I said, "Well, I don't know exactly. God touched someone's heart to give ... or maybe several people ..." He said, "I really want to thank them. That's why I'm asking."
"What an amazing gift!"
He went on to talk about his experience at the DOOR Translation Summit (January 14-25):
"When I first got here, I was a little overwhelmed. I mean, I was in Africa! And there were all these different people, and all these different sign languages. But after not too long, I started understanding and being able to communicate. I'm still not as fluent here in this international mix of sign languages ... sometimes I have to think creatively to communicate what I want to say ... but these are my brothers and sisters.
This time here ... it's sweet. I don't know how else to describe it. My heart was hungry, and this is sweet food for my soul.
Also, of course, at every step of the translation process that we're practicing, I'm thinking, 'How will this work in my country? How can we do this in our Sign Language ? Who should be on our translation team?' I already have a few people in mind for the translation team, but I'm still not sure about some of the others.
Before the DOOR missionaries came, the only Bible teaching I had access to was hearing Bible teaching. There's nothing wrong with hearing people; I thank God for them. But trying to learn the Bible from them was like watching a TV with lots of visual static, with just occasional seconds of clarity here and there. I'd sit and wait for those seconds of clarity, but sometimes it was a long wait. And it was hard to put those clear seconds together into any sort of coherent whole. Now, as I'm learning, and here at this translation summit, it's like someone has repaired my TV set. For the first time, I'm getting the whole story clearly, in living color.
So anyway ... if you find out who allowed me to come here, please let me know. I really need to thank them."
YOU PRAYED! GOD ANSWERED!
- Everyone arrived safely in Nairobi, Kenya!
- For 2 weeks everyone was safe and productive!
- Everyone arrived safely back home!
The purpose and goal of these two weeks was to have representatives of the different DOOR translation teams get together to discuss what is working, as well as what is not working.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
DOOR Translation Summit Participants
- INDIA: 2 Deaf 1 hearing
- THAILAND: 2 Deaf 1 hearing
- ARGENTINA: 2 Deaf
- PERU: 1 Deaf
- PHILIPPINES: 1 Deaf 2 hearing
- ZAMBIA: 1 Deaf
- BURUNDI: 1 Deaf
- ETHIOPIA: 1 Deaf
- DRC: 1 Deaf
- USA: 2 Deaf 2 hearing
