DOOR's Goal
We want many Deaf people to know Jesus and use their gifts to serve Him. We believe the best way for this to happen is to have many Deaf believers’ fellowships all over the world. How will Deaf people start Deaf believers' fellowships all over the world? Deaf people need God's Word, the Bible, in their own Sign Languages. We believe that if Deaf people have God's Word in Sign Language and some training in how to start Deaf believers' fellowships, we (Deaf people) can change the Deaf world by starting many strong, biblical, Deaf believers' fellowships!
Translating the Bible into Sign Languages
We are working with teams of local Deaf people in India, the Philippines, and several African countries to teach them the best ways to translate the Bible. They are learning to translate the Bible so that it's accurate (right), natural, and clear. Wycliffe Bible Translators are helping us learn these things. Each team will translate over 100 passages from the Bible into their Sign Language and put them on DVD. We are excited to start bringing God's Word straight to Deaf people in their own languages!
Deaf CBS (Chronological Bible Storying)
From our experience, Deaf people can learn the Bible very well. Deaf people just learn differently from hearing people. Deaf people can learn the deep things of God's Word through His stories (which come straight from the Bible). So our translation teams are translating over 100 important stories or parts of the Bible first. We will also make videos to teach Deaf people to use these Bible stories for evangelism, discipleship, Bible studies, home groups, leadership training, worship services, counseling, etc.
This is how our Deaf staff and some of the Deaf people we work with compare hearing Bible teaching and Deaf Bible teaching through Chronological Bible Storying. (We believe hearing Bible teaching is wonderful for hearing people; it just doesn't work so well for most of us Deaf people.)
| Hearing Bible teaching | Deaf Chronological Bible Storying |
|---|---|
| Not in order, themes and points, confusing | Biblical stories in order, learning through discussion with other Deaf people, clear! |
| Can you understand it? Does it change your life? Can you remember it? Can you teach it to other Deaf people? | You understand, you apply it to your life, you remember, you can share it with your Deaf friends! |
| You think, "I could never teach like that!" | You think, "The teacher is Deaf! I could do that, too!" |
| Maybe you don't read too well … there are long, hard words in hearing teaching. | You sign wonderfully! The teaching is all in Sign Language. You can understand even complicated concepts when a Deaf person explains them in Sign Language! |