Note from 7/20/10

Wow! This has definitely been an awesome experience so far! One of the things that I love most about this area of Chicago is how ethnically diverse it is, and I have had several chances to appreciate that today. This morning while we were weeding around the church property, three teenage girls, with another woman following behind them and looking quite confused, approached me and asked me if I attend West Ridge Church. After I explained to them that I was here for a missions trip, they informed me that they had found this woman wandering around a street near the church and had brought her to West Ridge hoping that someone could understand her and lead her to wherever she needed to go.  The poor woman only spoke Romanian and understood only a few words of English. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I stayed with her and the three girls hoping that the pastor of West Ridge would arrive and be able to tell us where the church that she was looking for would be. (We had guessed that she was looking for a church from the few Romanian words that she spoke that sounded similar to English). After a little while, the Worship Leader of West Ridge arrived at the church and we told her about the situation. She made a few calls to Pastor Chad (the Pastor at West Ridge), in hopes of getting the number of West Ridge’s Romanian Youth Leader. We weren’t able to reach anyone, so we decided to walk with her to where we thought might be the destination that she needed.  We walked for about an hour attempting to communicate with the woman and ease her stress. The only words that we could understand from her were “Sorry, no English,” which she said quite often and with the most helpless look on her face that it broke my heart. We eventually tried going to Walgreens to see if we could find anyone to translate for us, but the only two employees they had who could speak Romanian were not working today. I felt so sorry for the woman because she had most likely been walking for hours, and probably felt an enormous amount of frustration at not being able to communicate with us. We eventually decided to walk back to West Ridge and see if we could help her. As Brittany (the Worship Leader) got the number of the Romanian Youth Leader from West Ridge’s Administrator, Amy, I sat with the woman and got her a glass of water. The Youth Leader was able to translate for us, and Brittany was able to drive her to where she needed to go.  I also got the privilege of speaking with a Russian man while we searched for someone who spoke Romanian and the opportunity to practice my Spanish-speaking skills with a few kids who came to the VBS and did not understand English.  Although it was frustrating at times to try and communicate with people you can’t understand, I feel like God showed me his heart for people of all cultures and backgrounds today and that I can serve them and help them in small ways. Love has no language barrier :)

-Nicole Fish