Americorps

All I have to say is, the program may have its faults and difficulties BUT being an americorps member just paid off $4,725 of my student loans! Oh Man that is a good feeling!

Being a US-2, Americorps member, Jesuit Volunteer, any of these kind of programs not only gives you one to two years of experince right out of college (needed for most jobs) but it also pays off your student loans through educational vouchers! I encourage all undergrads to look into these programs it will change your life! peace.

Who has faith?

On sunday a well meaning hearing man took my pastor aside after church and told her that he felt sorry for the Deaf and would like to come and hold a healing service to heal them from their Deafness.

"Deaf do not have enough faith." the man said "That is why they are Deaf."

My pastor stood politley and listened to the man and then said "Sir I am Blind in one eye and have a glass eye. I have prayed many times for my eye to be healed. I went to a healing service when I was a teenager where they laid hands on me to heal my eye. I took out my eye and placed it on the altar for the lord to heal me, and I am still blind. Do I not have faith?"

The man told her that he did not want to answer that question and he insisted that she allow him to have a healing service. My pastor is wonderful and she did not want to answer for the Deaf of the church so she brought the issue up at our board meeting that day. She asked the Deaf members how they would like her to respond.

oh, man! the hands were flying!

"There is nothing wrong with our faith! We know the lord and understand God's love!"

"I like being Deaf, I don't want to be hearing!"

"He was wearing glasses! where is his faith?"

The deaf memers decided to write a letter to the man thanking him for his concern and explaining about Deaf culture and their faith.

Is God's power that limited that God can only communicate with those who can hear or do we limit God ourselves? We don't know why things happen; we don't know why people get sick, why people die, why some are blind, some have C.P, some have mental issues, some are Deaf, and some wear glasses. We don't know and that is ok. It is not our job to know, it's God's job. Our job to to understand God and love God despite our own personal issues because we better believe God loves us! =) peace

Stories

From Jan 3-14th we at Christ UMC of the Deaf hosted 16 seminary students for a Deaf culture immersion class. Two intensive weeks where we taught them all there is to know about Deaf Culture. We visited the Deaf school, we taught them sign language every morning, they visited the mental hospital and prison where we teach bible studies, they visited the MD relay center, and we had plenty of talks about issues such as CODA's (Children of Deaf Adults), parents with Deaf children, cochlear implants, Deaf with AIDS, Mental health issues, etc...

This was the second year that I have been involved with this immersion class we offer and each year I have learned a lot. I am doing the work, and I am involved with the culture but it is different when you take that information into a classroom to teach others; it is surprising how much I learned that I never knew.

one story I heard this year broke my heart. There are only two counselors in the city and pretty much the state too that know sign language and Deaf culture issues. One of those counselors came to speak about her job and things she has seen. She told this story about a young man.

She said that she had been working for a few months with a young man around 12 years old who was Deaf. The boy had hearing parents who did not learn sign language because they wanted him to be forced to lip read so that he could be "normal". The boy was having issues and the parents could not communicate with him so that brought him to the counselor. While he was in counseling he was focused on the fact that he was going to die. When the counselor asked him why he was so certain he was going to die soon he replied

"All Deaf people die before they grow up. That is why there aren't any Deaf adults"

In the parents effort to make their child hearing they had never introduced him to any Deaf adults. The boy lived in constant fear that he was going to die because his parents didn't know how to communicate with him to figure otu what was wrong.

That story isunfortunately not uncommon. Parents often want their children to be like them and they experience so much pain when their child is Deaf that they make poor decisions due to denial.

Dear God,
please be with all the families that are experincing this kind of pain. Be with all the Deaf children who think they are alone because no on ewill communicate with them. Help the hearing parents to have wisdom and make good decisions. amen.