The chipped cream paint on the leaning walls was offset nicely by the vibrant blue on the warped trim. I sat across the table from a tall man, tanned from hours in the sun, who resembled of all things a California surfer bro. Between us lay a recently scavenged meal of rice and peanut sauce (notably with four bites of beef in it) and a heaping pile of sage advice. While I had prepared the meal, he had brought the wisdom to season the evening with. Also, he’s Canadian. Everyone, meet Jay*.

Jay is my roommate for the duration of my two-month appointment as a short term missionary. He is also on a short term appointment, but his stay in country began three months before mine and will last for a total of six. We are sharing living quarters for two main reasons: one, Jay has experienced a lot in his time here that I can learn from, and two, it saves a lot of solar power if we share a fridge. Today, I feel I gained the most benefit from the relationship.

The occurrence that led me to this conclusion was our conversation over lunch. I had one main question on my mind: How do I minister to people? You see, as an engineer, I was assigned a job with little to know social interaction, and while it is important, my work designing, building, and testing new well-drilling equipment leaves little space for meeting people and showing them God’s love. Beyond that, I don’t even know how to love people in this culture!

I had asked my question to a few long-term missionaries that I had run into, and I was unsatisfied with their answers. Perhaps it is the extra training they receive, or perhaps it is simply second nature to them after so many years in the field, but they did not seem to fully comprehend my dilemma. I do not know the language. I do not live the culture. I do not have a great opportunity. Yet, I came here to do work for God, and I felt like that required some direct, person-to-person love action not simply indirect me-to-machine-to-service-to-person love action.

I managed to convey all this to Jay, and while calmly slicing a tangelo for dessert, he blessed me with his both his empathy and his wisdom.

First, he told me I was underestimating the impact of my work. “You are helping the well drillers here to earn more money and have better equipment which means they will hire more people to work with the older equipment as well. Plus, you will inevitably be spending time with them. You can minister to them there.” And before I could interject a single “Yeah but…” he continued on. As for how to show love, it was a simple matter. Love is universally understood. Patience, joy, kindness, and effort are all comprehensible beyond the realm of language. “You will meet people. Love them. Your job is to get them to wonder what is different about us. Without the language, you can’t tell them, but they will discover it if they are really pushed to search.”

I thought over our conversation while washing the dishes with an oven mitt for lack of a sponge or cloth. It was so simple that it seemed that it must be false. However, I began this time of service as an act of trust in God, yet here I was doubting that something so simple would be enough for him to use. Surely I needed to be able to quote scripture in French or to be able to explain the entirety of the gospel in under a minute using only my hands and a piece of paper. This is not the case. The two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. From there, we can trust God with the rest. We can trust that he will show us how to love. We can trust that he will make our love clear to those in need. We can trust that if we give ourselves as a living sacrifice, God will not waste our offering.

Now, for sure there is a little more to be said. Learning about others is an act of love, so I will continue to struggle forward with French and culture. Yet I now have been gifted with some additional confidence that I do have what it takes to bring people the gospel. I have love.

*Name changed for privacy.