Egg Hunts

Pictured above is one of His precious Deaf ones!

Sometimes we’ll go into a village with one goal:  go door-to-door looking for deaf people.  This always proves to uncover those who are hidden, isolated, unwanted, or shamed. Society has its way of telling us how to respond to certain situations. Often, in our work, we see an unspoken shame in having a deaf child. It’s ridiculous. Reality is the deaf child is all too often the blessing in the family. Jeff Harter started terming these times of searching for deaf people, “egg hunts.”  He said, “It’s just like Easter egg hunting. One searches and searches for this prized treasure – a beautifully decorated creation that excites us, and there are no two alike.  When found, there’s such excitement, and everyone celebrates.”   It’s true – our scouting for deaf people brings us indescribable joy when one is found!  You see, we know God gives us favor in finding these deaf ones because He’s got plans – great plans – for their lives.  He wants His love to be known and manifested in EVERY life.  How awesome it is that He left this sharing of His love in our hands…the church.  May we be diligent in loving, and to some extent remember that we all need to be about Easter egg hunting!

The following is the retelling of Chris Scearbo's experience with us on an egg hunt:

On the first full day in Honduras, the Signs of Love (SofL) staff, Alissa, and I went on an "egg hunt." This was something I had never done before. An egg hunt is where SOL staff go door to door, asking if there is anyone in the community who is deaf. Upon finding deaf kids and adults in a community, they will then bring the gospel and love to these people. The plan for the day was to go to the neighboring community of La Ceiba. It was Alissa and me, Rachel, Kathryn, and Jessie, as well as Orlan, Yenny, Nancy, Marvin, Eduin, and Leo.

We pulled up to a gas station/convenience store to park the cars. We must have been standing around for 10-15 minutes discussing who is with who, and what side of the street people were taking. Who is going with Orlan? Who is going with Jessie? Who is going with Kathryn? No one could make any decisions. I had nothing to contribute to this discussion, so I just stood near the side of the road and watched.  Coming from a business world of such structure in each day, I was used to more pre-planning.

While decisions were still being made, this older Honduran man came up to me on a bike and reached out for my hand, so we shook hands. He then made a finger sign and didn't say anything to me. I was super confused, and he then started signing and I realized this dude was deaf! The rest of the group saw this and came over to start talking with him.

Jessie said sometimes they can walk around a neighborhood for hours without finding any deaf people, and here we were on the side of the road and this man came to me! At this point, this whole egg hunt thing seemed pretty easy. Their problem before was that they didn't have me on their team!

Quite the Character - by Jessie Fox

“Mowgli!” I blurted out suddenly, “She reminds me of Mowgli from the Jungle Book,” I said after we got in the van after meeting our newest deaf child. Kathryn replied, “I was thinking the same thing!” Her curls were disarranged in a pile over her head, while her silly smile was contagious. She walked with her chest out in great confidence, although not always gracefully.

After explaining who we were to the grandmother we invited “Mowgli” and her sister to the program. They quickly bathed in the pila in front of the house, brushed out every curl into a tight ponytail, and threw on a dress… backwards.

Sweet 8 year old Annie has been reminding us of cartoon characters ever since!

I started talking to her sister who was just a couple years older on the way to that first program. She had many silly stories of messes they had gotten into together, but one that stood out to me was of her sister’s great embarrassment in church each week. “During worship she copies what she sees everyone else doing,” she explained. Seeing I was confused why that was so embarrassing she continued, “she puts her hands in the air and screams at the top of her lungs while everyone else sings, and she won’t be quiet until everyone sits down.”

When we arrived at the program she began picking up trash, mostly old potato chip bags left in the soccer field. She would flatten them out, fold them up neatly, hike up her dress, and safely tuck her newly found potato chip bags on the side of her underwear, after all dresses don’t have pockets. Her sister embarrassingly chased after her telling her to put them back. When asked what she does with the bags, she said she collects them and makes things out of them!

Having never been in a setting like that before, needless to say she was a little restless if asked to sit still for more than a minute at a time. She would run to a small ledge near by, while slowly sticking one foot out over the ledge. Then, she would look back at us with her silly grin and step off the ledge falling off a cliff, just like Wile E Coyote.

A few months ago she appeared to have significant eye gunk, which we had noticed that she had in previous encounters as well. Kathryn asked her sister if that was normal for her, and her sister very seriously explained that it was because Angeli catches every frog she can find. Her purpose in catching these frogs is to kiss them, on the off-chance they happen to turn into a prince!

