Hands On Wednesday and Thursday

Bradley Showed off his interpreting skills by opening the evening devotions during a bible drama put on by MYE.

Thursday Night, Hands On participants had the opportunity to experience what it would be like to be Deaf Blind. They used masks and ear plugs and then took turns leading each other around to different crafts and games. Alexa and Kalena tried to practice tactile signing while Colin helped Craig draw.

Brian's mask was the funniest although all the masks had their own flavor.

During the work day Bo Jangles hung out on the couch while the green group finished up the living room they were working on.

Kathleen and others used their creativity to add decorative embellishments to the walls.

The Pink team smiled for the camera on their lunch break. DeAndre, on of the youth from Christ UMC of the Deaf, worked with the group all week.

The pink team poses for the camera.

The yellow team spent the day trimming bamboo. Before they came home they decided to make walking sticks, out of the bamboo, for all the participants.

Carl, Heidi and Parker enjoy their lemonade while using their bamboo straws.

Hands On Tuesday

Tuesday Night the group played "The Game Of Life" Envelopes, consisting of a name tag and fake money, were handed out to each player and they were told to "succeed". The game simulated the daily struggles of people from differing socio-economic, gender, and race backgrounds.

Players lined up at different instituions trying to obtain jobs, money, material goods, and educations.

Craig was lucky, while everyone else was struggling to succeed money seemed to fall on him out of the sky.

During the day Brian decided to draw a representation of Carl's rabbit riding habbit. I thought it was great!

Hands On participants have the opportunity to leave daily reflections on the cork board upstairs.

The Green team continued to work on a Deaf Woman's home and in keeping with the youth tradition, they too were covered in paint!

When Brian isn't drawing on paper he spends his time painting on walls! The Blue team worked very hard to prepare the walls in their home for paneling. They spent more time preparing and cleaning then it will probably take to apply the paneling. They are really making a difference for the Deaf man who lives there. Tom cut the paneling while John and Brian helped.It seems as though the participants and the Deaf community are all having a great time!

Hands On 2008 Sunday and Monday

Hands On 2008 started on Sunday July 6, with 30 participants from 3 different churches and church groups. This year we are proud to have Birmingham UMC, Metro Youth Encounter, and Sandusky UMC. Sandusky UMC participated last year for our first Hands On year and the other two groups are brand new. After attending the noon service at Christ UMC of the Deaf the group checked into their dorms at UMBC and headed off to Patapsco State Park. After burgers and hotdogs the group got together and played the elephant game with members of the Christ UMC's Deaf youth group. After dinner everyone headed back to the vans to relax at UMBC before a long hard day of work and Sign Language classes.

Monday morning began with ASL class with Carol Stevens; during the class participants were given their own sign name while learning the ASL alphabet. After class everyone broke into the Pink, Yellow, Blue, Green, and Purple groups and left UMBC for their work day.

The Purple group spent the day working on the Sanctuary at Christ UMC of the Deaf. They brought supplies down from a recent roofing job, hung drywall, and moved furniture. During lunch the group took time to pratice their Sign Language skills by playing the name game with their new sign names.

The Yellow group traveled the furthest and spend the day painting the home of a Deaf couple. As with most Youth group missin trips, it was not really clear if more paint ended up on the walls or the youth.

During lunch Carl took the opportunity to pretend like he was riding a rabbit while doing his name sign. It has been great spending time with my brother Baltimore.

Just like last year the groups spent one of the first nights watching the PBS special "Through Deaf Eyes". At the end of the night Christ UMC's intern led evening devotions and then the group headed back to UMBC for games and some much needed sleep.

Please pray for the participants of Hands On and keep them in your thoughts this week!

Stay tuned...more to come

Things I have learned about being disabled, since I had knee surgery...

1. Just because your handicap bathroom has support bars DOES NOT MEAN IT IS HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE! If you can't fit a wheelchair in the stall...IT IS NOT HANDICAP!

2. Crutches are fun for about 3 min... then they are not fun ever ever again.

3. If your resturant has an elevator but it is filled with garbage and you wont let people use it... YOUR RESTURANT IS NOT HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE!

4. Everyone has the best of intentions... but no! I do not need your help in the bathroom stall!

5. Carrying things is not easy! Thank you Anna for teaching me the hip bump move!

6. Hershy park has motorized wheelchairs you can rent. (I learned this after Andrew pushed me around for the whole day... Sorry Andrew!)

