I struggle with my faith. I worry when God seems distant or things seem stagnant. But I found three words that harness the power to awaken and refresh my soul: God speaks Ladin.

Not to be confused with Latin, Ladin is an endangered language spoken by about 30,000 people in the mountains of northern Italy. If you traveled to a remote scene and watched as a group of people you’ve never seen worshiped in a dying language, would it change you? It changed me.

I wasn’t on a mission trip. While visiting my fiancée’s family in Spain, we received an invitation to a baptism. The day came, so we piled into a van and soon found ourselves winding up a mountain road. As we began to assume we had misread the handwritten directions, a wooden sign appeared on the right, as promised.

The ensuing hour was worth the trek down to the river. About 20 voices – all of them belonging to close, Christian friends – echoed off the trees as the new believers waded into the water. Suddenly, my vision blurred. Unexpected tears filled my eyes. They were singing in a language Franco banned and almost destroyed 60 years ago. About 9.2 million people speak the language today, but scholars fear it will not survive.

My mind always knew God’s ability to understand every language, but my soul had not felt it.

But that feeling faded. Typical days quickly turned into typical months. I bought into the lie that my foreign experience was an oasis in the spiritual desert of daily life – until a Sunday morning service at First Baptist Church in Jayton.

In a West Texas town with a population of 441, I expected little. But there, in a creaky, wooden pew, those same tears flooded my eyes.  I looked at the leather hands and faces around me, their eyes focused on the young, smooth-skinned preacher. What had I missed by longing for past experiences?

In the hills of Spain and the dirt fields of West Texas, God made himself known. The common denominator: I was away from my day-to-day scene. If you find yourself growing stagnant or wondering where God is, get away. You’ll be surprised by what is waiting for you.