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Inaugural Lay Training Program for Deaf Gospel Workers
I saw another angel. He was flying high in the air. He came to tell everyone on earth the good news
that will always be true. He told it to EVERY nation, tribe, LANGUAGE and PEOPLE (Revelation 14:6, NIrV).
In the heart of the Ozark Mountains, more than three-dozen people came to school from June 22 to June 29. Young deaf people from their twenties to their seventies came to learn how to witness for Jesus to their friends. Ozark Adventist Academy was the serene setting for Deaf Reach 2004,the first of its kind for lay training of deaf people.
The Deaf Reach 2004 training was sponsored by Adventist Deaf Ministries (ADM) with support from the North American Division of the General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.
This was the first time a week-long intensive training was developed to train Adventist deaf people on how to talk to their friends about Jesus and what He has done for sad s Lay Training Committee, chaired by Esther Doss, spent more than a year planning this event.
Thirty-seven people from all over the country came to Ozark Adventist Academy in Gentry, Arkansas. Several participants drove from neighboring states, while others flew in from all directions. In all, we had people from fifteen states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington State. One other person came from Alberta, Canada, making this a truly international event. All the participants were glad to meet old friends and make new friends as well.
The setting for Deaf Reach 2004 was at the Ozark Adventist Academy, a boarding school owned and operated by the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference. The rural school grew out of a little community church school that was first established about 1900. In time, it became Flint Creek Junior Academy and operated as a locally supported school until 1941, when it was taken over by the Conference and became Ozark Academy. In 1976 the name was changed to Ozark Adventist Academy.
Pastor Jeff Jordan and Fred Griffith were our speakers at Deaf Reach 2004. Pastor Griffith from Northern California shared his many years of experience in the ministry, witnessing about Jesus Christ with others. Griffith also taught us how to uplift Jesus with friends, saving Bible doctrines until later when the person loves Jesus and wants to follow Him all the way. Several times each day we broke out into smaller groups for discussion and prayer. Griffith also set up several skits where we would role-play as missionaries and prospects for Bible studies. We learned how to give testimonies in a way that creates a thirst in the prospects to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Pastor Jeff Jordan has been successful in bringing deaf people into the church in Atlanta, Georgia, a place where there were no Deaf Adventists. Jordan showed us how to understand and use the gifts of the Spirit that God gave us and why we need to be working for God. Jordan focused on planting new churches, beginning at people¹s homes. Jesus promised he would be with us when two or three are gathered together in His name. Jordan also gave us some interesting statistics, showing the population of deaf people, and contrasted the differences between the Seventh Day Adventist and other missionary programs. We understood that the Holy Spirit is asking us AND you to minister to our deaf friends.
On Sabbath, we continued to receive spiritual blessings from the Sabbath School lesson discussion and the sermon by Jeff Jordan. All of us were doubly blessed later that afternoon as we witnessed three ladies rededicating their lives to follow Jesus. Nearby the academy, the creek was the site of an outdoor re-baptism ceremony officiated by Pastor Fred Griffith, (from left to right in above photo) Yaneris ³Yani² Uribe (FL), Valerie J. Gordon (TN) and Marie Cadieux (CT) went beneath the watery grave and rose again all aglow ready to serve the Lord with all their hearts.
The week, while intensive, was not without some fun. The weather cooperated and the most of the bugs stayed away. The new cafeteria provided delicious and nutritious vegetarian and vegan meals that fed us energy to do a number of fun things during the afternoon and evening. Some of us stayed close by to work on jigsaw puzzles, check e-mails, surf the Internet or just walk around the campus. Some of us went to a nearby park just over the state line in Oklahoma one afternoon to hike around a waterfall. Other brave souls hiked to a nearby swimming hole and took a quick dip with one eye alert for poisonous snakes called water moccasins.
Some of us took on an ³impish² mood and played pranks with a medieval flavor on a person who spent a little too much time on the computer.
On the last full day of training, we had a pleasant visitor. Ms. Debra C. Brill, Vice President of Ministries came from the North American Division to visit with us. That afternoon after meeting each one of us personally, she sat in on the final training sessions without the aid of a voice interpreter in order to comprehend the feeling of loneliness we all have when we are among hearing people who do not sign.
Later that evening after dinner we had a closing ceremony. Debra Brill said a few words of wisdom for all of us ³graduates². Then she helped Jim and Esther hand each participant a certificate for completing Deaf Reach 2004. All of us had notebooks to store our handouts from Fred Griffith and Jeff Jordan to study after we got home.
In addition, we received many witnessing tools such as reference books, Bibles, books to share and lessons on the last day. From the Ozarks, the Lord now has an army of soul-winners ready to lead people to Christ with the three angel¹s message going to every language and people.
Valerie Gordon of TN summed up the event in these words: ³I enjoyed so much Deaf Reach 2004. I had been witnessing all the wrong way and so backwards in my past after my baptism in 1965; three years after I graduated from high school. Oh boy! What a difference. I really learned so much in witnessing to deaf people. The presentations by the Pastors [Griffith and Jordan] were very pleasant and surprisingly easy to understand. We broke up into several smaller groups to pray and share with each other, which was very uplifting. I especially benefited from the dramas to watch in [role-play] action how to witness.²
One comment from all the participants is that they want more training. ADM wants to provide another Deaf Reach with intensive seminars. This is for people who are serious about learning how to help people come to accept Jesus and His message of truth.
If you want to improve your witnessing, to get fresh ideas on how to reach out to others, or just want to learn how not to be shy about sharing God¹s love, Deaf Reach is the place for you to go.