{"id":10062,"date":"2010-04-11T03:11:08","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T08:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=10062"},"modified":"2010-04-11T04:26:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-11T09:26:11","slug":"do-you-hear-what-i-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/04\/11\/do-you-hear-what-i-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Hear What I Hear?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do You Hear What I Hear?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The deaf are virtually an ‘unreached people group,’ but an Illinois ministry
\nis remedying that one video at a time.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Weber<\/p>\n

Christy Ortiz, an interpreter for the deaf at a Texas high school, says most
\nof her students have attended local churches for years. But without
\ninterpreters in their congregations, the teenagers were not grasping the
\nfundamentals of the faith.<\/p>\n

“The cross, Jesus’ death and resurrection\u2014it meant nothing to them,” Ortiz
\nsaid after her students bombed the religion part of a recent exam. “They
\nwere shocked to learn that Jesus was a Jew.”<\/p>\n

Ortiz referred them to some YouTube videos made by Deaf Video Communications
\n(DVC), a Christian ministry to the deaf. The students watched every video
\nover the weekend, and on Monday peppered her with questions about sin, hell,
\nheaven, and Jesus’ role in all of it.<\/p>\n

Days later, several students came to a See You at the Pole event. One told
\nOrtiz, “You always talk about your God like he’s a real live person. This
\nmorning, it felt like he was really standing there with us.” Ortiz corrected
\nhim: “Our God.” He replied, “I need to think about it some more, but I think
\nI like that. Our God.”<\/p>\n

Based in the Chicago suburb of Carol Stream, DVC makes evangelism and
\ndiscipleship videos for deaf of all ages. But it has a passion for the
\n70,000 deaf children nationwide who have few if any other ways to learn
\nabout God.<\/p>\n

Most churches regard the deaf as a benevolence ministry, similar to the
\nelderly or disabled. But experts argue that a different paradigm is
\ndesperately needed: seeing deaf ministry as cross-cultural missions.<\/p>\n

Language and cultural barriers have left the deaf a veritable unreached
\npeople group right in America’s midst. Christian deaf ministries estimate
\nthat only 1 percent of American deaf children will attend church as adults.
\nLess than 7 percent will ever have the gospel presented to them in a way
\nthey can understand.<\/p>\n

“If we don’t reach deaf children, there won’t be deaf adults going to
\nchurch,” said DVC founder David Stecca. “The deaf decide as children that
\nchurch is something hearing people do, because there is nothing they can
\nunderstand.”<\/p>\n

Over 90 percent of deaf children are born into hearing families, yet most of
\nthese families never learn enough American Sign Language (ASL) to talk about
\nmatters of faith. Deaf children find themselves equally isolated at church.<\/p>\n

‘Didn’t Understand a Single Thing’<\/p>\n

Lyn Weston went to church every Sunday as a deaf child growing up in Indiana
\nin the 1960s, but had no one to interpret for her. “The whole time I just
\nsat there, twiddled my thumbs, and scribbled on paper,” said Weston. “I
\ndidn’t understand a single thing that was going on.”<\/p>\n

Weston eventually came to faith at age 15, when she met a Baptist pastor
\nfluent in ASL while attending the state institute for the deaf. Some of her
\nspiritual growth as an adult has come through DVC videos. “In the past, the
\ndeaf didn’t know about God,” said Weston, who now attends Oak Brook
\nCommunity Deaf Church in Oak Brook, Illinois. “But now hearing pastors [and
\ntheir churches] can communicate with the deaf”\u2014thanks to ministries such as
\nDVC.<\/p>\n

Christianity began to spread first through the spoken and then the written
\nword, but both means have left many deaf on the outside. The printed world
\nis inaccessible to many because over 50 percent of deaf adults read at or
\nbelow a fourth grade reading level.<\/p>\n

Most deaf communicate through ASL, but ASL is not based on English. “The
\ndeaf need visual communication,” said Stecca. “Not until video has there
\nbeen a tool to evangelize and spiritually feed the deaf.”<\/p>\n

Stecca and his wife, Ruby, learned ASL in the late 1970s after David, then a
\npolice officer in the Chicago suburbs, responded to a domestic fight between
\ndeaf parents\u2014and the only interpreter was the couple’s 10-year-old daughter.
\nStecca and his wife were soon interpreting in churches and leading deaf
\nSunday school classes and Bible studies.<\/p>\n

Over time, David felt called by God to leave his job and start a mission
\nfield\u2014a video version of Christian radio. The Steccas began DVC in 1983 in
\ntheir basement with a home camera and a vcr. Today the ministry has a
\nbroadcast-quality production studio, a conference center, and $300,000 worth
\nof video equipment. With the help of volunteer deaf actors and paid, mostly
\nhearing production professionals, DVC has produced almost 500 videos of
\nBible stories, sermons, dramas, marriage counseling sessions, and children’s
\nprograms\u2014all in ASL.<\/p>\n

A free lending library sends out hundreds of copies of videos by mail each
\nweek. In 27 years, DVC has fulfilled 55,000 requests for videos from deaf
\nchurches, schools, and individuals worldwide. Donations from supporting
\nchurches, foundations, and individuals cover shipping costs and the rest of
\nthe $300,000 budget of the organization, approved by the Evangelical Council
\nfor Financial Accountability.<\/p>\n

More than an Interpreter<\/p>\n

DVC meets a need that many churches don’t realize exists. “The hearing
\nchurch often does not understand the deaf,” said Stecca. “Putting an
\ninterpreter in front of the church is not the answer. If reaching the deaf
\nwere that easy, we’d have more deaf in the church.”<\/p>\n

