1 Cor 9:19

19 For, though I am free from all persons, I have made myself the slave to all, that I may gain the most persons.

I had a nice study with our newly baptised deaf brother today. As I think most of you have seen on previous blogs, we recently had one of my studies baptised who is deaf. He has been studying for about 9 years and finally made the leap of faith to get baptised.




It was interesting to speak with him before baptism about how he felt he was doing and why he wasn't baptised yet. He told me that he felt scared as he doesn't understand enough. Now, this is part of a huge discussion here about how much ASL should hinder a person. I have studies who can tell me all about the truth, but don't know any ASL. Yet, for them to get baptised, they need to understand the DVD and go through the Teach and LV DVDs. It's a hard one that I continue to debate internally.




Anyway, this now-baptised brother and I were talking about his ministry. He has one study who is studying and finds the ministry hard. He actually prefers going on English ministry to going on sign language - the reason: no-one understands him when he signs, as he uses ASL. When he goes on English ministry, he signs ASL and we voice-over for him. When he goes on sign ministry, he has to talk directly to deaf ones.




In Guyana, 99% of the deaf do not attend school, and if they do, they learn very little. They have never seen ASL and in the most part, don't need it. They have a very clear and understandable way of signing here, with a distinct vocabulary and set of rules. It employs all the features of a sign language and is lovely to see the deaf express themselves fluently in their own language. The sad thing is this is how the brother used to sign, yet when he learnt ASL he threw out his native language. Now, both hearing and deaf tell us that they do not understand him as he only signs ASL.




In our chat, we discussed the scripture above. I was asking about his approach to preaching. He told me that he visits them and teaches ASL and then the truth. I asked him how this was going and he said that most do not want to learn. I explained to him that most of my studies also don't want to learn, that is, they don't want to sit down and learn vocab for ASL. They do, however, love learning about the bible. We talked about the need for us to be willing to adapt to the way that the locals sign here, so we can jump straight to teaching them the Truth. For those that want to learn ASL and are capable, then fine, but this should never overshadow the reason that we go on the ministry - that is, to teach them about Jehovah and draw them to Him. Jehovah doesn't need them to sign ASL to do that!




We watched the scripture and he saw the point himself - we need to 'change to match', not expect them meet us. He made it a resolve to try to open up his signing to make it more visual and less wordy, and to try and touch the heart in his ministry, rather than just the head.




At pioneer school, I wrote a phrase in my notes 'we preach, to teach, to preach' - that is, when we preach, our goal is to make disciples that will then in turn go and preach. If we isolate them into an ASL community that doesn't exist, how can they then go and preach to the majority, who do not know ASL.




It is a very interesting question and topic to think about. Do we teach our students in a way that shows them that the Truth is the important thing, and not the language? Are we giving them tools to take and go and teach others that cannot sign, or even learn to sign? Are we using pictures as much as possible? Are we studying the way that our students sign and copying them, to make it easier for them, or do we insist on signing 'proper-ASL' and expect them to meet us?




In translation at bethel, they taught us that whilst lots of people sign higher-level sign language, or a more English version of signing, their brain is still a 'Deaf brain'. This means that they still think in pictures and in a visual way - they are hard wired to do this. So, if we sign visually and conceptually, using signs that are part of their heritage and culture (thinking ROTI rather than the ASL sign for BREAD), they will understand. By making a shift in our approach, we are actually opening up our work and message to the whole community, rather than focusing on a very small part of it. It has given me a lot to think about

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