I'd like to add a little here. I have had extensive time with the deaf, know ASL, have worked as a paid interpreter, and have taught the hearing children of deaf parents and the deaf children of hearing parents. I interpreted in a very cooperative church for some time (about three years as I recall).
First of all, there is a deaf culture which is totally distinct from ANY hearing culture. This is not a choice, but a necessity. Culture comes through language, and the only language the deaf have is their own -- almost always. Even lipreading is fraught with hazards. "Big" and "pig" lipread exactly the same way. So "dare" and "tear" (as in 'rip'). As a result, no matter how proficient the incredible few profoundly deaf (from birth or before language acquisition) are in English, some version of sign language is, by necessity, their primary language.
And so it is not the same as preaching to women if you are a man, or to children if you are an adult, or to English-as-a-second-language hearing folk if you are a native English speaker. All these are MUCH more possible than a hearing person communicating abstract thoughts, such as in theology, with a deaf person.
Example: We know that Jesus and Christ are the same person. A deaf person must be told that, or there is a real chance (and this has happened) that it will be assumed that two different people are being talked about. This is just the slightest example of a road full of hazards which exist in ministering or interpreting to/for the deaf.
I have led deaf women's Bible studies on and off for years. There was a very funny, but sort of sad, thing that happened about ten years ago with my first Bible study that I led. There were four deaf women and me and we met in my home weekly. When we got to some passages of Scripture where I knew that different ideas were held by different people regarding the meaning, I would try to explain the different ideas people had. Then, I would sign something along the lines of "My opinion, maybe first way I explain right." And then I would explain why I held that opinion and tell them that if they disagreed with me, no problem.
About six months later, my best friend who is deaf and was part of the study confronted me with "why tell your opinion? Why make up story?"
It took about fifteen minutes with her for me to realize that in this group of people in this part of California, "opinion" was, to them, something made up, like a fantasy. They could not figure why I would be telling them fantasy stories about the Bible, and it upset them.
If Heloise had not had the courage to tell me, I never would have known.
Most interpreters, certified or not, are clueless about certain localized usages of signs. I was taught sign language by Heloise, a lady totally deaf from birth. So I learned from the deaf and with the deaf.
And I still made horrid errors!
In addition, signing a sermon or anything which requires great concentration, is not like simply translation from one hearing language to another. It is waiting long enough to get the entire sentence or two, and then setting it up in picture form so that it is comprehensible by way of meaning for the deaf. This requires something called a 'lag time,' or the time between when you hear the words and when you have enough down to do the interpreting. Meanwhile you have to keep listening. It is often exhausting and professional interpreters in critical situations, such as a courtroom, often have to be replaced at 20 minute intervals. Just chatting with a deaf person is different, and I can go for hours, but actual interpreting is very hard, so there must be at least two people in any given church who work together. There should be more, as illness and such can take one away temporarily.
Today, in Sacramento, there is an all-deaf church. They finally did it for themselves, and I am really proud of them. One of my deaf friends will come home occasionally with a question and we will look it up together, Barry helping with Concordances, other translations, commentaries, etc. -- just so it is not just 'our' opinion! The pastor is a hearing man, but he has been working with the deaf for so many years now that I don't think anyone questions his abilities there.
There is a visiting deaf pastor, a man from Kentucky whose hearing daughter I taught for awhile when they lived out here.
What I have noticed is that it takes the deaf a few times longer to grasp esoteric concepts than it does a hearing person. It's not their fault. It is just so difficult to get a full concept across when there is no action/reaction involved.
Two last things come to mind. First, very VERY few congregations have enough deaf involved for an actual deaf ministry. Where I interpreted on a regular basis only had about 5-7 at any given time. I know John McArthur's church had a deaf ministry, and maybe still does, but I know the man and his wife (deaf man married to a hearing lady) who were deeply involved and they had to pull out because of both the pressure involved as well as the fact that the hearing people seem to feel that the deaf people need to be babysat and told what to do. They really resent that. They are adults, after all.
However, this does lead to the other side of the problem. They are adults, but not only are their experience and education often quite limited, a number of times deafness is accompanied by other problems -- some of them mental.
So it's just downright hard.
It's true that a lot of parents don't bother learning how to communicate effectively with their deaf children. That is another problem that comes to mind: most families with deaf members have both hearing and deaf in the family group. Which church? Two different churches? No church? A poor interpreter?
If there are deaf people in your area, and there probably are, take the time to get to know who they are and how BEST they can be served. Not just what you would like to do because it fits your skills, but what is best for them. It takes time, enormous patience and humility, and consistency.
They are used to being approached by eager signers-to-be and then dropped. They are used to being misunderstood. They are used to being left out of our world. They are even used to being betrayed in a variety of ways.
I have gone through a couple of times of burn-out, because it is exhausting and time-consuming. God bless my deaf friends who understood and allowed me to resume the close friendships when I was ready again. I have learned to pace myself a little more now, but that, too, was hard to learn in this particular area of my life.
It's hard.
It's worth it.
NE! After this and the revival this GA preacher went back home in GA. Two weeks later he got a letter from OK and found out 71 years old deaf man went with the Lord. Let me ask you Why did many hearing preachers NOT witness to DEAF people about Jesus? Or do they smell the green paper by just preaching?
