{"id":14834,"date":"2011-06-28T00:40:30","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T05:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=14834"},"modified":"2011-06-28T01:16:53","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T06:16:53","slug":"sign-from-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2011\/06\/28\/sign-from-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Sign from God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign from God<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday, June 12, 2011<\/p>\n

By RICHARD PORTER Herald Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Rachel Stanfield had her future all mapped out. She enjoyed signing and
\nwanted to be involved with that, but first, she thought, she had to get a
\nbachelor’s degree.<\/p>\n

Then God began to tap her on the shoulder.<\/p>\n

Stanfield said she ignored the tapping at first, but ultimately the
\n23-year-old realized that God wasn’t telling her to ditch her plan, simply
\nto reorganize it.<\/p>\n

“It was definitely a God thing,” she said. “I was going to go to school to
\nbe a teacher, and he changed my mind.”<\/p>\n

But not right away.<\/p>\n

“I told him, \u2018No! This is what I want to do,’ and he kept saying, \u2018No, this
\nis what you want to do,’ ” she said with sheepish grin.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Stanfield accepted God’s nudging and enrolled at the Southwest
\nCollegiate Institute for the Deaf in Big Spring where she earned her
\nassociate’s degree.<\/p>\n

“It turned out to be the best thing I ever did,” she said.<\/p>\n

Stanfield, who graduated from Plainview High School in 2006, completed that
\ntwo-year program in 2009 and now is working on a bachelor’s degree in
\nspecial education at Wayland Baptist University while volunteering at First
\nBaptist Church as an interpreter for deaf members,<\/p>\n

Stanfield got her first exposure to American Sign Language as a child when
\nshe attended a Texas Lions’ Camp for children with special needs. She has
\nErb’s palsy, which can cause partial paralysis of her left arm, although
\nthere is little evidence of a problem now.<\/p>\n

Stanfield admitted that she isn’t really affected by the handicap any more,
\nbut the experience of watching interpreters work with the deaf at the Lions’
\ncamp introduced her to the notion of signing.<\/p>\n

When she reached the point where she was beginning to struggle with God’s
\nplan for her future, Stanfield said she was aided by a youth minister at
\nTrinity Church, where she was a member. The minister gave her some
\ninformation on the school in Big Spring, but she filed it away.<\/p>\n

“I just set it aside, but it kept popping back up,” she said. “I wanted to
\ndo that, but I figured it would be later after I finished my bachelor’s
\ndegree.”<\/p>\n

Once she made the decision to enroll in the program, she adapted quickly.
\nShe really didn’t have much of a choice since the Big Spring campus was a
\nschool for the deaf.<\/p>\n

“I equate it to going to Spain to learn Spanish because I was in a deaf
\ncommunity,” she said. “I immersed myself in it.”<\/p>\n

Eventually it became so natural for her that when she came home to visit she
\nwould sign to everybody and have to be reminded that her friends and family
\nwere not deaf.<\/p>\n

Once she returned to Plainview she began signing songs in the college
\ndepartment at First Baptist Church – music is the part of signing she enjoys
\nthe most – and a church member asked if she would interpret for deaf members
\nof the congregation. She agreed, and for the past year she has been a
\nfixture on the west side of the church’s auditorium translating songs and
\nthe pastor’s sermon into sign language.<\/p>\n

While signing is not difficult for her, Stanfield does admit to a couple of
\nminor challenges.<\/p>\n

The first is based on the fact that the sentence structure in American Sign
\nLanguage is backwards to the sentence structure in spoken English. For
\ninstance, she cannot just sign that there is water in a cup.<\/p>\n

“With sign language, you build a picture with your hands, so I would start
\nwith the table and then go to the cup and then put the water in the cup,”
\nshe explained.<\/p>\n

Given that and the fact that she has to hear what is spoken before she can
\nbegin to build that picture, Stanfield acknowledged that she always works at
\nleast a sentence behind the speaker.<\/p>\n

While that challenge is technical, the other difficulty she has is personal,
\nStanfield admitted with a smile.<\/p>\n

“I think the most difficult part for me doing it in church is not preaching
\n. . . ,” she said. “At times, I find myself wanting to add to the sermon,
\nbut then I think, \u2018Wait! I’m not the preacher. I’m the interpreter.’ ”<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Stanfield said she wants to merge her two degrees into a career
\nthat allows her to teach classes with sign language for children with
\nspecial needs.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she will continue to volunteer at FBC and wherever else she
\ncan. Recently, she participated in Unger Library’s summer reading program.
\nStanfield is the daughter of Wes Stanfield and Donna Stanfield and has six
\nsiblings. She is as a student worker at Wayland and also tutors a young man
\nwith Down syndrome.<\/p>\n

rporter@hearstnp.com
\n806.296.1361<\/p>\n

Source:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.myplainview.com\/news\/article_e50ed944-94b3-11e0-a447-001cc4c03286.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sign from God Sunday, June 12, 2011 By RICHARD PORTER Herald Staff Writer Rachel Stanfield had her future all mapped out. She enjoyed signing and wanted to be involved with that, but first, she thought, she had to get a…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[1629,4621,23,81,94,215,62,3246,2472,9832,40,9829,9828,9831,9830,191,552,63,17,186],"class_list":["post-14834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-american-sign-language","tag-article","tag-asl","tag-big-spring","tag-church","tag-college","tag-english","tag-fbc","tag-first-baptist-church","tag-god","tag-interpreter","tag-planview","tag-preacher","tag-rachel-stanfield","tag-richard-porter","tag-sign-language","tag-southwest-collegiate-institute-for-the-deaf","tag-spanish","tag-texas","tag-volunteer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-3Rg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20384,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/10\/18\/allie-ward-elementary-sign-language-interpreter-helps-students\/","url_meta":{"origin":14834,"position":0},"title":"Allie Ward Elementary sign language interpreter helps students","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"October 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Allie Ward Elementary sign language interpreter helps students Crystal Porter hopes to make Deaf Awareness Week more eventful next September.The last full week in September is an opportunity for people like Porter, a certified sign language interpreter, to raise awareness about hearing disabilities and also to empower those who deal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":997,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2007\/01\/03\/assault-reported-at-school-for-the-deaf\/","url_meta":{"origin":14834,"position":1},"title":"Assault reported at School for the Deaf","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"January 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Assault reported at School for the Deaf Tuesday, January 2, 2007 KVUE.com A student at the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin has been accused of sexual assault and fled to Mexico, according to Austin police investigators. 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