The Power of Shared Life Experiences

Last week I was having coffee on the balcony with a neighbor. As we talked I noticed a motorcycle stopping for children as they crossed the street. That caught my attention—unusual for me having just come from a much more aggressive traffic environment. Then another motorbike stopped in the middle of the intersection seemingly for no reason, to have what appeared to be a short conversation with someone across the street, while the car behind him patiently waited. I couldn’t believe it! I was taking it all in. This was all new for me. I then asked my neighbor who was with me and he simply replied, “Welcome to Greece, bro! That’s the rhythm of life here.”

Later that day, with everything still fresh on my mind, I re-created this whole experience in my head. With a little help from the Gospelflow App [1] while using my limited Greek I put together a simple but cohesive expression of what I experienced—just a few sentences strung together that told my little story from my perspective. Which for me was significant to unpack and sort of re-live, and really try to learn from, since it was so fresh in my memory, and significant to my daily life.

I was definitely learning a lot, but I also now had a great reason to get together with my neighbor again. Why? Because he had shared the experience with me! I find that my neighbors generally support my effort to learn Greek, but they especially appreciate my including them in the process of talking through an experience we have shared together. I can learn a lot from them!

While this is a great way to learn, it’s also a great way to become more grafted into the community, and begin to understand the culture that defines it. For example, my invitation to “re-live“ the experience with my neighbor—even in my very simple Greek—brought up memories and connections that he probably hadn’t thought about in years. At the very least, it gave us a great reason to have another cup of coffee together!

I don’t know if you were counting, but I try to have at a minimum three rounds of working through these kinds of shared experiences: the initial experience, recalling/reliving it in my own personal practice, and then retelling it or just talking through it with the original person I shared it with. In many ways this mirrors language 180 by kneading content through several cycles of memorable learning and practice.

More significantly, I began to practice this with those at my local Greek evangelical fellowship. Last week I helped one of the older widows buy groceries at a mini-market.

As we walked to the store together, we prayed for gospel opportunities. I’m sure she was wondering just what that meant with my limited Greek! But we made a point to pray for the family that owns the business—the father, and his son who usually sits behind the counter.

As we prayed the Lord reminded us that he too was “sharing this experience” with us. He’s always with us, but so often we’re not aware of his presence. And not only is he with us, but he invites us to see these experiences—the people and the encounters we have with them—through his eyes. And as we begin to see these through the Lord’s eyes, we may indeed start to see a little bit beneath the surface—the needs, and pains, and their need for Jesus.

What could’ve been just another day at the mini-market turned into a great conversation with the owner’s son (who was behind the counter after all). And then his dad showed up and we kept the conversation going. I felt God redeemed my poor Greek to be able to understand and share more than I thought I would. God was simultaneously at work in the conversation, in this family‘s life, and in the life of my dear elderly sister who ended up sharing way more than I ever could, after seeing God open doors.

As we walked back to her house, we were both so encouraged. We talked about how the Lord heard our prayer and invited us to share this experience with him as he led us. This taught me a lot:

1. Never despise weak language! God will lead us into amazing shared experiences—and we will learn as we share!

   
   

2. Always consider the daily opportunities we have to share life experiences with those around us, especially remembering that God too is sharing those experiences with us, inviting us to be more aware of his presence in every social experience we encounter.

   
   

3. Being aware of this reality, to intentionally walk alongside and disciple believers as we anticipate sharing experiences like this together.

   
   

4. Rejoicing in the wake of these experiences, not only for what we gain in the language and culture, but for the opportunities we have to minister to those around us as the Lord leads.

   
   

Sharing life experiences with those around us is a great way to learn more language and culture and get to know people. But, not surprisingly, it’s also an incredibly fruitful way to step into ministry opportunities that are often right in front of us, even as we learn the language and culture.

Thank you for reading this! I hope these articles are as helpful for you as they are for me 😊.

My book Gospel Flow is available for free Kindle download midnight Pacific Time Friday, September 12th through Tuesday September 16th.

Also, I want to invite you to listen to my most recent podcast episode, “Learning Two Languages Simultaneously” at language180.com/podcasts where I interview a couple who describe their dual-language learning experience.

[1] Dear friends, I should have included the following very important disclosure in the last article I sent out, How Gospelflow Supercharges the Language 180 Rhythm, and regret any confusion this may have caused:

The Gospelflow App was created by two of my sons. I have no financial stake in it, nor do I receive any compensation. I’m sharing it because I genuinely believe it’s a great product and worth your attention. (I do love the name which is very similar to the book I wrote 😊.)

Please allow me to also add one more comment just for further clarification:

While Gospelflow App is available for free at a basic level, the full value of the product is unlocked through paid tiers. These fees reflect actual costs involved in building and maintaining a high-quality tool, and they help provide fair, industry-standard income for the work that goes into it. I understand many of the intended users come from a non-profit or volunteer background, where budgets are tight and the expectation is often that resources should be free. However, it’s worth noting that similar outcomes—like hiring language tutors—typically cost much more. My initial review indicates that this product delivers equal or greater results at a fraction of the cost. While there may be free alternatives, they tend to offer much lower speech models or generic results. Paying for this product supports both sustainability and excellence—without overcharging or exploitation—and I hope users will see it as a valuable investment rather than just another cost.