Churches that treat deaf attendees as a ministry to the disabled fail to
\nrecognize the language barriers that prevent the deaf from accessing
\nChristian teaching. Stecca discovered this when he began translating sermons
\ninto ASL.<\/p>\n

“It was a waste of time, because the way the sermon was presented was not
\nunderstandable to the deaf,” said Stecca. Hearing pastors tend to deliver
\nnon-linear messages at a tenth grade reading level, while most deaf best
\ncomprehend linear messages at lower reading levels. In Stecca’s experience,
\ndeaf Christians often understand less than 40 percent of an interpreted
\nsermon.<\/p>\n

DVC knows its videos are meeting a need long unmet. Many groups have
\nrequested\u2014and watched\u2014every single video in the catalogue. Hundreds of deaf
\nChristians have approached the Steccas at deaf conferences over the years,
\nmany crying with thanks for how DVC introduced them to God through its
\nvideos.<\/p>\n

Stecca tells the story of one church in northern Michigan that hosted a
\nmovie night for the deaf using DVC videos, where 10 attendees accepted
\nChrist. One convert happened to be the president of the local deaf club\u2014the
\nsocial nexus of the heavily secular deaf community. The president later
\nshowed DVC videos at a club meeting, where another 10 deaf came to faith.<\/p>\n

Focusing on Children<\/p>\n

DVC has recently focused on children’s programming. Recently a young mother
\napproached Stecca at a conference and asked if he had any videos she could
\nuse to tell her daughter about God. “She had taken her deaf child faithfully
\nto church for nearly ten years,” said Stecca. “But no one was able to tell
\nher daughter about Jesus.”<\/p>\n

Stecca says many hearing parents are ill-equipped to share faith with their
\nkids. Churches have media resources for hearing children, but most such
\nresources are not accessible.<\/p>\n

“It’s not like we’re saying that [media resources are] going to be the
\nsalvation of these kids, but there are relatively few resources to help
\nthem,” said Marshall Lawrence, who founded Silent Blessings Deaf Ministries
\nnear Indianapolis in 1996 after his daughter Rachel was born deaf. He
\nlearned ASL, but couldn’t find any Christian resources to help him teach
\nRachel about Jesus.<\/p>\n

“Ninety-five percent of deaf children are born into hearing families, but
\nonly 10 percent of parents learn enough ASL to have a conversation beyond
\n‘pass the salt’ and ‘be quiet,'” said Lawrence. “When parents have limited
\nsigning skills, it’s daunting for them to teach their children about Jesus
\nor Moses.”<\/p>\n

Lawrence tells of a 6-year-old deaf girl who long refused to participate in
\ndinnertime prayers despite her mother’s ASL translation. After the girl saw
\na deaf boy signing his prayers on a deaf ministry video, she excitedly
\nsigned to her mother,\u00a0“Mommy, Jesus knows sign language!” Now she
\ninsists on praying at every\u00a0meal.<\/p>\n

“If children get the idea that Jesus can’t know them because he’s ‘hearing,’
\nand virtually none of the hearing adults in their lives know sign language,
\nit will be very difficult for them to know they have access to God,” said
\nLawrence. “We have to find creative ways to communicate to these children
\nthat Jesus and God are relevant to their lives.”<\/p>\n

A Series Just for Kids<\/p>\n

One of those ways is Dr. Wonder’s Workshop, the first Christian tv series
\nfor children made in ASL. It’s a colorful blend of Sesame Street-like
\neducational segments with VeggieTales’ moral lessons. Each episode teaches a
\nChristian theme reinforced by skits, songs, animations, and interviews, all
\nconducted in ASL by deaf actors. Voices and music are later added in English
\nand captions in English and Spanish so that hearing family members can
\nfollow along.<\/p>\n

DVC partnered with Silent Blessings and a third ministry, Deaf Missions,
\nlocated in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to produce the first season of Dr. Wonder’s
\nWorkshop. The first 13 episodes aired in the fall of 2008 on seven Christian
\nnetworks, including Trinity Broadcasting Network and Daystar, reaching an
\nestimated 300 million homes in the U.S. and Canada. The show is currently
\nediting its third season, taping its fourth, and writing its fifth, though
\nDVC was forced to leave the partnership in June 2009 after losing promised
\nfoundation grants (producing 13 episodes costs about $300,000) due to the
\neconomic downturn.<\/p>\n

DVC’s current focus is expanding its reach through an Internet channel that
\nstreams or offers downloads of more than 160 of its ASL programs. The site
\naverages 2,000 downloads per week from around the globe. Said Stecca, “There
\nhas never been a better opportunity to reach the deaf around the world with
\nbiblical truth.”<\/p>\n

An e-mail from a 12-year-old in Texas says it all: “I was really giving up
\nhope, because I am the only deaf girl in my area and no one knows how to
\ntalk to me but my parents. I [was] wondering \u2026 whether God really loved me.
\nIf he does, why am I deaf and no one else here is deaf like me? But you guys
\nhelp me out a lot. Thank you. Now I am living a happy life and studying the
\nBible again.”<\/p>\n

Source:
\n http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2010\/march\/30.46.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do You Hear What I Hear? The deaf are virtually an ‘unreached people group,’ but an Illinois ministry is remedying that one video at a time. Jeremy Weber Christy Ortiz, an interpreter for the deaf at a Texas high school,…<\/p>\n

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