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Silent Blessings help kick off deaf ministry | Coshocton Tribune | coshoctontribune.com
Deaf residents of Coshocton County and the surrounding area will have a church to call their own soon.
Rolling Hills Chapel of the Deaf will begin Sunday services Oct. 30 at Grace United Methodist Church. The Rev. Marshall Lawrence of Silent Blessings Deaf Ministries will be conducting activities this weekend at the church to help kick off the new ministry.
The Rev. Jan Coffman, Grace Church associate pastor, said 15 to 20 deaf people regularly participate in a Wednesday evening Bible study at the church.
She said they will be members of the new church and that a group of deaf people was coming in from Cambridge for services, too, but she wasn't sure how many.
According to Deaf Ministries Connection, Ohio has only nine deaf ministries, with the closest ones to Coshocton being in Akron and Columbus.
"All that we hear from the deaf people who we associate with and from all the literature we've read, deaf people are anxious to have their own church," Coffman said.
Sunday School for Rolling Hills will be 10 a.m. with services at 11 a.m. every Sunday. David Carpenter, who was born deaf, will be pastor of the ministry. Carpenter teaches a sign class and leads the deaf Bible study program at Grace Church.
Coffman said Carpenter asked her and the Rev. Craig Redecker about starting a deaf ministry about three years ago. Coffman said a sign language interpreter has participated in worship services in the past, but there was still some ro*******s of understanding that couldn't be bypassed.
She said studies by Christian organizations show that only two to four percent of deaf and hard of hearing people in the world know Jesus Christ as their lord and savior with the communication barrier being a big reason why.
"We felt like we wanted these people to be part of our church, but in the past three years Craig and I have been on a learning curve. We've come to understand that (the deaf) have special needs," Coffman said. "It would be like if we would go to a foreign country and live there for a time. We knew part of the language but weren't fluent in it. You go into a social situation, you miss part of it, you misunderstand part of it and you come away exhausted because you've been trying so hard to understand."
Coffman said Lawrence was asked to come this weekend to introduce to the community how important a deaf ministry can be and what it can offer hearing and hearing impaired people.
Lawrence started Silent Blessings in 1996 in Anderson, Ind. He is the father of a deaf child. Lawrence said the purpose of the ministry is to bring spiritual healing to deaf and hard of hearing people as well as their families.
"Deaf people live everywhere. They're in many communities around the country, but many deaf people are pretty isolated when it comes to spiritual teaching and Christian teaching," Lawrence said. "Finding places for one-on-one ministry with deaf children or deaf adults in any given community is certainly a worthwhile goal. The biggest handicap deaf people have is not that they can't hear the organ, it's that they can't hear the message."
Deaf residents of Coshocton County and the surrounding area will have a church to call their own soon.
Rolling Hills Chapel of the Deaf will begin Sunday services Oct. 30 at Grace United Methodist Church. The Rev. Marshall Lawrence of Silent Blessings Deaf Ministries will be conducting activities this weekend at the church to help kick off the new ministry.
The Rev. Jan Coffman, Grace Church associate pastor, said 15 to 20 deaf people regularly participate in a Wednesday evening Bible study at the church.
She said they will be members of the new church and that a group of deaf people was coming in from Cambridge for services, too, but she wasn't sure how many.
According to Deaf Ministries Connection, Ohio has only nine deaf ministries, with the closest ones to Coshocton being in Akron and Columbus.
"All that we hear from the deaf people who we associate with and from all the literature we've read, deaf people are anxious to have their own church," Coffman said.
Sunday School for Rolling Hills will be 10 a.m. with services at 11 a.m. every Sunday. David Carpenter, who was born deaf, will be pastor of the ministry. Carpenter teaches a sign class and leads the deaf Bible study program at Grace Church.
Coffman said Carpenter asked her and the Rev. Craig Redecker about starting a deaf ministry about three years ago. Coffman said a sign language interpreter has participated in worship services in the past, but there was still some ro*******s of understanding that couldn't be bypassed.
She said studies by Christian organizations show that only two to four percent of deaf and hard of hearing people in the world know Jesus Christ as their lord and savior with the communication barrier being a big reason why.
"We felt like we wanted these people to be part of our church, but in the past three years Craig and I have been on a learning curve. We've come to understand that (the deaf) have special needs," Coffman said. "It would be like if we would go to a foreign country and live there for a time. We knew part of the language but weren't fluent in it. You go into a social situation, you miss part of it, you misunderstand part of it and you come away exhausted because you've been trying so hard to understand."
Coffman said Lawrence was asked to come this weekend to introduce to the community how important a deaf ministry can be and what it can offer hearing and hearing impaired people.
Lawrence started Silent Blessings in 1996 in Anderson, Ind. He is the father of a deaf child. Lawrence said the purpose of the ministry is to bring spiritual healing to deaf and hard of hearing people as well as their families.
"Deaf people live everywhere. They're in many communities around the country, but many deaf people are pretty isolated when it comes to spiritual teaching and Christian teaching," Lawrence said. "Finding places for one-on-one ministry with deaf children or deaf adults in any given community is certainly a worthwhile goal. The biggest handicap deaf people have is not that they can't hear the organ, it's that they can't hear the message."