I have always enjoyed being involved in Deaf ministry. Much of my life I have been with deaf people and have loved every minute. Knowing deaf people has made me a better person. I have always thought they are the sweetest, and most honest, people on earth.
Deaf people being in my life, was God's idea.
ALITTLE PERSONAL HISTORY: I grew up in a fine, loving, Christian home. I was the middle child. My older brother seemed to be able to do EVERYTHING extremely well and my little sister was so cute she just had to smile - and I was in the middle. I was plain and average. I won't go into detail, but with my personality, and my not knowing what I had to contribute to life, I was a very vulnerable child. Although I was a Christian, I felt like I had no reason to get up in the morning, no real reason to be on earth. This is not a good mind set for a girl about to enter her teens. Although I was an outgoing Christian on the outside and truly WANTED to serve God with all my heart, I had this constant tug on me to find a reason to exist.
One day (which is another long story), as a pre-teen, I had an opportunity to see and touch a Ouija board. That started my thirst for the spirit world, unfortunately the dark spirit world seemed more appealing. I wanted to know and experience more. I started dabbling in demonic mind games. Oh on the outside I was still an outstanding, overt Christian young lady. Inside I had a growing thirst for darkness.
God saw this and cared about me.
GOD decided to send a group of deaf young people to my school, in my grade, for just one year. I had eight deaf sitting around me and our teachers had no clue how to teach deaf people and they were not allowed to have an interpreter in the classroom. They had to lipread. I soon noticed how they would look at each other with puzzled expressions when the teacher was talking and writing on the blackboard. They could not lipread the back of a head. They would get yelled at for not having their home work done, and yet they had not heard the assignment and the teachers had not written it on the board. It didn't take me long to start writing notes in class. When the teacher would turn her or his back, I would write what was being said and they would pass that note all around the room. From then on, they knew what their homework assignments were. That developed a friendship. I started going to their homes and they to mine.
Just from being with them, I learned sign language. I learned it quickly as I wanted to be their friend. I wanted to know their opinions and thoughts and to talk on a deeper level, then the "how are you" surface talk. God amazingly taught me sign language. By the end of that one year, I was able to carry on full conversations.
I felt I owed my life to them. I knew I owed my life to God. Now I had a reason to get up in the morning. I had a reason to live. I could do something well, that most people could not. I could talk to a group of people that not many people could. I had found a reason to live. I could be friends with the neatest group of people on earth!
Deaf people have continued to be my sunshine. I love being with them.
UNTIL NOW.
The Deaf people that I have found in this area are beautiful people, but they bicker, backbite and argue with each other MUCH of the time. They seem to be always mad at someone. They don't want to come to Church because "so and so" might be there. It is truly sad.
In light of this constant battling, I have had to fight my own feelings. I do not enjoy being around negative, fighting people.
I have been tempted to RUN the other way from the Deaf ministry here in this area. Where is the LOVE, the JOY, the laughter that I have always connected with Deaf people? I don't want to be part of a group that is so very negative, name calling, bickering and arguing.
And yet isn't THAT what ministry is all about? Giving unhappy people a chance to experience JESUS, the greatest Healer and Counselor of all?! Jesus put meaning into my life, I know He can help them too!
THEN my husband started a sermon series on Wednesday nights on the book of Jonah.
God told Jonah to go to Ninevah, where lived a group of terrible sinners. God wanted the Ninevites to hear God's message of love and forgiveness. Jonah refused the assignment and headed the opposite direction.
That sure sounds like what I am tempted, at times, to do with the Deaf! I am tempted to say: I am OUT OF HERE! IF you want to act like that, then go ahead. Have a God-less life or go to some other church!
But I know the account of Jonah. I know how his rebellion did not remove him from God's call on his life. His rebellion effected many others. He went through some pretty yucky times....until he agreed to do what God wanted him to do.....and THEY TURNED TO GOD!
I love the LORD JESUS and I truly WANT to DO His will for me. IF He wants me to interpret for Deaf people, then I will. It may not be the loving group of deaf I have always known, but they are people for whom Christ died. God has a message that HE wants to share with them, one that will change their hearts from cold and angry, to warm and tender. But first they must hear....and how can they hear unless someone is able to tell them.
SO my mission field, my assignment, is challenging. . . .but I trust God and I will be faithful to HIM, as long as I have breath.
And someday. . . maybe my new deaf friends will fall in love with Jesus and desire to think, talk and act more pleasing to HIM.
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