My last couple of weeks here…

So I am in my last couple of weeks here in Michigan. I’m working a backyard Bible club at the house I stay at. We’ve had 9-10 kids each day. Really pray for these kids…we know of at least 3 or 4 who aren’t Christians and today was the day where we share the plan of salvation through the ABC’s (Admit, Believe, and Commit). Pray that God will begin growing the seeds that have been sown this week.

The pastor at the church I’m at had a stint put in during Sunday School this past Sunday. He had a heart attack a few years ago and went to the hospital with chest pains. He’s doing very well and is spending some time at home getting some good quality rest. Keep him in your prayers as he continues to recover.

Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve spent a couple hours a day for about 5 days with a Deaf-Blind lady from church. My mission with her was to teach her how to operate PowerPoint to help with Deaf worship services. Praise God for His provision of clear communication! We had our rough moments that were frustrating for both of us, but I can definitely say that she can successfully create a PowerPoint presentation now! I think it was a great feeling of accomplishment for both of us when we saw the finished product! It was awesome…a challenge, no doubt…but totally worth it to see how proud and excited she was about her work.

The church VBS will begin Sunday night and continue through Thursday night. They’re expecting quite a few people. This is a VBS for the whole family…not just the kids. The theme is “Outrigger Island” with all the Hawaiian tropical stuff. I’m very excited! I’m working with a great team in the preschool department with 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s. We have some very cool stuff planned for these kids! Pray for all the leaders as they prepare to share the love of Christ with these kids through VBS. Pray for my boyfriend as he flies tomorrow. He’s coming up from Kentucky to help teach the youth group during VBS. God can do amazing things through VBS! Pray that God will really speak to all the hearts of the people involved in a very special way.

That’s the update for now…as I get more information for you, I’ll definitely keep you posted! : ) Thanks for your prayers!

SBCD and the happenings since…

I know it’s been a little while since I updated…sorry…things have been a little too busy for blogging. As you know, I went to St. Louis last week for the Southern Baptist Conference for the Deaf. It was awesome! I made a lot of connections with people and resources that I, otherwise, would not have made. During the week, we attended several workshops. The first day, the deaf minister I went with asked if I wanted her to voice what was being signed since most of the workshops were deaf-led. I told her that I thought I’d just try to see how well I could do on my own. I was so excited at the end of the first day when I had gone to all the workshops without someone voicing for me. I could understand!!! I was super pumped. It may not seem like a big deal, but for me, it totally was. While I was there, I met another summer missionary from NAMB serving in a Deaf ministry in North Carolina along with a girl that attends WKU…it’s a small world. : ) Overall, the week was amazing and I really feel like I learned a lot from the interpreters and Deaf people who were attending. I praise God that I was given the opportunity to go to this event!

You may remember a previous post where I talked about having breakfast with a Deaf-Blind woman from MBC. I spent some more time with her in St. Louis and we made some plans for my last couple of weeks here. She has Usher’s Syndrome which is where the person is born deaf and their vision gets progressively worse…a sort of tunnel vision…like looking through a straw. Right now, she still has enough vision to operate a computer. She loves to email! The Deaf minister at the church wants to get her more involved with the ministry so I started with lessons on PowerPoint this morning. I’m going to work with her 3 days a week until she learns how to run the program. She’ll be putting together announcement PowerPoints for the monthly Deaf Fellowship. The first lesson went really well…we had our moments of miscommunication, but we cleared it up and went on. We worked for 2 hours today and we’ll do that for the rest of the week. She’s learning very quickly and I think she’ll be ready to do things on her own by the end of the week…beginning of next week at the latest. Pray for both of us to have patience while working through these lessons. I will say this, it’s not an easy task to teach a Deaf-Blind person how to run PowerPoint : ) I’ve been blessed with a student who learns quickly! Praise God!

This week is also being spent in preparation for Backyard Bible Club here at the house I’m living in for the neighborhood kids. I’ll be leading crafts for that. The theme is “Cactus Canyon”…a cowboy theme. The following week will be VBS at the church…the theme there is “Outrigger Island.” I’m working with the preschoolers there. Things are coming along well for both sessions. Please keep both weeks in your prayers. Keep the leaders in your prayers as we share God’s Word with these children who will attend each night. Pray that the children will have open hearts to hear what God wants to teach them. Pray for safe travel for those helping and those transporting children to and from the church.

