Grace of Multiple Voices

 

At General Conference, one of the priorities was to ensure that, since we are a global church, voices from around the world are heard.  This means that delegates uses translation devices so that they can understand each other.  As a reserve, I have a translation device to use in the plenary session (FM receiver) but it doesn't work in legislative committees.  Also, there are four official languages at General Conference - English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili, but there many more spoken.  Such as Spanish, Finnish, and others I can't name.

When people stand to offer prayer - and this is done pretty often in legislative committees because the delegates pray before all votes - people are encouraged to use their own language. 

Have you exprienced a prayer in a Philipine langauge? Portuguese? Or even Spanish, and not understood it? The prayer just pours over you.

It reminds me of the idea of trusting someone to pray for you - you let go of control and rely on your trust of them and your trust of God.

That's what this feels like.  You quietly rely on the pray-er to pray and you trust in God to hear.  It's kind of a grace-filled joyful experience.