Yesterday her latest trash creation was a fairy wand made out of a stick and a plastic candy container. On the drive back to her house she practiced her princess wave out the window, with the cows serving as her loyal subjects.

I simply can’t stop smiling with this one!

Annie, little one, as you grow older and wiser I hope you remember a few things:

God loves your worship no matter how “silly” the world sees it.

There is always beauty to be found in what the world calls trash, keep looking for it, creating it.

Never stop being fearless of taking a big step into the unknown. God will bless your relentless trust in Him.

You truly are a princess and just keep holding out for your Prince Charming because God’s got a special one for you!

Giving Back

We love getting to bring LANGUAGE and LOVE to these amazing people! Signs of Love has brought newness to these lives, helping them experience countless firsts.  The most important thing we do is introduce them to the grandest Love they’ll ever know; God’s love. 

As we celebrated Christmas last month in their villages, we asked, Jesus has given you His Perfect Love, and this year, as you celebrate His birth, what will you give Him? Their answers were spot-on in attesting to the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives.  Here’s their answers:

Love                                        Praise                         Strength                     My sadness

My future children                  Worship                     Sacrifice                      Prayer

Respect                                   Suffering                    Myself

This list is astounding because it’s compiled by a group of people who didn’t even have language not too long ago! They were alienated, and rejected…and now look! The work of Signs of Love is powerful and needed in these lives.  Countless more are waiting for us (His church) to find them.  ONWARD we go, anticipating His greatness to come through in countless ways. 

May we all be able to give to Jesus all that’s listed above.  Here’s to a new year filled with receiving His love and giving back to Him! 

Some of the people from above singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

Be Light

Honduras Leaders are learning to PRAY BIG.  With that comes endless needs.  Light continues to be spread throughout the country, and many are waiting in darkness...JOIN US.

Uganda We're focused on a rural village whose deaf are in darkness. We've begun training people to reach this village...Hope is on Its way, and language & love are being brought here! JOIN US in bringing Light.

Zambia We want to send a natural born leader who happens to be an inspiring servant of The Most High, and his hearing counterpart to South Africa to be trained in becoming pastors to the Deaf.  THE.HARVEST.IS.RIPE. Be Light. JOIN US.

Peru We plan on launching in rural Peru in the summer of 2017! We'll be intentional on reaching the Quechua deaf who are the most oppressed indigenous group of Peru. JOIN US in making Light known amongst them!

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

Emojis!

Emojis. They’ve taken over.  They’ve even found their way into sms text messages amongst low-language Deaf in far-flung rural villages. With about 10 emoji, one may communicate paragraphs.  Let me try it here: 

Interpretation:  Your donation to Signs of Love is celebrated with joy! We remember you to God through our prayers.  We’re very grateful.  Sending our love now!

One study showed that 6 billion emojis are sent every day.  Why the popularity?  As social beings, we need feedback from others; we need validation; we need to be affirmed and accepted if we are to thrive. Emojis help to do that.

Emojis are a lot like sign language. They express so much more than just words. They express feelings and emotions that are felt.  At Signs of Love, we LOVE teaching language to these precious ones who don’t have any! We LOVE opening a world of feelings and emotions to them! We LOVE explaining to them the gospel message whether it be through sign language, dramas, drawings, or emojis. We LOVE teaching them their true identity where they find validation not through their social network but through their Father, The King of all.

Do You Love Me?

Something phenomenal is taking place amongst us in Honduras. Since the beginning of the year, Orlan has been preaching, and his sermons hold everyone captive – for great lengths of time! This is phenomenal considering Orlan has only been trained through Signs of Love; he cannot read; he cannot hear with his ears. Orlan is an extraordinary example of what it means to be anointed by God.  He diligently prepares for his sermons through praying and combing over the stories in his various picture Bibles. He doesn’t focus on all he doesn’t know – he simply thinks about what he knows, and then teaches that to others. He thinks about our beloveds who he knows oh-so-well, and he fine-tunes his sermons to speaking into their problems. Orlan cannot hear with his ears, yet he hears with great acuity.

Signs of Love’s tagline is “Love can be heard by all.”  This meaning is unfolding in Orlan in profound ways. We’re looking forward to our beloveds hearing like Orlan, and doing things that surpass anything we’ve ever done.  There’s freedom, great freedom in Jesus’ sole requirement to feeding His sheep; Do you love me? That’s all it takes for us to turn this world upside-down with His love…we just gotta love Him…and then, feed His sheep.