Thanks so much for your prayers! Prayer is a powerful thing and God is doing amazing things! : )

Rested and Recharged…

Well, I have gotten a good week of rest after my week at GA camp. Camp was incredible, but I didn’t bounce back near as fast as I thought I would : ) Monday night I had dinner with the interpreter I live with, a hard-of-hearing man and a deaf-blind woman from church. It was an interesting meal to say the least. I can communicate really well with the HH man, but talking to the woman was quite different. She doesn’t know sign language and can only see maybe 4 feet in front of her (if that much). She talks to us, but we have to write in a notebook for her to really understand what we’re saying. Trying to sign to him and keep her involved in the conversation by writing was a full-time job during that meal. It was a great visit with both them!

When I arrived at church on Wednesday night, we were running a little late. My ride was parking the car so there was no one there to interpret the songs at the beginning of the service. The pastor asked me if I could interpret until his wife arrived. I, hesitantly, went up to the front to sign. It went well until we got to “Be Thou My Vision”…if I had the sign language hymnal out with me, I would have been fine…but since we were late, I didn’t have time to get it. Needless to say, that song was a bit rocky. Any song with “thou” in the title has the potential to make interpreters nervous. : ) The Deaf were very patient, except one, but he just likes to give people a hard time. I survived and I think they knew what was going on so I guess it was an ok night.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go over and visit with another deaf-blind lady from church. Her sister lives close by, but other than that, I don’t think that she gets a lot of visitors. She has Usher’s Syndrome, meaning she was born deaf and as she gets older her tunnel vision gets progressively worse until she’s completely blind. Anyway, I went over around 10-ish and she had made a cinnamon crumb cake for breakfast and served it with strawberry yogert tart-type things. She was very excited about showing me her house and telling me about the blankets she’s been making. We had a great visit! I was there about 3 1/2 hours just talking with her and building a relationship with her. The Deaf minister at the church sent a laptop with me in case we needed it to ease the flow of communication, but we totally didn’t need it. God took care of that wall. There were times when she used signs I didn’t know and I used ones she didn’t know…by the way, she’s really just learning sign…she knows a little bit, but not much…but when we encountered unknown signs we spelled them and worked our way through it. It was an incredible visit! I had a lot of fun and I hope she did too! Keep her in your prayers!

Tonight I’m going to a Missions Tea where we’ll be praying over a team from MBC going to Prague soon. I’m really excited because I’ve never been to one of these before. As I get prayer requests for this team, I’ll pass them on!

This weekend we have a BBQ scheduled for the Deaf group. We’re going to meet up, eat, play cards, etc. Should be lots of fun! I’ll write about that later!

Thanks so much for your prayers!!!!! : )

The Deaf-Blind Experience

So, this weekend was incredibly hectic, but totally worth every minute. Friday, around lunch, I went with a group of Interpreting students and a couple of the teachers from EKU to a Deaf-Blind retreat out in the middle of nowhere…seriously. When we arrived, one of our teachers did an orientation time for us where she explained what would happen throughout the weekend and then gave us time to practice guiding our blindfolded classmates from place to place. I was a little worried about guiding people considering I ran one of my friends into a door frame on accident while guiding…she was fine…it just scared her a bit. She definitely didn’t walk as fast after that. Getting used to having double the body width would take some time.

After people arrived, they could request to have an SSP (Support Service Provider)…all the students that went were SSP’s. People could request either an SSP to voice things for them (more for those with varying degrees of blindness) or one who would sign for them (more for those with varying degrees of deafness). Each SSP would then be matched with a person to assist them at different times throughout the weekend. We helped them find their rooms, get their food during meal times, and basically just be there to help them out if they needed it.

I was nervous at first, but quickly became more at ease with the setting and people around me. It was very interesting and I’m really looking forward to working with the Deaf-Blind in Michigan this summer. I met some incredible people and have lots of fun stories that I don’t have time to type. Overall, this weekend really helped prepare me for this summer…I just wish I could have stayed longer than I did.

Entering the Deaf-Blind World…

I’m seeing more and more each day that God has blessed me with some incredible ASL teachers here at school. All of them have been so incredibly helpful since I received my ministry assignment at Christmas. When I learned that part of my ministry would be to a group of Deaf-Blind individuals, I freaked out a little bit. That’s completely unexplored territory for me. In talking to a couple of teachers here, God has given me the opportunity to get some experience before being thrown into it in June. I am going with several of the Interpreting students to volunteer as a guide at a Deaf-Blind retreat outside of Somerset this weekend. I won’t be doing any interpreting or anything super-involved like that. Basically, I’ll pair up with someone there who has some degree of deafness and some degree of visual difficulty and I will basically be their eyes. I will help them out with the menu at meal time and simply guide them from place to place. I’m really excited because this is something I’ve never done before! I know that this is one way God is equipping me to serve this summer. I’ll let you know how it goes!