Language of love needs no interpreter, Hispanic leader says_12604

Posted: 1/23/04

Language of love needs no interpreter, Hispanic leader says

By Marv Knox

Editor

RICHARDSON–Only one language really matters up and down the Texas-Mexico border, Hispanic Baptist leader Alcides Guajardo insists.

It's neither Spanish nor English; it's the language of love, Guajardo told participants in a seminar for River Ministry volunteers held during the Texas Evangelism and Missions Conference.

Sometimes, fear of being unable to communicate scares Anglo Baptists from participating in River Ministry, the Baptist General Convention of Texas' program for spreading the gospel along the Rio Grande, he said.

But love translates into any language, said Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and a River Ministry consultant.

“The most foundational language in the world isn't English, although it is spoken all over the world,” he acknowledged.

“It isn't Spanish, although Spanish is the language of heaven. …

“It's the language of love. If you can communicate love, you are communicating a lot more than if you communicated specific information.”

River Ministry projects that help churches along both sides of the Rio Grande meet human needs are effective because they reveal God's love–and Baptists' love–directly to people, he said.

The Mexico-Texas borderland is full of “hardened sinners” who have heard the gospel and been put off by it, Guajardo reported.

The chief culprits are hundreds, if not thousands, of radio stations along the border, each beaming the gospel in Spanish into Mexico, he said.

The stations are so numerous that they overwhelm radio dials throughout the region, he said. “The people can't get the radio stations they want because of all the gospel stations. They're tired of it.”

However, Christians who speak the “language of love” through loving actions transcend both language barriers–the challenge of verbal communication and the annoying glut of gospel stations, he noted.

“God has been using people who speak the language of love,” he said. “Nobody's paying them to (minister along the border), so people want to know why they're there.”

And with a little translation help, Spanish-speaking people along the Rio Grande learn of God's love through Christians' love, he said.

Guajardo called on upstate Texas Baptist churches to help reveal God's love through Baptist churches along the border.

“You need to help them be the church for these people,” he pleaded.

For example, an upstate church may gather Christmas presents to distribute to families in a poor border community, he said.

The upstate Christians may look forward to the joy they will experience in seeing how happily their gifts are received.

But instead, the upstate church should allow the local Baptist church to distribute the gifts, he urged.

This will enable the local Christians to receive credit from their neighbors, and it will build relationships and strengthen the impact of their ministry.

“Empower the churches,” he exhorted. “Help them. Teach them so they can do things. … If we teach them, they can become established churches that can do missions.”