Abby Goes the Extra Mile

By |Published On: August 29, 2017|Categories: News|

Abby Goes the Extra MileSome people have a gift for learning languages… especially unusual languages like Arabic. I’m thinking of Abby Booher, a volunteer I met this summer at Family Retreat. Abby told me she was a student at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio where she studied English as a second language. While on campus, she met many Muslim students from Saudi Arabia. Part of their studies involved learning English. That’s how Abby got connected with this group of young Middle Easterners who were hungry to learn more about western culture, including Christianity. From the onset, they struggled to grasp the concept of a loving God who would die for sinners. Abby could tell that part of their struggle had to do with their inability to understand the English language.

Wanting to do all she could to help explain the Gospel, Abby gave her new friends a challenge. She said, “If you work harder to learn English, I’ll meet you halfway and do all I can to learn your language.” At first, they didn’t believe her. “You would learn Arabic?!” Abby smiled and assured them, “You bet!” It’s exactly what she did, and her willingness went a long way in proving to her foreign friends the depth of Christ’s love for them. Abby did just what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” The moral of this story? What lengths are we willing to go to prove the love of Christ?

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