ECM’s Lorella Rouster says, “We got started in this just last year when we realized that many of the unreached people groups of the world are the Deaf communities.”

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Before ECM launched their new Deaf outreach, all Gospel ministry to the Deaf in DR Congo was in the East. Western DR Congo, however, had no ongoing ministry presence to the Deaf.

One of the biggest needs ECM discovered in western DR Congo is many Deaf children in hearing families don’t have the chance to learn sign language.

“They really don’t have any way to communicate with anybody,” Rouster says. “They don’t understand anything in church, they don’t understand sign language without being taught it or having the experience with others who know it, anything on television, anything on radio — they’re cut off from everything.

“We have been trying to get some children into the special Deaf school where they can learn sign language, and therefore they can be exposed to the Gospel as well as having the opportunity just to make a decent life for themselves.”

You can sponsor a Deaf child in the DR Congo with ECM and give them the opportunity to know God’s love for themselves!

Click here for ECM’s child sponsorships.

Please pray for Deaf children and their families in DR Congo to embrace relationships with Jesus Christ and, in turn, minister to other Deaf individuals in their community!

Header photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

Rob Myers with DOOR International says many Deaf kids don’t even get exposed to sign language until around 7-9 years old when they get to attend a Deaf school. “Even the teachers can often become a second family to Deaf people. Because this is the first opportunity that they have to access information and have friends that they can talk with in their heart language.”

Her family didn’t know sign language, so she felt very alone at home. Myers says, “A vast majority of them have grown up in homes where they can’t communicate well with their own parents. It’s very common for Deaf people to have an everyday experience where they’re sitting around the dinner table, and there’s talking and laughing and information being exchanged. And those Deaf kids are cut off from all of that information.”

Encountering Jesus

One day, a DOOR International 2-by-2 church-planting team visited her school, and she learned the story of Jesus. Her family didn’t take well to her becoming a Christian. They kicked her out, but a Deaf church welcomed her in.

Eventually, her father, a devout Muslim, got sick. The Deaf church paid his medical expenses. Moved by their love, he too embraced Jesus.

Myer says, “In a lot of communities, deaf people are looked down upon, and they’re not thought of as even being capable of having faith or being involved in a faith community of any kind. So when a young Deaf person comes to faith, it actually can transform the entire family.”

Pray the rest of this girl’s family would also encounter the love of Jesus.

Header photo courtesy of DOOR International. 

“COVID hit Deaf communities extremely hard,” DOOR International’s Rob Myers says. “Those who are oppressed in society become the most vulnerable when major crises hit. We see that happening not just in Deaf communities but in several marginalized groups.”

Deaf needs multiplied when the pandemic started. “Back in February and March of 2020, we were flooded with reports [from the field],” Myers says. People were reaching out to DOOR’s Deaf leaders for help.

“Many times, Deaf people will have manual labor jobs or other positions that might be seasonal, and once lockdowns happen, those tend to be the first jobs to go.”

At first, Deaf leaders used their own money to pay for supplies, but the need quickly outpaced their resources. “They reached out to our leadership and said, ‘We would love for people to come alongside us and support these families,’” Myers says.

Through its “30 for 30” program, DOOR uses $30 gifts to support a Deaf family for 30 days. See how it’s changing lives here.

Unique to each country, each “30 for 30” relief package provides enough food and cooking supplies to help a Deaf family for 30 days.
(Photo courtesy of DOOR International)

“Because we’re putting food into the hands of church planters or local Deaf pastors, that allows them to share the Gospel where people find themselves most desperate for hope,” Myers says.

“We’ve seen some tremendous impact, both [in] meeting physical needs in the Deaf community, as well as sharing the Gospel.”

Help Deaf kids stay in school

In Kenya, DOOR’s 2-by-2 church planting teams learned of desperate needs at a residential Deaf school. “The school was beginning to run out of food, so the kids were going down to one or two meals a day,” Myers says.

