wfn.org | TCN: Hearing-impaired Christians make use of Deaflympics to share the gospel

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3002 Edition

>September 7~13, 2009

Hearing-impaired Christians make use of Deaflympics to share the  gospel

>Reported by Lin Yi-ying

>Written by Lydia Ma

When Taipei City hosted Deaflympics from September 5~15, 2009,  Silent Word

Ministries International (SWMI), an international evangelical  organization focusing

on outreach for the deaf, cooperated with churches for  hearing-impaired persons

in Taiwan to distribute gospel tracts near venues where the games  were held.

Together, they hoped to use this opportunity to draw the deaf from  all walks of life

>to Jesus.

Just before opening ceremonies began in the afternoon of September  5th, 21

members from SWMI joined 20 other Taiwanese Christians belonging  to sign-

language Baptist and Presbyterian churches to distribute gospel  tracts in streets

and alleys near Taipei (Mini-Big Egg) Arena, one of the venues for  the

>Deaflympics.

According to SWMI Chairman Rev. David, the main purpose of the

organization’s visit to Taiwan was to reach out to deaf  athletes and their friends,

family, and coaches. The organization also brought along 10,000  multi-language

>DVDs and 20,000 gospel tracts.

Originally, Rev. David’s goal was to lead 10 individuals to  Christ; however, God

prompted him to aim for 30 instead. The entire SWMI team spent  much time in

prayer to prepare themselves to reach this goal.

Rev. David said there are currently 7 churches in Taiwan with  members with

hearing disabilities. Of these churches, only 2 are officially  churches for the deaf

or sign language churches. He hopes more churches across Taiwan  will reach

out to the deaf for Jesus in the future and also hopes that some  members from

SWMI will eventually be led to serve in Taiwan as missionaries.

Ms. Chen Tzu-mei, a translator for the team and a pastor’s  wife from Bo-Ai Sign

Language Church, said that volunteers from local churches who had  joined SWMI

to distribute gospel tracts were all hearing- impaired.  Approximately 40

volunteers distributed tracts everyday during the Deaflympics.

For many members from Bo-Ai Sign Language Church, this was their  first

attempt at street evangelism and the Deaflympics were a wonderful  opportunity

to practice. They found much encouragement and excitement by  participating in

street evangelism. Some members already have experience  distributing

pamphlets because of their work, but doing it to share the gospel  with others

gave them exceeding joy. It’s not often that such an  opportunity arises and it’s not

easy to share the gospel with deaf people, therefore, many church  members

were overjoyed at this opportunity facilitated by the Deaflympics.

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local  languages.

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you  acknowledge the source as "Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the  reporter and writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print  publications.

Direct comments and questions about this article to:  enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/  (English) http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese)

>********************

> 
>