From the Heart of a Beloved Volunteer

Mary Ann doing what she does best - loving.

Mary Ann spent some time with us this summer in Honduras.  She's created history with Signs of Love as being the first Canadian to serve with us!  Following she summarizes her experience with us:

I may not be the most articulate person, but I am rarely at a loss for words. There were many instances however in Honduras, over the course of serving with Signs of Love, that words were not a sufficient form of expression. Sometimes it was tears, other times is was hugs, laughs, simply looking someone in the eye, raising hands or even using LESHO signs. Together, these articulated my awe, my heart break and God’s incredibly immense love for the Honduran Deaf.

Before the mission, I knew that there is no education system set up for the Deaf there, and that they are ‘rejected by society’- but when I arrived, I got a taste of what ‘rejected by society’ looks like. Real faces, real people, who, as I looked into their eyes, were maybe experiencing one of only a countable number of times they have felt loved. It looks like a mother who thought her child was ‘sick and going to die’ for many years, neglecting to feed him, only to be told he is NOT SICK, he simply cannot hear. It looks like a family moving towns without their two year old son because of his deafness. It looks like a ‘not uncommon’ number of families who, even at ages of teens and adults, do not know their Deaf child’s name because they have not used it enough to remember it. Each of these and many other people’s life stories came as a heart-shattering shock to me, because I went in with different expectations; I had wrongly expected them to at least be treated like people.

Thus it was amazing to take part in a ministry that does not only address the linguistic & communication aspect of the Deaf's situations, but shows them first and foremost Jesus’ love; which contrarily tells them that they have significance and value as a human being- as a beautiful child of God.

Through these 11 days, God spoke to my heart on a number of occasions about how to love deeper. He also taught me how in my own life, I need to be brought down into humility. That often I think I deserve God’s love, just for being human. God showed me however that these Precious Ones are already humble, more than humbled- beaten down, and they need to be elevated into His love. No, they may not be worthy of it (just like you and me), but they are in fact the object of it! This poignant message is what I saw manifest in my life, in the team and among the Deaf over those staggering 11 days.  -  Mary Ann Otterbein