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Teaching communication through missions | The Demopolis Times
There are a number of local church groups taking part in mission trips all over the country and beyond, but imagine if you wanted to do mission work in a place where it wasn’t welcomed.
Such was the case for Bob Huff and his family, who have been doing mission work in Vietnam, working with the Deaf while preaching the gospel.
Huff and his family — wife Kathleen and sons Jacob and Alex — do their works through Partners in Compassion, a Demopolis-based organization whose mission is to teach deaf people sign language, which will help expand their education and their opportunities.
Jacob married a missionary from Korea while the family was in Vietnam and had a three-language wedding — English, Vietnamese and Korean — and is now going to college at Drury University in Missouri
Bob and Alex Huff visited Church Aflame on Thursday and spoke about their experiences.
“We always knew at some point, we would be going somewhere (to do mission work); we just didn’t know where,” Bob said. “At the time, we did what we were called to do here and serve the church and was in business, and then, the time came for us to give back. We began to look at opportunities where we could serve.
“We originally went to Vietnam with an organization that gets professional people into hard-to-access countries. Vietnam, being a Communist country, is one of those places. You can’t be there as a missionary; you have to have a legal reason to be there. We don’t even use the word ‘missionary’ in Vietnam.
“We went to do a project entitled ‘Adapting Vocational Training for Adolescents with Disabilities,” he said. “In the first five years, we did that and trained over 2,000 disabled kids. At the end of the project, we sought God as to what He would have us do next, and He told us that the Deaf were an unreached group that we could impact, so we looked towards deaf ministry.”
Bob said that most deaf children in Vietnam, especially in the countryside, have no education, not knowing sign language and having no means to communicate.
“Most Deaf have never even heard of sign language,” he said. “So, perfectly capable young men and women are held back socially and economically and many other ways simply because of communication. Most can’t even communicate with their parents because they have no means of communication.”
Seven years ago, the family started looking at ways it could best serve the deaf community.
“What we came down to is we started a restaurant in Danang that hires and trains the Deaf,” Bob said. “Then, the proceeds from that restaurant go back into other deaf ministries. We have 24 Deaf working for us now, and 22 of them have received salvation. We planted a Deaf church that is outreaching the Deaf community now.”
Alex was 6 when his family first went to Vietnam, and he was educated through the schools in Danang. He graduated from a high school in Oregon this year and plans to study at Southwest Baptist University. He is considering a career in international business.
“He is the only Western child that we know of who went all the way through school in Vietnam, all the way through ninth grade, which is where they make the switch to high school,” Bob said.
Alex picked up on the language fairly quickly, enough to win second place as a seventh-grader in a national story-telling contest.
“Kids pick up on languages fairly quickly, and I was surrounded by it, so I was able to learn it fairly quickly,” Alex said.
The sign language they used to teach the children was Vietnamese sign language, with its own history and culture different from American sign language. Both sign languages have their beginnings in French sign language.
For instance, the Vietnamese sign for “America” is the thumb running several times down the upturned hand, showing the stripes on the American flag. The American sign for “America” is openly clasped hands rotating in a counter-clockwise circle to show the long-rail fences the pioneers put up.
Bob said the reaction of the parents when they first learned of sign language was very poignant.
“I had a lady with her deaf son come in, and we talked about vocational training,” he said. “I asked her, ‘Ma’am, if we were able to teach you and your son sign language, would that be a benefit to you?’ and she said, ‘What’s that?’ I explained to her that it is a way of talking with your hands through gestures and signs, and big tears came down her face.
“She said, ‘You don’t understand. I don’t have one deaf son; I have four deaf sons.’ Just the thought of being able to communicate with her sons was a very moving experience for her.”
The mission work done by the Huffs in Vietnam touch many lives, and their work with deaf children and their families is also influential and moving. For more information about Partners in Compassion or to make a donation, go online to Partners In Compassion - Meeting the Needs of the Deaf in Southeast Asia.
