Story: She Heard in Her Own Language

An Arab woman whose husband accepted Christ when American participants Valerie and Lisa visited her home with a local church team during an IC international project in Spain brought her sister to the closing rally at the end of the week so that she could hear about Jesus, too.
“And so when the rally was over,” reports Valerie, “we sat down and I began to share Christ with her sister. And I shared with her the gospel truth.”

Valerie, from Texas, was speaking to the lady in English while a local leader translated her words into Spanish and her sister relayed the message in Arabic.

“At the end, when I asked her if she wanted to receive Jesus, she said yes. And then she looked up at [the interpreter] and she said, ‘I understood everything she told me.’ And then she got chills all over her. We were so excited for her! Well, when I went to pray [a prayer of salvation] with her, she suddenly got upset and she said, ‘no, no, no, no!’ So my translator said she’s not ready yet and he walked away.

We didn’t want to let her go because we knew she had said yes to that prayer. We didn’t want to walk away, so we sat with her until she calmed down…and we decided to just pray over her and let God take care of her. So we prayed over her in English…and she went over to Pastor Andrea. We saw him grab her, pray with her, and spend time with her. So we’re like, ‘Okay, God. You want Pastor Andrea to finish and help her with that prayer.’”

“Well, then Pastor Andrea came up to us and, in perfect English, said, ‘I need to you pray for this woman…and this is what I need you to pray for her about…’ I remember for a moment thinking, ‘Wow, he was really holding back on us because he really can speak English!’ All week when we were around him, we had to have a translator.”

From afar, team member Nancy could hear Pastor Andrea speaking to them, but could tell that Lisa and Valerie were understanding every word that he said.

“Then [Nancy] came up to me and she said, ‘Valerie, does he speak English?’ I, for a brief moment, looked over and said, ‘no’ and looked back at him. I was hearing English. Nancy was hearing Spanish. Wow. That’s all I can say is: Wow!”

“I finally realized that when that Arab woman looked up after I asked her if she wanted to pray to receive Jesus and said, ‘I understood everything she said,’ [in Arabic] she had heard it in her language and that’s why she got the goosebumps. And that when I went to pray with her to receive Christ, she could no longer hear me in Arabic and that’s why she freaked out on us.”

“So when she was sitting with me and I was showing her the gospel, she heard that in her own language, just like I had heard Pastor Andrea in English. Wow. And all I can say is: that was not me. I got to see Jesus show off. Wow. Amazing! Amazing.

“But at the first of the week, I was feeling a little inadequate. I was like, ‘I should have practiced more…about Wednesday, I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’ll go on another one. You know, I’m not sure this is my calling.’ Now, I really feel that God’s saying, ‘This is your calling and this is what I want from you.’”

“And so not only did He speak to the Arab woman; He spoke to me.”

During this international project in Elche, Spain, 16 visiting Americans partnered with 8 local churches to share Jesus with 1,269 people face-to-face. They witnessed 282 salvations, 77 rededications, and 35 baptisms!