7. Spiral stairs are not easy when you only have one leg to use.

8. Everyone is super nice and wants to hold doors for you or help you carry thing outside. (YEA! HUMANITY!)

9. Doors are HEAVY! It is VERY hard to open doors when you are on crutches!!!

10. The threat of fires is much more scary! I have no idea how I would get out of my house if there were a fire.

that is it for now! I will update this more as I think of more things to add! Peace.

Deaf Shalom Zone receives Volunteer service award from the Governor

The Governor's Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing nominated the Deaf Shalom Zone, Inc. for the Governor's Volunteer Service Award and out of 300 applicants the DSZ was picked! This was a great honor for the DSZ! About 50 of the 300 were chosen to receive this prestigious award. The Volunteer Service Award ceremony was held on earth day. Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown stated that earth day was a very appropriate day to honor Maryland's volunteers because volunteers help to better our earth in everyway. Thank you to everyone who attended the awards ceremony to show support to the Deaf Shalom Zone and a special thanks to the Governor's Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing for thinking that the DSZ was worth nominating! The DSZ exists through great volunteers and friends like yourselves! peace.

*Disclaimer* Jesus fish tattoos are cool too!

A few months ago I covered up my jesus fish tattoo with a tattoo of a sankofa bird. I did not do this becuase I wanted to cover up jesus-which would not have worked anyways since you can still see the jesus fish underneath the sankofa bird tattoo but that is a different image for a different post- but instead, because in an act of vanity I did not want to have the same tattoo as many of my friends.

Now when people see the tattoo on my foot instead of saying "Oh, a jesus fish huh?" they say "why do you have a chicken tattoo on your foot?" This second question sparks conversation and that is something I cherish. After this question I would fly through the Wikipedia definition of a sankofa bird.

"The concept of SANKOFA is derived from King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Afrika. SANKOFA is expressed in the Akan language as "se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki."
Literally translated it means "it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot".
"Sankofa" teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone or been stripped of, can be reclaimed, revived, preserved and perpetuated.
Visually and symbolically "Sankofa" is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg (symbolizing the future) in its mouth."

Then I would finish with "See! It is NOT a chicken!"

Recently an important person in my life introduced me to a great Ben Harper song called "How many miles must we march" As I was listening to the song this morning I realized that it describes the exact reasoning for my tattoo. From now on I am going to keep copies of the song in my purse so that when people ask me about my chicken tattoo I can hand them the song.

What a blessing it is to be able to view Christianity in so many ways! peace.

Ben Harper - How Many Miles Must We March Lyrics

Exactly how much will have to burn

before we will look to the past to learn.

We walk along this endless path which has led us in a circle.

So here we are right back we can't let the future become our past.

If we are to change the world,

won't you tell me, tell me please,

how many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

When I was a baby,

I was not prejudiced,

hey how about you?

This was something that I learned in school,

something they taught us to do.

We can't let the future become our past.

If we are to change the world,

won't you tell me, tell me please,

how many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

There must come a day

when a box is not somebody's home.

The unfinished work of our heroes must truly be our own.

We can't let the future become our past.

If we are to change the world,

won't you tell me, tell me please,

how many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

How many miles must we march?

Live B.I.G

Last year in December I wrote an entry about our Christmas pagent at church. The group that came to video tape our production was Live B.I.G. Live B.I.G is a United Methodist Curriculum and can be purchased at cokesbury. We are obviously featured in this time of advent as we prepare for christmas. For more information you can go to http://ilivebig.com/

Merry Christmas!
Mary

Pay... Pay AT...PAY ATTEN... PAY ATTENTION!... what was I saying?

This semester I have been working with my pastor Rev. Peggy Johnson at Maryland School for the Deaf. Every tuesday afternoon we drive to Columbia and teach religious education to those Deaf kids whose parents give them permission to participate. The class consists of around twenty five kids ranging from age 4-15 years old. Peggy teaches the older kids and I agreed to teach the two 4 year olds.

Peggy and the other volunteers tried to include the two youngest with the older kids the first week but it didn't prove successful. I joined the seecond week when Peg said she needed help and in the back of my head I thought "OH, cute little 4 year old Deaf hands signing things like God, and Jesus, and The wonderful love of my blessed redeemer way down in the depths of my heart!"

What is wrong with me?? I have counseled for two years now at Deaf Kids camp what planet was I living on?

The first week I felt successful just keeping them from pulling out the cords in Peggy's computer. The second week I took them outside and we played on the swings. I told myself that it was still Christian education because I was showing them Christ's love. The third week I felt guilty so I tried to teach them that God had created the World. I brought little toy earth balls to give them and the lesson went like this:

First I chased them around for ten minutes to get them to sit down, then I gave them the earth balls (Bad idea), then while they (of course) were staring at the toys I had just given them I tried to get their attention. Just for those of you who have never tried to get the attention of a Deaf four year old, it is basically like trying to get the attention of a hyperactive fly.

