Last week we held our first workshop on Deaf culture for the hearing members of Trinity. It went really well! We were able to cover a large portion of information concerning Deaf culture, the history of the Deaf ministry at our church, our goal/prayers for the ministry, and some basic signs. Almost all of our Deaf participated in the meeting. It was great to see them not just be a body present in the room but also contribute ideas for how they would like to be communicated with, suggestions, feedback, etc. They seem to be investing in the ministry and their church. The room was set up in a circle and the deaf sat at different places around the circle, among the hearing attendees. None of the hearing attendees had a knowledge of sign language, but all had an interest in learning and ideally a willingness to help with transportation. I'm sending out a follow up email to see how many are interested serving and to what capacity. Afterwards I ordered pizza and we went downstairs to the cafe where hearing and deaf had a non-threatening opportunity to socialize using some of the communication techniques we covered in the meeting. Hopefully that also broke down some of the walls and the next time those who came to the meeting see someone in our Deaf community, they'll have a point of connection already established and feel comfortable approaching them.
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