Recently I preached at a pastors' conference here in San Jose. A missionary never knows if he is being asked because the people think he really has something to say, or if they are just being polite to the "extranjero" (foreigner). Not to worry. Hopefully, the Lord will use it for His purposes either way. One of my main responsibilities, and toughest challenges, is to motivate and mobilize the existing churches to become involved in missions, local and beyond. It's not a mindset that many of them have. For good or ill, they have the attitude, much like churches in the U. S., that growing a big church is the goal, rather than "going into all the world". Of course, staying close to home is easier.
Anyway, I preached my little sermon and hopefully, the Lord used it for His purposes. Maybe it wasn't too bad, because the pastor of the church we attend asked me to preach in a couple of weeks.
Preparing sermons in Spanish is an involved process for me. I have to compose the sermon (because I'm still not good enough to preach it extemporaneously) and then get it proofed by a native Spanish speaker to make sure the grammar and syntax is correct. Consequently, I have a few sermons that I preach repeatedly (poor Mitzi...having to hear those sermons over and over). The people are always very kind and attentive...probably because of the novelty of the gringo preacher.
When preaching or teaching, I sometimes try to explain to the listeners that I want to speak from my heart, but that speaking in Spanish requires me to speak from my head, and I ask that they try to hear my heart through the accent and halting Spanish. My prayer is that God will speak to them and overcome my limitations with his Spirit.