I signed:

"pay!"...then they would look away.."pay At!"...then they would look away..."PAY ATTEN!"...then they would look away..."PAY ATTENTION!"... by this point I was not signing pay attention anymore I was instead doing that Robert Deniro thing from Meet the Parents where you hold up two fingers, glare at them and point at your eyes and then their eyes.

Then once I had ten seconds of continuous attention I signed "God made the world." and I pointed at the toy while they looked at me confused and I realized they didn't know the sign for God or who God was so to them it look like I had given them a toy, made them not look at it, and then signed "Blwasek(insert any made up word here) made toy."

By the end of the semester we had worked with their mom to implement a behavior management plan that worked (HALELUIAH!) and the two Deaf hyperactive four year old angels knew that God made the world, Jesus was God's son, Christmas was Jesus's birthday, and that God was more important than food, fish, cars, toys, etc..

God was present in the whole process, teaching me to teach more effectively using videos and games and rewards. God was in the glue that they would use to make a ridiculously awful mess while watching the videos because they needed to be doing something in order to concentrate and God was in my hands and theirs. Thanks be to God!

I am still amazed everyday at how God Can communicate without langauge in so many ways. The class is over now until after Christmas break. We start teaching again in January. If anyone has any good ideas that are simple and use little verbal or signed communication to express christian ideals I would greatly appreciate the help! Merry Christmas All!

Bread and Justice

O God, just as the disciples heard Christ's words of promise and began to eat the bread and drink the wine in the suffering of a long remembrance and in the joy of a hope, grant that we may hear your words spoken in each thing of everyday affairs:
Coffee, on our table in the morning;
the simple gesture of opening a door to go out, free;
the shouts of children in the parks;
a fimilar song, sung ny an unfimiliar face;
a friendly tree that has not yet been cut down.
May simple things speak to us of your mercy, and tell us that life can be good.
And may these sacrmental gifts make us remember those who do not recieve them:
Who have their lives cut every day, in the bread absent from the table;
in the door of the hospital, the prison, the welfare homethat does not open;
in sad children, feet without shoes, eyes without hope;
in war hymns that glorify death;
in deserts where once there was life.
Christ was also sacrificed; and may we learn that we participate in the saving sacrifice of Christ when we participate in the suffering of his little ones. Amen.

Rubem Alves, Brazil, 20th cent.
the United Methodist Hymnal pg. 639

A silent Shout out about HIV/AIDS

This is an article currently on the Global Ministries website about my friend Harry. Some of you have heard me talk about how devastating HIV/AIDS is to the Deaf community. enjoy!

Over the past 26 years much has been reported about the rising cases of HIV/AIDS in the US and abroad. However, there’s little known about an extraordinary group of survivors that gather a few times a year at the Quality of Life retreat in Baltimore Md.—the community of the Deaf. Raising awareness with a hand sign and openly discussing their personal journeys of living with HIV/AIDS, this program offers encouragement and hope.
The Quality of Life retreat is a special project of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, and the General Board of Global Ministries’ Health and Welfare unit provides additional support. The retreat, open to everyone hearing and Deaf, empowers participants with life strategies that help them live with HIV/AIDS. The program is facilitated by The Deaf Shalom Zone Inc., Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf, Baltimore, Md."My experience at the Quality of Life retreat was so great. It helped me to find myself, my inner place, my spiritual home, my peace, my purpose in life,” so signed Rev. Harry Woosley, Jr., the leader of the Deaf AIDS community in Baltimore. “I want to help others to find life like I have,” he continued.Harry was sponsored and provided with interpreters to attend the retreat and is educating three high risk groups about AIDS— Deaf-blind people, a group of Deaf inner-city young people, and Deaf people living in group homes.
A Safe Place
The retreat offers a safe, loving environment in which participants can be themselves, free of fears and inhibitions and can openly discuss their deepest concerns and challenges about living with HIV/AIDS. The retreat offers an opportunity for participants to get away, interact with other HIV-positive individuals and learn effective techniques and attitudes for long-term survival.
Currently, there are an estimated 24,000 culturally Deaf individuals in Baltimore and 300 are reported Deaf AIDS cases. “HIV/AIDS cases are four times higher in the Deaf community than in the hearing community,” according to Carol Stevens, coordinator of The Deaf Shalom Zone. This fact alone demands society’s attention to this often overlooked community.
Case Managers at Work
Agencies that provide services to hearing individuals are often inaccessible to the Deaf, therefore, The Deaf Shalom Zone includes case management services to help the complicated needs of Deaf people living with HIV/AIDS. Case managers help secure individuals who have contracted the disease but have no health insurance, medical care, medication or financial support. Case managers are often the shepherds through the process until individuals gain independence.
The Quality of Life retreats and case management services for Deaf people with HIV/AIDS are just another example of how UMC gifts go to work.

