deaf pastors
We had some visitors from Estonia: deaf pastor Vasilly and his wife Margaret. Our deaf pastor Barnabas (left in pic) has extensive international deaf contacts from his attendance at major international Christian deaf conferences. They ministered in our Deaf Faith Fellowship. Interestingly the deaf doesn’t like being called handicapped or hearing impaired. Handicap denotes reduced ability and implies they cannot be as intelligent or capable as others who can hear. And why don’t we call the blind “sight impaired” and the lame “walk impaired” and the less intelligent “brain impaired” and it goes on and on. They rather be called “deaf”- straightforward and matter-of-fact, no euphemism please and don’t patronize.
Our deaf ministry, called the Deaf Faith Fellowship, currently has an average of 37 in attendance and most are over 40 years old. About half have little education and actually communicate using gestures rather than the commonly accepted U.S. sign language. As such teaching them God’s word is a laborious task requiring patient and thorough explanations. The deaf youths of Singapore today have more opportunities than their forbears and are better educated and learn to speak and read lips and are integrated with hearing students in a handful of schools. On the other hand, the needs of the deaf in Asean countries are vast and our deaf are in the kingdom for such a time as this. It is clear that the D.F.F. is well placed to play an unique and key role in deaf missions in the region.
3 comments May 1st, 2007
