Changes

This past week we moved the interpreted service to the 6pm service and started small group before church. Changing to the 6 pm service was beneficial on many levels. Two of our girls perpetually oversleep on Sunday morning so they will no longer have that excuse for not coming.Also, they know people that attend the pm service so now they won't be coming to a church where they feel like strangers because they attend a different service than those with whom they are familiar. Merry, too,knows more people that come in the evening- meaning I am not her only lifeline to the church community. One of my main goals is to bridge the gap between the hearing and deaf in our church. Coming to the pm service is a step in that direction. Occasionally I'll take them to dinner with us after church so they can have time to socialize and connect in a casual environment.  Transportation is an ongoing need in our ministry. The pm service is less of a commitment because, ideally, I will pick everyone up and take them to small group before church. This way whoever is serving in transportation only needs to take people home after the service. Right off the bat this idea proved unsuccessful. I had more people that wanted to come to small group and church than I could fit in my car. I feel bad asking someone to help me pick up because they have to sit at the church for an hour and a half before church starts while we have small group. Thankfully the Lord provided through Faith Riley. She has been gracious enough to pick up Merry's kids and hang out with them at church during small group. Merry was the only person who attended our first small group meeting. Amber and Ashley are out of town. I was told Lewis is in jail, and Amy moved back to Connecticut. Jerry is back in a shelter and neither of the phone numbers I have for him are connected right now. Currently in our Deaf ministry we have Ashley, Merry, Willie, and Tonya. They all wanted to come to small group and church yesterday. However, Tonya bailed at the last minute, and when I got to 5 pts to pick Willie up he wasn't there. So it was just Merry and me. I was disappointed at first but I prayed about it and remembered the Lord's plan for the evening had not changed. He knew all along who was going to be there, and all I'm asked to do is show up and be faithful to what He has called me to do. That being said, small group was a huge "success!” It was wonderful to have space for Merry and I to dialogue in an environment without any pressure. I had decided to take 6 weeks and go over the order of service: what we do and why we do it. Last night we discussed worship. Worship is more than just the words we sing. Every Sunday during worship we say "we will continue worship through the reading of the Word," but what does that mean? We talked about worship being like a conversation- the time we talk back to God in response to what we have heard from Him through the reading of His Word. Reading scripture is the part of conversation where He speaks to us, worship is our response. I've never had the opportunity to explain that when I sign "Thanks be to God," this is something the whole congregation echoes in unison. To our deaf people it looks like another thing I'm interpreting that someone on the stage said. We walked through why we say that, that it is a call and response, etc. Then we read the 4 scripture text from the lectionary yesterday. First, I read the scripture aloud (signed it) then I passed the Bible to Merry and she read/signed it. If small group happened for no other reason, it'd be worth the time and effort because she read the scripture aloud. When it is read in the service a lot of times the deaf people aren't in the sanctuary yet. (This I addressed last night. Having small group and time for them to eat/drink during it should remedy this, allowing them to be in the whole service and not come in 15 min late every week.) Sometimes they are distracted and the scripture reading is done before they have "heard" a word of it. By having Merry read it, she is digests it. We stopped several times and she would ask me what certain words meant. And, when she was finished reading a text, we talked about what the scripture itself was saying to us. Powerful. Another major advantage to small group was that there are several signs I have assumed Merry (and our other deaf people) know. There hasn't been the space for them to question what certain religious signs mean. It's like being in a college level science class, you may know English but that doesn't mean you know what every scientific term means. For a year and a half I have been interpreting for her, and last night she asked me what the sign "praise" meant. This small group time is going to give us the opportunity to break down scripture, concepts, and define language. Sometimes it's as simple as my signing something differently than you do. Neither one is wrong but, depending on where you grew up or were taught, you may sign a word differently. It's like slang or an accent. You may be saying the same words but have a different way of pronouncing them. I now know how she signs "life" and I can choose to sign it the way she does. Also, now that we've compared how I sign it, she will know what I mean the next time she sees it. Over the next few weeks we will discuss confession of sin, exchanging the peace, communion, tithing, and prayer. I'm looking forward to seeing how this deepens their understanding and increases their participation in the service.

Thank you for your prayers and support.