There are a number of local church groups taking part in mission trips all over the country and beyond, but imagine if you wanted to do mission work in a place where it wasn’t welcomed.
Such was the case for Bob Huff and his family, who have been doing mission work in Vietnam, working with the Deaf while preaching the gospel.
Huff and his family — wife Kathleen and sons Jacob and Alex — do their works through Partners in Compassion, a Demopolis-based organization whose mission is to teach deaf people sign language, which will help expand their education and their opportunities.
Jacob married a missionary from Korea while the family was in Vietnam and had a three-language wedding — English, Vietnamese and Korean — and is now going to college at Drury University in Missouri
Bob and Alex Huff visited Church Aflame on Thursday and spoke about their experiences.
“We always knew at some point, we would be going somewhere (to do mission work); we just didn’t know where,” Bob said. “At the time, we did what we were called to do here and serve the church and was in business, and then, the time came for us to give back. We began to look at opportunities where we could serve.
“We originally went to Vietnam with an organization that gets professional people into hard-to-access countries. Vietnam, being a Communist country, is one of those places. You can’t be there as a missionary; you have to have a legal reason to be there. We don’t even use the word ‘missionary’ in Vietnam.
“We went to do a project entitled ‘Adapting Vocational Training for Adolescents with Disabilities,” he said. “In the first five years, we did that and trained over 2,000 disabled kids. At the end of the project, we sought God as to what He would have us do next, and He told us that the Deaf were an unreached group that we could impact, so we looked towards deaf ministry.”
Bob said that most deaf children in Vietnam, especially in the countryside, have no education, not knowing sign language and having no means to communicate.
“Most Deaf have never even heard of sign language,” he said. “So, perfectly capable young men and women are held back socially and economically and many other ways simply because of communication. Most can’t even communicate with their parents because they have no means of communication.”
Seven years ago, the family started looking at ways it could best serve the deaf community.
“What we came down to is we started a restaurant in Danang that hires and trains the Deaf,” Bob said. “Then, the proceeds from that restaurant go back into other deaf ministries. We have 24 Deaf working for us now, and 22 of them have received salvation. We planted a Deaf church that is outreaching the Deaf community now.”
Alex was 6 when his family first went to Vietnam, and he was educated through the schools in Danang. He graduated from a high school in Oregon this year and plans to study at Southwest Baptist University. He is considering a career in international business.
“He is the only Western child that we know of who went all the way through school in Vietnam, all the way through ninth grade, which is where they make the switch to high school,” Bob said.
Alex picked up on the language fairly quickly, enough to win second place as a seventh-grader in a national story-telling contest.
“Kids pick up on languages fairly quickly, and I was surrounded by it, so I was able to learn it fairly quickly,” Alex said.
The sign language they used to teach the children was Vietnamese sign language, with its own history and culture different from American sign language. Both sign languages have their beginnings in French sign language.
For instance, the Vietnamese sign for “America” is the thumb running several times down the upturned hand, showing the stripes on the American flag. The American sign for “America” is openly clasped hands rotating in a counter-clockwise circle to show the long-rail fences the pioneers put up.
Bob said the reaction of the parents when they first learned of sign language was very poignant.
“I had a lady with her deaf son come in, and we talked about vocational training,” he said. “I asked her, ‘Ma’am, if we were able to teach you and your son sign language, would that be a benefit to you?’ and she said, ‘What’s that?’ I explained to her that it is a way of talking with your hands through gestures and signs, and big tears came down her face.
“She said, ‘You don’t understand. I don’t have one deaf son; I have four deaf sons.’ Just the thought of being able to communicate with her sons was a very moving experience for her.”
The mission work done by the Huffs in Vietnam touch many lives, and their work with deaf children and their families is also influential and moving. For more information about Partners in Compassion or to make a donation, go online to Partners In Compassion - Meeting the Needs of the Deaf in Southeast Asia.