Over 1200 jubilant Deaf Indians, packed into a concert hall in the south of India, witnessed history on January 30th, as an indigenous Deaf translation team dedicated God's Word into the local sign language.
Over years of hard work, the Deaf team of six men and two women, trained and equipped by Deaf Opportunity OutReach (DOOR) and Wycliffe, tranlated 32 carefully selected foundational Bible passages onto a DVD and visual storyboard book. This was a moving event, since it's the first time in history that the Deaf community in India's southern state of Kerala have had access to God's Word in a way they understand - in their language, Kerala Sign Language.
One of the reasons this event brought Deaf people from all over India and kept them rejoicing in the foyer for hours afterward is that most Deaf people can't read. Some can but find it very difficult, since they've never heard the language that written symbols on a page represent. Without the association of sound to symbol, every written word must be memorized like a phone number, and who could possibly enjoy, or get meaning from, reading a page of phone numbers. Even where educational support is available, the average Deaf adult only achieves the reading level of a hearing eight year old, and the Deaf literacy rate worldwide is a low 15 percent. In India, like many other areas, Deaf people live in an information vacuum, cut off from spoken and written communication. They are isolated from hearing society, not understanding their family's religion, their siblings' aspirations, or even knowing their parent's name. However, where the Deaf congregate together they develop their own sign language, which is unique to that region and the people who use it.
In our modern age, the Christian community has used many new and creative ways to communicate the gospel to the lost, but all of our efforts thus far have failed to bring this message to the millions of the world's Deaf. Christian radio and television broadcasts, gospel audio recordings, printed Bible translations, tracts, songs and drama, the "JESUS" film - all of these things are inadequate to reach the Deaf community.
Starved for information about God, Christian and non-Christian Deaf have snatched up this Bible DVD. Deaf translator Siji is confident the Good News will spread quickly amongst the 100,000 Deaf living in India's southern state of Kerala. It's heartbreaking that this is the first time in history the Gospel has been made available to these marginalized people, and with an estimated 9 million Deaf in India there is still so much work to be done. Those continuing to pioneer sign language Bible translation throughout India ask for your prayers and support.
Click here to view the slideshow or paste this URL into your browser: http://www.picnik.com/show/id/6960403302_9hJm6
Pictures and Article written by Elyse Patten, Monsoon (Monsoon is the Communications Team for Wycliffe International Asia Pacific). Thanks Elyse!
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