By Christi Mays
Jai Masih Ki – "Praise the Lord" in Hindi.
It was the first phrase a group of UMHB students shared with natives as they stepped into a new world on a mission trip to Southeast Asia in late 2023. For Dr. Sanfrená Britt `20, director of the UMHB Kingdom Diversity office, it wasn’t just a greeting; it was a defining moment.
“It gave this wonderful connection,” she said. “The people were hearing ‘praise the Lord’ in their language! Our students were speaking their heart’s language. It was so effective.”
That moment sparked the birth of a transformative initiative at UMHB: a new Language Lab.
The idea had been simmering in Britt’s mind for some time since she traveled to Morocco on a study abroad trip in 2023 with Dr. Jim King, a professor at the McLane College of Business. Though she and the students were prepped for cultural differences – including the importance of respecting religious customs in a deeply spiritual country – there was one obstacle no one could quite overcome: the language.
“I speak French, but I speak Creole French,” Britt explained. “So the people there could capture a little of what I was saying, but it wasn’t the same French. The language was a barrier.”
At times, everything had to be filtered through an interpreter, making it challenging to form authentic connections.
Later that year, during a mission trip to Southeast Asia with Director of Global Outreach Tiffany Horton, the language gap surfaced again.
“We prepared our students to share the Gospel, but how prepared were they to actually be in this culture?” Britt asked.
She watched students hunger to communicate, but the linguistic hurdles somewhat deterred their enthusiasm. That spark of eagerness became the seed of something new.
After Britt and Horton returned and debriefed, Britt suggested the two offices partner to create the Language Lab. The vision was to equip students heading out on mission trips not just with theological knowledge but with the basic language tools to build trust, show respect and foster understanding for the culture and people they visited.
The UMHB Language Lab officially launched soon after, with a simple but powerful structure. Using the university’s Canvas learning platform, Britt built week-by-week modules focusing on language basics, such as greetings, self-introductions, asking for directions and dietary needs. She set up synchronous Zoom sessions with native speakers from around the globe to prepare students for upcoming mission trips.
The first session included Russian, Hindi, Arabic and three Spanish tracks for student trips to Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and South Texas.
The sessions are just 30 minutes a week, but they are making an impact. Students not only listen and learn, they are tasked with recording their own videos to share with their peers. The goal isn’t fluency but familiarity, confidence and connection.
“Students also learn to enter those cultures with humility, not going in thinking everybody should speak English,” Britt said. “We want them to go in with a mind of learning and understanding how to respect things that are different.”
Equipped with new language and cultural skills, students traveled on eight mission trips over the winter break and have missions this summer in Indonesia, Nepal, Rio Grande Valley, Montana and Kenya. Next December, Britt will lead students on the first immersion trip to Morocco, and they will study Arabic before leaving.
“I am really excited to have a chance to learn Arabic,” Britt said.
But beyond vocabulary, the Language Lab is about preparing students to be global citizens, Britt said, “So that as they are preparing to walk into their career fields, they don’t just have a mindset of, ‘I’m from Texas’ or ‘I’m from the U.S.,’ but ‘I can step across boundaries across the world and still feel comfortable.’”
