Three weeks ago I mentioned an experience with a (not so honest) used car salesman. More on that in a minute.

Becky and I are so happy to help our Afghan refugee friends as they settle into a new life in the United States.  Part of that help has been in coming alongside them as they navigate the processes and procedures of our bureaucratized culture.  Becky has dealt with all things school related and I have dealt with other financial and legal concerns, including the title and registration for a used car.

Three weeks ago, I thought we were close to the end of our two-month-long saga with assurances from the used car salesman that, better late than never, he had finally filed all the correct forms with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.  So much for assurances from used car salesmen.  It took three additional weeks, more emails, phone calls, and a face-to-face with the owner of the used car lot, but yesterday morning our friend and I went to the local BMV office with all the correct documents, and, yes, title and registration work was completed.  Finished. Done.

I have made the majority of the trips to the BMV with our friend because I speak bureaucratic English if not fluently then pretty competently.

But here’s the good news: last week our friend had to deal with a related driver’s license issue and he made it a successful solo trip. His English is getting so much better!  In fact, except for one minor detail, I think he could have flown solo on yesterday’s trip.  I did not have to say much.

Officially, Becky and I are English tutors for the refugee couple. Unofficially, we help them and their children with all sorts of settling-in and understanding how and why issues.  In the process, they have become our friends – very good friends!

We’ve been working with our friends for nine months now.  Conversation is easier and deeper with each passing month.  Google translator is called upon less and less often.

The quality of our friends’ life and experience in the United States is directly related to their ability to speak English.  The depth of our friendship is inversely related to how often we call upon Google translator. Language is important.

Scripture describes the faithful as “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13) who have been made citizens of a “better country” and “members of the household of God” (Hebrews 11:16, Ephesians 2:19).

Like our refugee friends, Christians must learn to speak the language of their new land if their friendship with the King and his people is to be deep and their discipleship real.

Some in the contemporary church argue that new believers – refugees from a “a crooked and twisted generation” (Philippians 1:15) – should not be required to learn the language of faith and of citizenship in the Commonwealth. Crooked and twisted speech is spoken in the church as if it adequate for communicating the Good News. We ignore those parts of Scripture that tell a story for which world has no language. “Skip the parts you don’t understand,” we say.

Becky and I and our immigrant friends are working through an English for non-English speakers workbook. Sometimes progress seems slow, but as we worked through issues of used car titles and registrations yesterday, I was reminded of how much progress we have made.

In the church, creeds and confessions, commentaries, Bible study classes, and faithful preaching, like that English language workbook, help us learn the vocabulary and the grammar of the Kingdom.  It is a language worth learning – even when progress seems sometimes slow.