I’ve been in Portugal for over 10 years now sharing God’s Hope with the Deaf. But you probably are wondering how I got here. Well, let me share a short story.
I’m a deaf Michiganar. I began school earlier than most to learn to speak and American Sign Language. I grew up mainstreamed in the public school but I also grew up every week going to church and learning the Bible stories. I met many missionaries and heard stories of what God’s doing all over the world.
When I was teen shortly after my mom’s death, I had my first mission trip with my church’s youth group to Jamaica. On one of our tours, we were visiting a children’s home and I met a deaf girl there who can’t communicate. I remember trying to communicate with her, but I didn’t know how. My experiences on the trip and my mom’s death set me on the course that led me to Jesus. I realized that I was a sinner and I need Christ to saved me from being eternally separated from God. I embraced him as my Savior.
Shortly after God has been working to show me that He wanted me to surrender my life and serve Him. One Wednesday night, I was with my youth group watching a video about Rachel Joy Scott. She was killed during the Columbine High School shooting but what touched me was her refusal to deny her Savior when confronted with the killer. She gave her life for Jesus and I knew I needed to do the same. That night I surrender to serve my Savior.
I attended Tennessee Temple University to learn how to become a missionary. I attended a deaf conference, Fantastic Saturday hosted by Silent Word Ministry. There was a call for us to surrender to serve as deaf missionaries to the deaf. I realized that God wanted me to do just that. I spent the rest of my time at TTU to learn how to live in the deaf world.
I graduated from TTU in 2002. My next step was to find a field where I could serve in deaf ministry for a short time. I applied at Association of Baptists for World Evangelism and moved to Bogota, Colombia, SA to serve there for two years. It was learning experience for me, not only as a missionary, but also as a daughter of God. Just before my time ended there, God showed me a verse in Romans 15:21, “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand” (NKJV). God was showing me that He has a place for me where the Deaf have never heard about Jesus before. But it wasn’t until later when I asked my support team to pray for open doors. Literally the next day, I received two invites to come to Lisbon, Portugal to reach the Deaf there.
I flew there to see what it was like there and meet the team and the Deaf. During that trip, the verse that God laid on my heart jumped
They Shall See 