A man is standing in the crowds at Winter Jam (a Christian concert) worshipping along with thousands of other brother’s and sister’s in Christ. Then something caught his attention, causing him to stop worshipping and see what is going on. He sees that several girls down below are worshipping to God in sign language.
(Meet Sammi, one of the girls that was signing beautifully and praising to our amazing God.)
What does he do? He goes down there, where the girls are and ask their interpreter what is wrong. The interpreter explains that the girls can’t hear, they are Deaf.
The man immediately thinks, “I can heal these people.” He tells the interpreter, “Can I pray for their ears?”
Instead of them getting upset over it and avoiding what he says, Sammi goes up to him. She puts her mouth close to his ear and says, “Thank you so much for offering to pray and it’s so grateful you step up to offer!! It’s so beautiful but please! Let us be Deaf! Let us use this beautiful language God have given us to spread the gospel to other Deaf people because there are so many Deaf people who doesn’t even know God and if you heal us, who could reach out to them?! Thank you so much but please pray for us to reach out to them!”
He responds back and says, “That is great! Sorry to bother you.”
This story was experienced by my best friend, Sammi. This kind of story happens quite often to them.
I am, also, one of them.
Growing up, I have always had people tell me that they want to pray for my ears, they want to heal my ears through Christ. In high school, I wanted to be healed. I wanted to be hearing. I hated getting made fun of all the time, I hated being treated like I was different. When people ask me if they could heal me rather getting to know me, I felt worthless. I never got a chance to love for who I was because not very many people gave me that chance.
Then I went to college.
The Deaf culture was well known at the university I went to, Rochester Institute of Technology. I remember the first day I arrived to RIT, I was welcomed into a room full of Deaf people. They all had this different look on them, nothing I have ever seen before. They looked very confidence, they looked joyful. They looked like they truly loved themselves.
Through my college years, my friends taught me to truly love myself. They helped me built confidence. They showed me that being Deaf does not define me.
I am worthy. I am enough. I am a child of God. It doesn’t get any better than that.
In Nepal, during the soaking prayer, a man came up to me and told me that he was going to heal me. I said, “No, thank you”. But he still tried to heal me and nothing happened because I don’t want it to happen. At that moment, I realized that I choose not to be healed because I have a purpose for this. God gave me this gift, yes my Deafness is a gift, and I want to use it.
While being on the race, I learned that I have a huge passion for the Deaf culture. I told the Lord that I want to use that passion while on the race. I want to reach out to other Deaf people in Asia Amazingly, He gave me that opportunity this month in Vietnam.
This month, one of the teams from my squad is working at a cafe, Happy Heart cafe. Most of the employees there are Deaf. I will be honest, I was upset that I wasn’t a part of their ministry because the one thing I really wanted to do on the race was to work with Deaf people. But I prayed about it and asked the Lord to give me a chance to reach out to them. I got a chance to stop by at the cafe last minute, while I was there I was completely loved by a woman who is a manager there. She found out that I knew American Sign Language and asked me if I could teach a ASL class at the cafe three times a week this month. Without a hesitation, I said yes. I was so happy and praised the Lord for allowing me to work with them this month. The employees there are so beautiful and wonderful.
(Happy Heart Cafe in Vietnam, a place where people can love one another wholly through Christ.)
Now, I am so thankful and so glad that one of our team is working with them. Because they will/get a chance to see how beautiful the Deaf are. They will get a chance to see that they are a gift from God, not a mistake.
“Let us use this beautiful language God have given us to spread the gospel to other Deaf people because there are so many Deaf people who doesn’t even know God and if you heal us, who could reach out to them?!”
I chose not to be healed because I want to be one of those people that goes out to the nations to reach other Deaf people and spread God’s love to them. All they need is your love. Not your judgements. Most of us don’t care that we can’t hear, all we care is that we are loved. Let us be joyful, let us be proud of ourselves. Let us love others through our gifts, let us be beautiful.
Most important, let us be Deaf.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for healing people. In fact, I’ve seen lots of healing while on the race, its a very beautiful thing. That is one of God’s gifting, its a remarkable gift. Just take a moment get to know them before quickly wanting to heal them, you may never know what you will find through their story. Everyone has a powerful story, the good and the bad.
