While using the teaching of English as a tool for  sharing one's faith is most likely as old as the English language itself, the approach that the LET'S START TALKING Ministry has taken in the last few years is unique in modern times. In each of the almost eight years that my family and I spent in Germany as full-time missionaries, we worked with student mission groups from Christian colleges during the summers, normally using the more traditional methods of employing English-speaking students in a
non-English speaking country for evangelism. We sang in the streets, used the students for mass distribution, visited local high schools, even set up a puppet theater in heavily-trafficked shopping areas and let them pantomime with prerecorded scripts.

In 1980, we combined ideas of several people, both in the States and in Germany, and began concentrating on using English conversation classes as a Bible study method because we believed it had unusual potential with non-English speakers and could be especially effective for Americans working in non-English speaking countries.

Not only has it been successful for us, but also for others who have copied the basic structure of our program, adapted it to their own particular situation, and have seen how effective it can be. I am fully aware of the ambiguity involved in talking about "success" and "results" in working for the Lord. Let me just say that I am talking about success in the following areas:

• We teach more people numerically.
• We successfully make contact with total unbelievers who rarely come near our religious meetings or advertisements, and whom we often, therefore, deem unreachable.
• We are able to create a very non-threatening situation for our Readers. We perform a valuable service in providing them English conversation opportunities, which they appreciate.
• We work, with very few exceptions, in a one-with-one teaching situation, so that a genuine relationship forms between Worker and Reader.
• The personal testimony of the Worker is given a platform from which it can harmonize with the testimony of Scripture to make a powerful impact.
  We witness in our Readers the development of genuine faith in Jesus because of their direct experience with the gospel.
• The Readers have shown a more consistent desire to continue learning after any special campaign group has left, which is a positive signal for good follow-up work.
• And we see conversions--sometimes several, sometimes individually, sometimes quickly, most often later in the follow-up work.

The LST ministry has grown since 1980 into a world-wide multi-ministry, bringing the Good News to people all around the globe. In 1996, the ministry went from its single emphasis on short-term summer missions for college students to a variety of ministries. Let's Start Talking International is the designation for the summer ministry; FriendSpeak is the domestic arm of the LST Ministries; FriendsCamp is also a growing area of ministry, where workers bring their Readers to a camp setting to enhance opportunities for developing their relationship to God and to their Christian friend.