Do you ever think how good it is that God loves people we can’t or maybe don’t? This morning I’m thankful that God loves deaf people. I’m acquainted with one or two deaf people, but close to none.
When you look across the landscape of unengaged people groups (those who have no one living among them working to reproduce disciples), many are deaf communities in otherwise engaged peoples. The broader group might be massively underserved, but the deaf community within that group has no one telling the good news of Jesus.
Mike Latsko, who heads up a cadre of people focused on seeing the remaining ~1600 unengaged people groups engaged, says, “5% of our list, that’s around 80 groups, are distinct deaf communities or peoples.”
You probably know that deaf communities have legitimate cultural identity that endures after following Jesus. On the sadder side, they also experience isolation from their broader cultural context.
So what can be done to get Jesus people sharing with pre-Jesus people who are deaf? Well, since the “Shane learns Arabic” ship has most likely sailed, I’m probably not going to learn Arabic sign language either! Further, it’s often very difficult for the non-deaf to connect at a heart level with deaf people.
Here are three encouraging signs:
An alliance of Bible translation organizations called illumiNations includes 400 sign languages on their list of translations to be finished by 2033!
Door International is translating scripture into sign languages and also training deaf people to go two by two into deaf communities around the world to plant deaf churches! 80 of these teams have been sent so far.
Finally, this simple, short, winsomevideo from the International Mission Board shows five things newbies like me need to know about Deaf Peoples.
As Ramadan begins this Monday, March 11th, please join me in praying for these ministries and the millions of deaf Muslims who’ll not hear the call to prayer nor that Jesus loves them. May someone show them soon. Please pray as well for faithful Muslim Connect reader Shelly who’s working on translating the Bible into Mexican Sign Language! Go Shelly!