If you feel hesitant to pray in your target language, I hope that this tip will supply you with a strategy to overcome any fears you may have.
I had never in my life been to a Portuguese-speaking country. The Portuguese I knew was from years of listening to bossa nova music or cognates with Spanish. The night I arrived in Brazil, I was brought to a prayer meeting and was asked to pray. I guess I could have declined considering I had only been in the country for less than a day, but instead I did my best. Alas, at the end of my prayer, someone pointed out a grammar mistake I made. I thought, “God does not care if I make a grammar mistake.” I wish I had held onto that thought a lot more. Sadly, however, this person’s correction made me VERY hesitant to pray in Portuguese again...and this feeling, unfortunately, carried over into Thai. For years, I only prayed in English justifying this decision by telling myself, “When I’m praying, I’m praying to God, not the listeners.” One day though, I was convicted that I was avoiding praying in Thai out of fear and I acknowledged that praying also serves to edify the listeners. So, there I was, realizing I needed to get over my reluctance to pray in a language other than my mother tongue. But how?
Well, the best thing we can do is pray and ask God to help us.
Next we can also try the ideas suggested below in this tip.
However, even more than a technique, I want to encourage you to not make the same mistake I did. Even in the beginning stages, you can use the language to communicate the good news about Jesus. Praying and telling people about your faith in God does not need to wait until you reach advanced levels. Even when the words come out imperfectly, God can take your offering of words and multiply them in people’s hearts to reach them with the truth about who He is… our gentle, loving, encouraging, humble Lord and Savior who can take your 5 nouns and 2 verbs and turn them into a beautiful message.
May you experience joy in seeing many come to faith in Jesus because of your developing language skills!
Lauren
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Lonna Dickerson suggests beginning with short, simple prayers that tend to be somewhat predictable in vocabulary, phrases used, and order of elements or parts of the prayer.
Learning Procedure
- Record 10-12 different short prayers that are of the same type, such as praying before a meal. (See example below.)
- Work with your helper, as needed, to make sure the prayers you collected are appropriate and useful for your needs. Edit the recordings as needed.
- Work with your helper or another native speaker to understand and do a simple analysis of the prayers. For example, you could examine the sample prayers below by asking some or all of the following questions:
- How do all of these prayers open? How do they close? What comes between the opening and closing, and in what order?
- What vocabulary occurs frequently? What phrases occur frequently?
- Which (two) prayers are more typical? What makes them typical?
- Find two or three prayers you would rate as the easiest to understand. Why are they easier than the others?
- Find two or three you would rate as the most difficult to understand. Why are they more difficult than the others?
- Order the prayers from easy to difficult, and delete any that aren’t appropriate or for some other reason are not useful at this time.
- Listen to each prayer a few times, until you can understand it easily, but don’t memorize the prayer. (This listening may be spread over a few days.) At this point, you will probably have learned some of the more common vocabulary and phrases that occur frequently.
- Make a list of words and phrases you might need to review, and note questions to ask your helper.
- Practice saying a similar prayer (e.g., praying before a meal). Doing this with your helper is a useful step, but it may feel awkward and not seem “real.” In that case, you might want to begin by praying out loud when no one else is present, or make it habit to pray in the target language with your family present.
- Review and expand. Unless you find you are frequently called upon to pray with friends or in public, you will probably need occasional review. You’ll also want to begin to make your prayers longer and more complex. Finally, branch out into other types of prayers.
Other Suggestions:
- Audacity is an excellent free program for recording and editing and can be used on a PC or Mac. It has many useful features, such as slowing down speech without distorting it or changing the pitch, making a loop of a phrase or segment you want to hear over and over, or building in pauses where needed.
- Share your recordings with others, and check to see if they have similar recordings you can use.
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Here is an example in English of what you might collect. As you read these examples, in your mind, go through the procedure outlined above.
Prayers Before Lunch
Father God, Thank you for this food and for the hands that prepared it. Bless it so that it strengthens us and we may glorify you in all that we do. In Jesus name, Amen
Dear God, Thank you for this day and for the opportunity to eat with friends. Thank you for all that we have been learning here at ICCT. Please bless this food to our bodies and our bodies to your service. In Jesus name, Amen
Heavenly Father, Thank you for the many blessings you give us. Thank you for this food. Please guide our conversation around this table. In Jesus name, Amen
Father, Thank you for this food. Bless it to our bodies. In Jesus name, Amen
Father, Thank you for this food that you have provided. Please bless it for our nourishment. In Jesus’ name, Amen
Father God, Thank you for this day. Bless this food and continue to sustain each of us. In Jesus’ name, Amen
Dear Lord, Thank you for what you have provided for us today. We appreciate all that you have given us. Strengthen us that we might serve you and do your will. Provide also for those who are hungry tonight in this city and around the world. In Jesus name, Amen
Dear Lord, Thank you for this day you have given us. And thank you for this group of people and the time we have to fellowship together. Thank you for this food and for the hands that prepared it. Bless it to our bodies. Be with each of us as we go throughout our day and may we glorify you in all that we do. In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Dear God, I’m grateful for the food I’m about to eat, and the people I’m about it eat it with. Bless our time together. Amen
Father, Thank you for this food and this time to fellowship together. Give us strength for the tasks ahead and draw us closer to you. In your name we pray, Amen
Dear God, You’ve blessed us with this food. Thank you for taking care of us and meeting our everyday needs. May we glorify you in our conversation during lunch and with the way we live our lives. May you be praised. In your name, Amen
Lord, I don’t think I can make it on my own! I need your help, your strength, your wisdom and what’s most important, your guidance. Forgive me my selfishness! Change my focus, Lord! I need and long for your love and peace! Please help me! Thank you for all you have done for me. In Your precious name, Amen
Father, thanks for the food here. All of our good things come from You. Bless our work today. Amen
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ICCT's online courses are amazing. I highly recommend them for both language and culture learners (both those preparing for the field as well as those already serving in whatever ministry) and language coaches.
A new course for language coaches will be available in 2021: Learning Ministry Language. This five-week fully online course equips coaches with a step-by-step approach for helping their learners to handle worship and ministry tasks, such as learning to pray, in the heart language. And thankfully a learner version of the course will be available at a later time!
To register for a course or learn more check out: www.wheaton.edu/icct Email: icct@wheaton.edu
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