Dream come true!

I will be doing sign language, with my deaf friend Monique Christiansen, for the appeal song at the evening meeting tonight at GYC. You can watch all the main meetings online at gycweb.org. And pray for us! :)

Anxious?

My first week off school has been kind of rough. I now have to put into real life practice the lessons God taught me through the last four months. I haven't had the greatest start at it. But I can say we are making progress. My biggest fear has been the future. I feel like I just flew off the end of a cliff and I don't know where to land. I don't know where God wants me to be. What am I supposed to do with everything I just learned? I need to start classes for ASL soon. I have no job prospects. How am I going to pay my bills and afford school? So my thoughts were turning anxious as they so often do. It is my struggle. I think God is purposely putting me in straight places to get me to relax in His hands. Has He ever failed me yet? No. So what am I worried about? Good question. There are things I'm worried about, but they still are not good excuses.

I confess I have kept late nights lately and have spent a lot of time thinking in those dark hours. It has only created knots in my stomach and burdens. So this morning in my quiet time God decided to speak straight to me. I just finished the book I had been reading for devotions (God In Pain. A must read!). So I was browsing through devotionals looking for what I should study. I was headed to study more of my new pet-topic the knowledge of God. As I open the Bible software I noticed the Morning and Evening Reading devotional by C. H. Spurgeon. {chuckles} God couldn't make it any clearer. Look for yourself.

Morning, December 19 - 


         “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” 
                                                                                             — Proverbs 16:33


If the disposal of the lot is the Lord’s whose is the arrangement of our whole life? If the simple casting of a lot is guided by him, how much more the events of our entire life—especially when we are told by our blessed Saviour: “The very hairs of your head are all numbered: not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father.” It would bring a holy calm over your mind, dear friend, if you were always to remember this. It would so relieve your mind from anxiety, that you would be the better able to walk in patience, quiet, and cheerfulness as a Christian should. When a man is anxious he cannot pray with faith; when he is troubled about the world, he cannot serve his Master, his thoughts are serving himself. If you would “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” all things would then be added unto you. You are meddling with Christ’s business, and neglecting your own when you fret about your lot and circumstances. You have been trying “providing” work and forgetting that it is yours to obey. Be wise and attend to the obeying, and let Christ manage the providing. Come and survey your Father’s storehouse, and ask whether he will let you starve while he has laid up so great an abundance in his garner? Look at his heart of mercy; see if that can ever prove unkind! Look at his inscrutable wisdom; see if that will ever be at fault. Above all, look up to Jesus Christ your Intercessor, and ask yourself, while he pleads, can your Father deal ungraciously with you? If he remembers even sparrows, will he forget one of the least of his poor children? “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.” 

         My soul, rest happy in thy low estate,

         Nor hope nor wish to be esteem’d or great;

         To take the impress of the Will Divine,

         Be that thy glory, and those riches thine.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening : Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

Babbling Fingers

My grandpa just shared this with me from creationmoments.com. I found it fascinating. I totally believe that God speaks ASL fluently!

_________________

Psalm 27:8

"[When thou saidst], Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."

Infants will often look ever so serious as they babble away, as if they're actually saying something of great importance. Most of us have assumed that they do this because they see others talking and they want to join in.

The clue to the fact that there is more to speech than simple imitations came when scientists discovered that infants can babble without ever making a sound. Researchers studied five infants, two of whom were deaf and had deaf parents. In the deaf households, communication took place through American Sign Language.

Scientists found that both hearing and deaf children babbled in the language used in their homes. Hearing infants produced sounds, then syllables, and eventually meaningful words. The deaf infants did the same with their hands. At first they would make the hand signs for basic letters and numbers, stringing them together without meaning. Just as the hearing infants were beginning to offer meaningful communication by their first birthday, the deaf infants' signing had reached the same point by their first birthday.

Researchers were shocked when they realized what this means. It means that the brain has some type of unified ability built into it for learning language. This conclusion goes against everything evolution says about who and what humans are. However, it fits perfectly with the Bible when it tells us that men and women were made for fellowship and communication with their Creator.

Notes: "Hands-on babbling." Science News, v. 139, Mar. 30, 1991. p. 205

The "interpreter"

I visited my aunt's church last weekend and arrived there the same time as two deaf guys. My family has been friends with them since I was little. I never talked to them much. I was too shy. But now that I'm learning sign language I have been practicing when I see them. They love it!

