Speaking the lingo...

Even though we have always really enjoyed coming to America, and we have loved living here for the last 2 years as we train at MMS, it is not without its challenges.

For me, the biggest challenge has to be communication. I am quite a quiet person anyway, so when you add in the language barrier (I seem to be the only person on this continent who can speak proper English!! J ) getting your message across isn’t always easy!!! 

It’s not uncommon for someone at a check-out in Walmart to comment on how they could “listen to that accent all day”! I get a chuckle from that, when I think of how someone could happily listen to me all day, but hardly understand any of it!

A few weeks ago Heather led worship at our church, and as our pastor took over the service, he made a comment about how he hoped he would get a Scottish accent when he gets to heaven! I’m probably biased, but I agree with him! I do like the Scottish twang!! That said, it can be really frustrating trying to make myself understood, and seeming to make no progress! Around the hangar most of the other guys have become used to my accent, and for the most part, people understand more or less what I am trying to say. It is interesting to see what happens when someone who isn’t familiar with how I talk, appears in the hangar though. Even when I think I am speaking slowly and deliberately, and other MMS’ers are clearly following what I am saying, the glazed over eyes are obvious in some of the people who I haven’t met before!!

My biggest communication faux-pas happened last year. In my defence, I had had a rough weekend with a long drive, broken down cars and late nights, so by the time my phone rang on that Monday night I was not firing on all cylinders! (I’ve changed all the names below to protect the innocent!!!)

We have a “prayer chain” network at MMS, where any urgent prayer requests can be circulated round those on the phone list, quickly sharing the burden and giving friends the opportunity to help each other in this way. At the end of the week before, we had had an email to tell us that one of the ladies from MMS had become quite ill and was in hospital. I had been away for the weekend, so when my phone rang to give me an update I saw the email, followed by phone call, as an escalation in urgency, and that things must have taken a turn for the worse.

“Andy, it’s Dave here. I’ve never done this before, but I am calling on behalf of the prayer chain”. I later found out that what Dave “had never done before” was call the next person on the list – it was usually his wife who did the calling… in my half asleep state, I thought Dave had never delivered bad news like this…

“I’m just calling to give you an update on Sally. She’s gone home. Mark wants everyone to know that all is well, she is in a much better place now, very comfortable and not in any of the pain she had been in last week”. I was overwhelmed with emotions. I was shocked, at hearing of the loss of someone we all love so much. I was blown away by how composed everyone seemed to be, and how everyone was able to see past the immediate pain of loss, to the eternal benefit of Sally’s salvation. I had all these things going through my mind, but all that actually came out of my mouth was “Thanks Dave, I’ll get that passed along”.

Naturally I called the next person on the list to share the bad news, who made sure they clarified that Sally had actually passed on. When I had confirmed the news, I hung up, sat down, and started thinking over the night’s news. The fog slowly started to lift and I realised that I really had to call Dave back and double check I had passed the right message on. Well, I hadn’t! Sally hadn’t gone home… she had come home!! There then followed a frantic 10 minutes of calling my way through the MMS phone list trying to catch up with my misinformation!! After three or four rounds of “Have you passed it on?” “Yes…” “OK, don't worry,  everyone’s alive! I need to go!”, I finally managed to catch up with my message and stop it going any further!

After we finish here in Ohio we have committed to at least another 8 years serving overseas with MAF. We won’t know exactly where that will be until much later this year, but no doubt wherever we go, there will be a fine mix of accents and languages to deal with! I am sure we will manage to communicate just fine, but I for one am looking forward to the day Zephaniah talks about in chapter 3 verse 9 - “In the end I will turn things around for the people. I’ll give them a language undistorted, unpolluted; Words to address God in worship and, united, to serve me with their shoulders to the wheel.”