“We’re seeing exciting things happening, and we hope to keep offering resources for both the deaf and the hearing to understand the challenges of ministry for this unique group,” said Larry Evans, an associate Stewardship Ministries director, who has long promoted mission to deaf people and currently helps the denomination coordinate this outreach effort. “Only about 2 percent of deaf people are Christian,” he added. “We need to be talking more about reaching this unreached people group.”
The development of resources to deaf people includes a new Web site with sections for both people who are deaf and people who hear.
Deaf people are often isolated from the typical sources of spiritual teaching and encouragement. When they are members of a hearing church, they are often not included in most church activities, including church leadership. Some practices at deaf congregations are noticeably different—heads are not bowed during prayer, hymns aren’t sung but signed, and applause is replaced by a waving of hands.
Evans and others, including North American Division vice president Debra Brill, have continually pushed the denomination to understand how to better minister to deaf people. Summertime camp meetings for deaf people have been held in the United States for more than three decades. Earlier in 2014, a school for deaf students was opened in Kenya that serves 18 students. Also, in April 2014, 75 people from several countries throughout Europe held a conference for the deaf people in Germany. And in Brazil, more than 1,200 people attended a deaf camp meeting in November.
In areas lacking a coordinated approach to deaf ministry, church members can think of ways to include deaf people in church services and leadership, said Esther Doss of the Three Angels Deaf Ministries. “Make friends with deaf people and interact with them,” Doss said. “We don’t have to worry about making a mistake—they’re used to it.” She added that churches can train or hire a sign-language interpreter to help the deaf people feel more welcomed. “Use your imagination a little bit, think how to make the environment more accessible.”
Many proponents of the ministry say more resources are needed, including a ministry training center to train deaf pastors and Bible workers. In 1996, Jeff Jordan became the first deaf Adventist to earn a master of divinity degree from the Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He now pastors the Southern Deaf Fellowship, an online church based in Tennessee. Jordan said church employees working in full-time deaf ministry are few. “We need more workers to help finish the great commission given to us by Jesus,” he said.
In the meantime, at least one more worker is becoming ready for service. Brazil’s first deaf Adventist pastor, Douglas Silva, will graduate from seminary shortly.
For more information about Adventist Deaf Ministries, visit adventistdeaf.org. [Ansel Oliver/ANN]
Adventists celebrate religious freedom in Papua New Guinea
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea—Thousands of people from various Christian denominations marched in the capital of Papua New Guinea on Friday, December 5, 2014, in an Adventist-organized celebration of the religious freedom that they enjoy on the South Pacific island nation.
The march capped a major symposium on religious freedom hosted by the Adventist-affiliated International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) on the campus of Pacific Adventist University and attended by government officials and the leaders of a number of religious faiths.
Leigh Rice, president of the Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea, said Adventists participating in the march were saying “thank you” for a freedom that they do not take for granted. “We know many of our members around the world live under enormous pressure,” Rice told a rally following the march in Port Moresby. “How wonderful that this nation grants freedom to us, and not just to us, but to a broad range of religious practices.”
A senior Roman Catholic clergyman, Victor Roche, compared Papua New Guinea (PNG) with other countries beset with religious violence and illustrated his point by mentioning the 28 Christians, including at least 8 Adventists, who were killed by Islamic extremists in Kenya. “We must be thankful,” Roche told the crowd. “In PNG, if we want to worship on Sunday, we can. If we want to worship on Saturday, we can. If we are Muslim and want to worship on Friday, we can.”
He implored the crowd to pray that the freedom continued unabated.
The International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) intends to play a role in securing that freedom by opening a local chapter. The government of Papua New Guinea is giving the new chapter a grant of 10,000 kina (US$3,900) to help it get started. “We need to expand the religious liberty movement in PNG,” Delilah Gore, Papua New Guinea’s minister for religion, youth, and community development, said in announcing the grant during the religious symposium on Thursday. “Even though PNG is a predominantly Christian nation, we have non-Christian religions coming here. A new chapter of the IRLA will help us peacefully and sustainably manage our growing religious diversity.”
The chapter will be coordinated by Sir Gibbs Selika, deputy chief justice of the country’s Supreme Court and a Seventh-day Adventist. He said he looked forward to learning from other IRLA chapters around the world. “We can learn from each other, and together we will be strong,” Sir Selika said.
John Graz, secretary general of IRLA and religious liberty director at the world headquarters of the Adventist Church, said that the promotion of religious freedom through strong national chapters was vital in responding to a growth of violent religious extremism and other restrictions on faith. “We hope that this first chapter in the South Pacific will be the first of many in the region,” Graz said.
Bienvenido V. Tejano, Philippine ambassador to Papua New Guinea, spoke passionately to the rally on Friday about the advancement of religious freedom in his own country after Graz instigated a Philippine chapter of the IRLA. Students were barred from taking national exams on any day other than Saturday at the time, and the IRLA chapter aimed to change that. “Today students have the opportunity to take exams on a day that does not violate their conscience,” Tejano said. “This is the practical difference religious freedom makes.” [James D. Standish/Adventist Review staff]