So last Sabbath they sat with me. I asked if they were expecting an interpreter. They said no. So basically they came to sit in church and hear nothing and participate in nothing and not know what was going on until potluck where they would hope that someone would pass notes back and forth with them. It makes me sad. It's not that the people in the church are rude or won't talk to them, it's just like visiting a church that speaks another language and people aren't sure how to get across the language barrier. So often the communication consists of a wave hello and a smile. Ron, the older gentleman, can lip-read and speak quite well (I always joke that I don't learn anything from him), Jorge is pretty dependent on sign language though so I sign with him the most probably. :) But in the church service the lip-reading doesn't help. The people who are talking are too far away.

Ron and Jorge sat with me during church, and I couldn't just sit there and enjoy church knowing they were be "excluded". So I began doing my best to interpret what was being said. For the songs Ron asked me to hold the hymnal and point to each word as we sang it, and they signed along. The special music thankfully was a song that I knew and had simple words. But I was so limited in my signing vocabulary that I finally text my mom and asked her to bring in her iPad when she got there so I could type and they could read. That got more across, but I got a good taste of how hard it is to listen to the next thing while your typing (or interpreting) what was just said. Inevitably Ron would ask me a question or comment on something or clarify something and I would stop listening to the sermon and miss the first part of the next point or illustration. I ended up summarizing a lot of the sermon. It was I'm sure a comical sight. Me typing, Ron translating it in to ASL and signing it for Jorge. *laughs* But we did it! And Jorge said, "Thank you so much!" It's a lot more than they usually get I'm sure. It made me feel good. And it strengthened my desire to learn ASL. It also wore me out! I was exhausted by the time we left after potluck. :) At the beginning of church we commented that it was a little chilly. after the first 15 min of signing I took my sweater off and was sweating. Jorge laughed and said, "It's all the signing."

The experience got me thinking...my education towards Sign Language Interpreting has been kind of derailed, and I've questioned if I'll ever be able to do it. It would require something I'm not sure I want to do. So I've thought about just taking more ASL classes and trying to just become fluent in sign. But I struggle with self-motivation. And I learn best by doing. Abstract book learning takes awhile to sink in with me. I'm an experiential learner. I've also already forgot a lot of what I learned in my first ASL class last fall becuase I haven't been able to practice. It's hard to practice with yourself or with your family who doesn't have a clue what your saying and can't "talk back". Jorge has been trying to introduce me to a deaf girl in CO over his videophone, but we keep missing each other. My dad and I finally went to his house last Sabbath afternoon. We couldn't get a hold of the girl, but I got to meet and sign with a sweet couple, also from CO, for at least and hour. It was so much fun!! I'm going to sign with the wife, Julia (the husband's name is Don), again sometime over Skype. I can't wait!! She may even give me a sign name. Oh I would love that! You're not supposed to ask for one. But they asked if I had one last Sabbath and I said no, so they tried to "name me" but could come up with one. Unless you want the generic one (your initials signed at your left shoulder) it has to come from something in your personality. So they'll have to get to know me more. :)

So anyway, I got to thinking...maybe I should just start going to that church regularly and tell Ron and Jorge I will "interpret" for them when they're there. It will definitely give me practice (and a list of words to look up through the week). It can't hurt. I'll just jump in with both feet and learn as I go. Deaf people are so patient and such great teachers. The funny thing is so far they don't all teach me the same thing. One will tell me, "Always do it this way." So I do it that way and another one tells me, "Oh no, that's not how you do it, do it this way." But I'm getting used to it. It's pretty much the same as ascents, you have the Texan accent, the Boston accent, and the Michigan accent, just in a different way. I haven't figured out how to categorize the signs to know where they come from and where to use them. lol But as long as your a willing learner they'll put up with your blunders (and believe you me, I have plenty of them.)

So we'll see what unfolds. I just had to share my excitement for those who know my dreams. :) Perhaps soon I'll post a video...

Love Language: Jubilee Project Short Film & Fundraiser

Please look past the externals and hear the message of this with your heart. Someday I hope to share with you what I am learning about these beautiful people who live among us. Pass it on to your friends and family... Thank you!!

 

(Please do not continue reading until after you watch the video!)

The Jubilee Project makes films for good causes. This film was produced to raise awareness and support for the American Society for Deaf Children. Here's how you can help:

1. Share the link with as many people as you can.
2. Sign up to become a sponsor of this video. Each sponsor will be asked to donate 1 penny for each view this video receives in November. So if the video is watched 1000 times this month, sponsors will each donate 10 dollars. You can sign up to become a sponsor by emailing project.jubilee@gmail.com. All proceeds will go to the American Society for Deaf Children.

The American Society for Deaf Children is a non-profit organization started in 1967 that supports and educates families of deaf and hard of hearing children and advocates for high quality programs and services.