School administrators realized how important it was to keep students enrolled, but running out of food made that goal seem impossible.

“People need to understand that Deaf schools are a critical part of the Deaf community. Schools become a place where these kids build relationships, build language, grow, and develop with one another,” Myers says.

“Many children who enter Deaf schools have never been exposed to language before. They’ve never had a lengthy conversation with their parents because their parents don’t know sign language,” he continues.

“Many kids who enter those schools don’t even know they have a name.”

DOOR’s 2-by-2 team answered administrators’ and students’ prayers alike when they showed up with food aid supplied through the “30 for 30” program. Urgent needs like these continue worldwide today; you can support the program here.

“Providing for physical needs opens up that opportunity to share the hope of Jesus with them, and that’s what we’ve been so excited to see happen,” Myers says.

The children at a residential Deaf school in Mundika, Kenya, were missing meals because the school’s food stores were empty.

(Photo, caption courtesy of DOOR International)

DOOR’s Deaf leaders gather a group of Deaf students for an outside lesson. (Photo, caption courtesy of DOOR International)

“It’s not just a school,” explains Rob Myers, President and CEO of DOOR International. “Many of these kids are residential there, and so the school provides food for them, it provides shelter…

“Hearing parents – who have a lot of hearing children and maybe one Deaf child – they’ll pay the school fees for all their hearing kids, but they won’t pay the school fees for their one Deaf child. That tells you the priority [Deaf kids hold] within families and even within society.

“They’re the last ones to receive help; they’re the first ones to get cut when financial difficulties come.”

The Deaf school has yet to notify DOOR’s Kenyan staff of any significant changes, says Myers. However, a closure would result in significant losses, for both DOOR staff and the Deaf students.

“One thing that touches their (Deaf leaders’) hearts more than anything is being able to work with Deaf kids. They are so excited to see the passion in the eyes and in the hearts and hands of these Deaf kids they have an opportunity to work with.”

DOOR’s role at Deaf schools

While DOOR primarily focuses on translating God’s Word into sign language and training Deaf church planters and leaders, the Deaf school program in Kenya is a special opportunity.

Together with Kenya’s national Deaf association, DOOR’s staff teaches God’s Word to Deaf students and trains teachers on a regular basis.

One of DOOR’s Deaf leaders signs a Bible story. (Photo, caption courtesy of DOOR)

“Kenyan schools require religious instruction,” Myers explains, “but many teachers don’t have enough proficiency in sign language, they don’t have enough religious background, so [as a result] they don’t know how to teach [Bible] stories to Deaf kids.

“We’re able to come in and provide that opportunity to teach the teachers and also teach the students about God’s Word and about God’s plan for their lives.”

Read more about how DOOR’s Bible resources impact Deaf schools.

Because Deaf schools are often underfunded, DOOR’s staff find opportunities to extend more of Christ’s love.

“When we see a need, that’s God calling us to take action and to meet that need,” notes Myers. “At one of these schools our staff visited, they realized that…most kids were sharing a mattress with two or three other kids.

“Our staff pooled their own resources and, along with some support from DOOR, they came the next time with 20 mattresses and 20 blankets in order to help these kids have their own bed and their own blanket.”

Why you should care

It can be easy to feel “removed” from the urgency of this situation. However, each believer reading this article can help in the most important way: prayer.

• Pray for more funding so the Kibarani School for the Deaf can stay open.
• Praise God that this school’s teachers remained dedicated to their jobs, even though they were not being paid.
• Pray that Deaf students, who are learning the Gospel through DOOR, would accept Christ as Savior.

Find more prayer requests from DOOR here.

“As we as believers think about God’s call on our lives to be a voice for the voiceless, to heal those who are broken and to raise up the oppressed, the Deaf community certainly falls within those parameters,” says Myers.

(Photo courtesy of DOOR International)

“These Deaf kids are the next generation of the Church…and if we can provide them with the resources these Deaf leaders never had, the face of the Christian Deaf community will be completely transformed.”