Praises from the deaf ministry

[John81]

Praise God! It's always great to hear such good reports.

[dadof4]

We had another first time visitor, Dawn, this Sunday morning. She lives an hour away from our church. She was in the city where our church is selling home grown vegetables, when one of our church members gave her one of our church's tracts that were made up for the deaf community. She seemed to really enjoy her time at church.

Another praise from the deaf ministry is that one of our deaf men, Joel, was involved in an attempted mugging. Some guy came up to him and asked him for his wallet. Being deaf, Joel didn't know what he was saying, and the guy punched Joel in the face. The man took off running, without Joel's wallet, and ran right into a police man and was arrested. This happened at our state fair last week. The praise is that he was not hurt during this.

[dpbasmith]

Praise the Lord for His protection and guidance.

This last weekend, I was in uniontown, PA. On Saturday soulwinning/visitation, the Lord allowed me to lead three people to Christ. The next day and deaf man came to church. This church does not have a deaf ministry, but I was there to present our ministry to the deaf. Therefore, I was able to interpret for him during the morning service. The pastor did not think that there were any deaf in the area. He now knows there are deaf nearby. Perhaps the Lord will allow us to back and establish a deaf work there after we get our support raised.

Dave

[RayJr]

I wish I had the ability to sign, How difficult is it to learn?

[dadof4]

It is really not that hard to learn. A lot of the signs, when you know the background of the sign, make perfect sense why it is done a certain way. Other signs, no one know why it is signed that way. Two good books to get to help you start to learn are "The Joy of Signing" by Lottie L. Riekehof and "Sign Language for Everyone" by Cathy Rice. Another good way to start to learn is to just watch people sign. Find out if there is a place in your area where deaf (and hearing) people get together once in a while. Up here, we have a book store where every Friday night, they have a deaf (and hearing who are learning sign language) group that get together and just talk to one another. It is good practice, and most deaf people are patient with you as you are learning sign language. It is kind of scary at first to do this, but after a little bit of time, you get used to the idea, and things go much smoother.

Any one else with comments or ideas, please, feel free to answer, also.

[dadof4]

Big problem with my computer, sorry.

[dadof4]

Really big problem with my computer, sorry.

[dadof4]

Having a huge problem with my computer.

Some how my post got added 4 times on this thread.

[dadof4]

Praise the Lord for His protection and guidance.

This last weekend, I was in uniontown, PA. On Saturday soulwinning/visitation, the Lord allowed me to lead three people to Christ. The next day and deaf man came to church. This church does not have a deaf ministry, but I was there to present our ministry to the deaf. Therefore, I was able to interpret for him during the morning service. The pastor did not think that there were any deaf in the area. He now knows there are deaf nearby. Perhaps the Lord will allow us to back and establish a deaf work there after we get our support raised.

Dave

Praise God for his timing in having you there at the right place and the right time!

[dadof4]

Dawn came back again this Sunday!

We had another deaf man from India (I didn't get his name, though) come. I understand that he came once quite a while ago, but we were gone that Sunday.

If we continue to have visitors like this, we will need to be moving into a large room. Our teacher, Ray, likes to have us all sit in in semi-circle so everyone can see him, and we can see everyone else (for when others are signing). We are wall to wall right now as it is.

[John81]

Praise God for His wonderful work in this ministry!

[dadof4]

Well, this Sunday, Dawn was not there. No visitors, and even some of our regulars were gone. I felt discouraged inside. I was looking forward to see new faces there (not knowing if there would be or not). As it turns out, my wife was needed to interpret for our morning service, so we found people to work in the 2 year old nursery we usually work in during church. As I was getting ready to go into the auditorium, Ray (our director of our deaf ministry) signed to me that we had a new deaf person coming in. I went to the door with Ray, and in came a lady with her three boys. The boys were 7, 4, and 18 months - they would all end up in either children's church or the nursery with my 3 kids. I helped Daniele (the deaf lady) get her children where they needed to be, and when we got into the auditorium, there was John, Daniele's deaf husband. Boy, was my heart lifted!

Funny thing - Daniele was given a vibrating pager by our nursery worker (in case they needed her to come to the nursery) and, sure enough, it went off during church. I think this pager has been dropped too many times since the WHOLE church could hear it vibrating - even Daniele (she is hard of hearing, not completely deaf) and it scared her. I went out with her to interpret what the nursery workers were saying. Seems her little guy took a nap and woke up in a strange place and just stared to cry hard!

We all had a good talk after church. This family just moved from FL or VA (didn't exactly catch which one) and come from a Church of God background. Daniele called the local Church of God, but they had no interpreters for their services. She then thought that Baptist's had much the same belief's as the Church of God, and called our church. We always have our services interpreted for the deaf, so they came. I do hope to see them again - very friendly people, and very impressed to know that many of the church members either know or are learning sign language.

[dadof4]

We had another deaf visitor come this Sunday morning. Her name is Cathy, and she drove for about an hour to attend. The churches in her area don't have any interpreters, so she looked online and found our church.

[John81]

Praise God! Cathy must be sincere and truly seeking Christ if she is willing to drive that far to church. :thumb

[Guest Guest]

:amen: dadof4. This is great news! All glory, honor, and praise...to Our King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Keep up the wonderful ministry for Our Saviour...Jesus Christ. God bless you. :Bible: