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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Learn and Share

Joel Moutray

Sean Wycliffe

01 - How to Bridge Business with Ministry

Dan Serns

02 - How Literally Anyone Can Share Their Faith

Allen Lloyd

03 - How to Defeat Depression and Thrive

Clive Coutet

04 - How to Get Started as a Christian Creative

Frank Hasel

Esther Louw

05 - How to Deal with Suffering and Loss

Israel Ramos

06 - How to Survive and Grow on a University Campus

Michael Hasel

07 - How to Know God’s Will for Your Life

Alistair Huong

08 - How to Lose Your Debt and Save Your Life

Aubrey Seiler

Seth Shaffer

09 - How Faith and Farming Intersect

Chris Matts

10 - How to Actually Use Social Media for God

Michelle Arthur

11 - How to Reach the Deaf

Karen Glassford

12 - How to be Involved in Adventist Missions

Micheal Goetz

13 - How to Preach with Excellence

George Jackson

14 - How You Can Make an Impact in the Middle East

Clifford Goldstein

16 - How to Excel as a Christian Writer

Though there are records of deaf communities dating as far back as ancient Egypt, they are still to this day a largely misunderstood and unreached people.

Hi, I'm Joel Moutry and you're listening to the Learn and Share podcast.

In today's episode, I speak with Michelle Arthur about reaching the deaf for Christ.

Thank you so much for joining me, Michelle.

We're excited that you're here on the podcast because today we're gonna be talking about something that I don't even know that much about and that is the deaf community and American Sign Language or ASL.

Now, of course, I've met people, there's people at my churches that I've seen and I see people at GYC doing sign language.

I don't know any sign language, but I think it's an overlooked, almost like a people group, a community within America.

But first tell us just briefly how you got involved with the community of the deaf and what your passions are.

I started learning sign language when I was 4 years old and I took like a homeschool class.

There were several kids that got together.

1 of the moms was an interpreter and she taught it and ever after that I was interested.

My first year of college, first semester, I took American Sign Language ASL 1 and just as an elective I didn't plan to do anything with it but my teacher sat me down and said you're catching on to this quickly you should become an interpreter And I was flattered but didn't think much more of it.

But the more I learned about Deaf culture, just as my own hobby kind of and passion, the more convicted I felt that God was calling me to this mission field.

And right to here in America, I felt that he was not calling me overseas so much as right here.

So I started learning, and here I am today.

Tell us a little bit about the demographic, and maybe some statistics or numbers that you might have that would help us understand what the size of this community is and what the great need is to help people in the area of learning.

Yeah, that's always a little difficult question.

People want to know how many deaf people are in America.

The number that I've most recently heard is maybe 2000000, but it's hard to know.

Some people don't identify as deaf even if they can't hear.

Some people identify as deaf even if they can hear a little bit.

So there's there's a lot of cultural implications to the word deaf Tell us about the history.

I know we talked about this before the interview Fascinating history and how really they have been suppressed and it's been a difficult journey for those who have a hard of hearing.

Yeah, so of course deafness has been around for thousands of years.

In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh used to employ deaf people because they could not eavesdrop on him.

Yeah, just kind of a little tidbit there.

But as far as deaf history, yes, there's been a lot of oppression and a lot of abuse.

And nowadays, they're starting to come out of some of that.

The deaf community is starting to be more like, hey, this isn't fair, and we can actually advocate for ourselves.

1 of my favorite parts about American Sign Language and the history of it is watching how it coincides with the Advent movement.

I was super excited when I learned about that in college.

So for many centuries, sign language was looked down upon by the majority of the hearing world.

They thought that it was not a real language or that people that used it were not as intelligent.

As the years went by, different deaf schools started to pop up.

And at first, they were oral schools, but then they became sign schools.

And by the 1830s, 40s, the schools really started to promote sign language in the schools.

The classrooms were built in ways that the floor was wooden, so the deaf students could feel the vibration if the teacher needed to get their attention.

The seating was kind of like theater seats, so that they could all see the front very easily.

The lighting was such that they could easily see, and they were built very sign-friendly.

And the golden age of sign language happened right about the same time as the Advent movement started.

So around the whole 1844, when the first angels message is really going out, That's when the golden age is happening and like 80% of deaf schools were signing schools instead of oral schools.

And then a tragic thing happened, the Milan conference in 1880 and many teachers from different countries got together and decided actually sign language is bad, we don't like it, we don't want it in the schools and they kind of went back to that, oh this is animalistic, this is not good.

And so the tide changed and 80% of schools now were oral schools instead of signing schools.

So sign language has had its struggles since then.

And 1965 William Stoke published a linguistic study, the first 1 of its kind, showing that ASL is a real language and has its own grammar and sentence structure and is very intelligent.

And ever since then, sign language has been on the rise again.

People respecting it more people learning it more just in time for guess what the third angels message I think that's fascinating how you know when there was a the Great Enlightenment They call it, you know back in the 1800s when people all over around the world Not only the admin movement, but even other religions There were people in all different parts of the world proclaiming that Jesus was coming again Lo and behold God set that up for the deaf community to also hear that message or to see it or to see it Actually, that's true Not to hear it but to see it through sign language But then again, there was oppression And then now we believe also God has gonna bring up another message for us to share.

And God is bringing up, not only in the spiritual community, But the secular community to raise up awareness about the deaf community.

I think that's so beautiful how God cares about everyone Even those who are hard of hearing and just to me that has been the most You know encouraging and telling me personally Jesus must be coming soon because look at what's happening in the deaf community, you know.

Let's talk about the language itself for a little bit.

I don't know any sign language except for maybe the stereotypical I love you sign.

Is it letters and words like we do you know Are there accents, you know, can you tell where people are from?

Just tell us a little bit about the language because this is new to me and it's new to many of our listeners.

So American Sign Language came from French sign, so it's very different than British sign or Australian sign, you couldn't use it over there.

And yes, there are accents, You sign with someone from up north and they sign very fast.

And I read a book where the guy said it looked like there was syrup dripping off his hands.

Yeah that's that's that's really interesting as well because I've noticed that you know being at a meeting or 1 others different people that assign differently.

Is there any work being done for the deaf community within Christianity?

I know that there's a there's a rise of awareness in the secular spheres, but what is being done for them religiously and even within Adventism Within Adventism there is 3 angels deaf ministries and Esther Doss has a lot to do with that.

She's helped to set it up and there are a lot of some deafness interpreters that are involved in that.

The general conference has more recently become aware of the need.

There is also in the Deaf youth and they have their own conference.

So that's pretty exciting As far as Adventism though, we have been kind of slow to pick up on it.

The Jehovah's Witness have gotten us very beat So the deaf community is more aware of them than some of the Amnesty We've talked a lot about the great need to reach countries that are unreached for the gospel, like they call the 1040 window, you know, the Middle East and Asia, where there's low percentages of Christians to the ratio of people that live in those countries.

You know, is it is it something people think I want to be a missionary to Asia?

I want to be a missionary to Africa and be a missionary to to to Russia or whatnot Do we need missionaries in this community as well?

Yes The 1040 window of America is the deaf community.

It's about 1-2% Christian and those who are not Christian are generally pretty prejudiced.

They have generally viewed God as the God of the hearing, not of the deaf.

And they don't necessarily realize they can pray and sign that God will understand that.

They don't really feel like Christianity is necessarily accepting of them as deaf people and many times that comes from parents who have been grief-stricken over having a deaf child and they take them to a faith healer and the faith healer bonks them over the head and nothing happens and they think well this Christianity thing is pretty dumb.

I see too that there's also not prejudice in areas where hearing people would have prejudice like if you tell a deaf person I'm a Seventh-day Adventist.

They don't know that apart from anything else.

And so to them, they're not automatically prejudiced because you said Seventh-day Adventist or because you told them this book is by Ellen White.

You know, they don't, that doesn't mean anything to them.

What are some things that, that there's obviously a great need and there's a need for missionaries, there's a need for people to be reached in this community.

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11 - How to Reach the Deaf

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Other Teachings in Series

01 - How to Bridge Business with Ministry

29m

02 - How Literally Anyone Can Share Their Faith

45m

03 - How to Defeat Depression and Thrive

37m

04 - How to Get Started as a Christian Creative

35m

05 - How to Deal with Suffering and Loss

27m

06 - How to Survive and Grow on a University Campus

27m

07 - How to Know God’s Will for Your Life

21m

08 - How to Lose Your Debt and Save Your Life

28m

09 - How Faith and Farming Intersect

30m

10 - How to Actually Use Social Media for God

28m

11 - How to Reach the Deaf

22m

12 - How to be Involved in Adventist Missions

24m

13 - How to Preach with Excellence

32m

14 - How You Can Make an Impact in the Middle East

36m

16 - How to Excel as a Christian Writer

29m

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