Deaf Worship Experience…

This evening was my first Deaf worship experience here…it was AWESOME!!!!! I arrived a little after 4 pm to help get stuff set up for dinner and to practice with the signing choir. The bulk of the choir is made up of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing individuals, but any hearing people who want to join are welcome. Phyllis (the Deaf minister) leads the choir from the middle of the sanctuary and we follow her as she signs to the music. Tonight we did “I Will Give You All My Worship” and “Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)”…both really cool songs. I have a video that I’ll email out of the signing choir. I tried to upload it on here, but I can’t get it to work. Next month, they are going to video the entire service for me so I can bring home a copy.

Also during the service, a Deaf man who just recently accepted Christ signed ”Cry Out to Jesus” (with Phyllis guiding him) and it was so powerful…he’s very expressive. It was just one of those “wow” moments. He was baptized at the end of the service…pray for him as he is beginning his new life in Christ. 

They asked me to share a little bit about how I ended up in Michigan for the summer and what all I’d be doing while I’m here. After that, I got to sign “Everything to Me” by Avalon. The Deaf were so encouraging after the service. They were very curious as to why I would bother coming all the way up here to spend time with them, why I wanted to work with the Deaf community, and about anything else they could talk out of me. They were all very friendly and I met so many new people…some drive up to an hour or hour and a half to come to this worship service once a month. I know I’ll remember most of their faces…names, however, are a different story. Pray for me as I continue building relationships here within the Deaf community.

Funny Story: So I arrive at church and there’s another girl there, about my age, and we started talking. She’s hearing…an interpreting major at a local school…we hit it off really well. We started having all these people come up to us and tell us that we looked a lot alike. By the end of the night we were really messing with people’s minds…we had on similar shirts, we have the same length dark hair, same build…it was crazy. The Deaf people kept saying we were twins. They stood us next to each other in the signing choir just so people could see how much we looked alike. We’ve decided to play off of this for next month. We’re going to coordinate our clothing and hairstyles and we’re going to work on a piece to do for worship…maybe something playing off a mirror-image type thing. Anyway, I thought it was really funny and to see the people’s faces was just hilarious. It was really messing with their program.  : )

God is really at work in the Deaf community here…you could totally feel His presence during the worship service and could see it in the people’s faces as we had a great time of fellowship. Pray for the Deaf community, in general, that they will see God and come to know Him. Pray for the Christian Deaf community, that they will have a fire in their hearts to reach the lost. Pray for the leaders of the Deaf ministry at the church…ministry can sometimes be stressful…pray that God provides the leaders with a peace and assurance that He’s sovereign in all situations. Pray for them as they go ahead and begin planning for Deaf upcoming Deaf socials and next month’s Deaf service.

On Monday, I leave with a group from church to go to GA (Girls in Action) camp about 3 hours north of here. I think there are about 10-12 girls going with the church and that many (or more) adults going to help as leaders. While I’m there, I’m co-teaching a mission track time where we’ll have the girls for 1 hour…we’ll teach them about our assigned missionary and their ministry…we’ll teach them basic sign language as well as signart to “Set the World on Fire” by Britt Nicole. When I’m not teaching mission track time, I’ll be helping wherever they need me…I may also be working with the Acteens a little bit. Be in prayer for the girls at the camp as well as the leadership. The girls will be learning about finding their place in the world. I know that Bible study times will include the story of Mary Magdalene and Hannah with a couple of others. Be praying for a powerful week of camp where God will touch the life of each young lady there.

Thanks so much for your prayers! They are definitely felt! I will update again when I get back from GA camp! : )

The First Service…

So this weekend I attended my first worship services there at the church. There was a really good sized congregation there on Sunday. This week, the orchestra played…for such a small stage, they have a rather large orchestra. I got to meet with the Deaf Sunday School class…there were about 9 Deaf people there. I introduced myself and got to know some of them. They were very welcoming and helpful if I didn’t know signs. Sunday night I actually got to interpret a little to give Linda a break. There were some praise choruses she wasn’t really familiar with so she let me sign those…I’d rather do those than try hymns…they tend to be a little more difficult. I also got to interpret the spoken transitions between songs. After the service was over, I asked the one Deaf guy that showed up if he could understand me ok. He said he could understand…he said my style was very different from the usual interpreters and that my signs were a little different.

We survived a tornado warning yesterday…the storm that blew through apparently did a lot more damage than I realized. We lost power at the house yesterday around 5:30 pm and, as of 2:45 today, we still have no power. We’ve heard a rumor that we won’t get power until tomorrow. Praise God for getting us through the storm safely!

My biggest struggle right now is learning how to speak and sign at the same time. During Sunday School and Deaf worship, everything is typed in captions on the screen for those who have vision problems or don’t know sign language…and yes, there are a few here that are completely Deaf and don’t know sign…they rely on lip-reading…that’s also taking some getting used to. Another obstacle I have to deal with is the fact that there is really only one person that attends the church who signs in ASL format…the rest either use a combination of ASL and English or they just sign straight English. For the past 2 years, I’ve been learning proper ASL, I’ve been taught not to mouth words when I sign, I’ve been taught to not revert back to English word order. Now, I have to undo some of that. From what I’ve been told since I got here, there are some Deaf people here who will have quite a bit of difficulty with the ASL word order if I sign that way. It’s going to be interesting for sure. I know God will teach me Michigan sign (He’s already working on that) and get me through difficult conversations.

Pray for the Deaf ministry there at the church…it’s a growing ministry and God’s really working in those lives right now. Pray for the church as a whole. The whole church has just pulled me right into their family and made me feel so at home. This church is a very mission-minded church and they are preparing to send 2 mission teams out very soon. Keep them in your prayers!!! Thanks for all your support and encouragement! I’ll give you another update after Deaf worship this coming weekend. : )