Hands On Closing celebration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A46m4vxuv20

Hands On last 3 days

Port Huron counselors pose on the steps of the church.









Carol and Colin signing something... I have no clue what though. =)










Everyone creating a work of art for the Shalom Zone office.










Jacob with his Crab Hat

Painting at the Synder's

Me and my dadoo.

Hands On day 4

Last night after a day of hard work Mrs. Laurie invited the group over for a BBQ and a pool party.








The Kids had a good time playing around in the pool.

When we came back to the church the choir members sat down and acted as a Deaf Panel. Hands On participants got the opportunity to ask any questions they had about Deafness and Deaf culture. After the panel the choir sang 3 songs and did a bible drama.

Today after sign language class the groups got back to work on their projects at the church. One group worked to paint the new good pantry.

The Pantry group discusses they course of action.

Jennifer had fun painting the sanctuary. She volunteered to paint the tall peak.

Two other groups went out to work in Deaf church members homes. One group was moving a demolished Shed onto a truck and out to the dump. Another group was working at our choir director's home varnishing a porch. More photos to come tomorrow.

Hands On first 3 days

Saturday afternoon the group from Port Huron arrived around noon and went to the ice cream cottage for lunch after a long drive. Sandusky arrived a short while afterward and the week offically began.








Carol Stevens began the week with the first introduction to Deaf culture while I interpreted to give them an idea of what interpreting looked like.







Heidi and Bobbi watched with tired eyes after leaving at 4am to arrived in time.








Later in the afternoon we practiced the bible drama for the next day. "When a soilder tells you to carry their pack for a mile, carry it for two."





Later that evening we experienced "Fun Drum Rhythm Circles" with the Baltimore Association of the Deaf Blind group. Kathy had a blast and danced away to the beat.








Sunday evening after a long morning of Sign Language classes, Deaf Bible study, Church services, and Deaf community lunch, We sat down to watch "Through Deaf Eyes" a PBS special about Deaf culture that features our church.




On the first work day (Monday) Bobbi takes down an old speaker that was left from the previous hearing congregation.










Maggie and Katrina spent their time prying up old shelves and cleaning out a hallway to make way for the new food pantry.




Things are going well so far. We are learning lots and sharing together. We are looking forward to the next 4 days.

Our last trip to New York

Recently I spent a week in New York debriefing about what has happened over these past two years as a US-2. It was great to see all my friends who have been spread all over the country. We sat in our New York home, ate our Magnolia cupcakes and talked and talked and talked. We all had a rewarding time as US-2's and can't believe that our time is up. Beth in Jackson, MS will be leaving her placement site but staying in Jackson and working at a YMCA as their aquactic director. Tiffany Stanely who was placed in Denver, CO will be leaving her site and state to travel to Harvard Divinity School on a full-ride (YOU GO TIFFANY!) Laura Ralston who was placed in Albuquerque, NM will be leaving her site at Saranam but stayig in the area and taking on a full-time youth leader position at her local church. Bre McFarland will be staying in Nome, AK and working as a probation officer. Josh Gray, Sarah Reynolds, and Laura McDowell-Bensman are all currently searching for their next adventure.

I will be staying in Baltimore at the Deaf Shalom Zone. I have been recently hired to serve for the next 6-10 years as their Church and Community Worker, another Missionary sent from the GBGM. I am very excited to continue my ministry here at the Deaf Shalom Zone.

As one of my projects as the Development Director I created a mission week called "Hands On" our first annual Hands On week will begin August 11-18 2007. I am very excited about this new program and cant wait to post pictures of all the participants at work!

While in New York the GBGM taped Podcasts of us US-2's talking about our ministries during the past two years. If you click on the link http://new.gbgm-umc.org/work/missionaries/podcasts/index.cfm?i=13011 you can listen to my podcast. and others.

Also Tiffany wrote a great article abotu our journey as US-2's which is on the GBGM homepage the link to that article is as follows http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=4615 Please check it for more information on the US-2 class I was a part of.
More to come soon!! peace.