through the language barrier to get the point across that we cared about this man.
I had to take a step back and just admire how the Lord uses our gifts to spread love to his children. At this one single instance, a Spanish-speaking man was communicating through sign language to an English-speaking teenage girl. Wow. The language of love has no barrier.
