Rob Myers with DOOR International says, “Many Deaf people have experienced a lot of misunderstanding and even a lot of oppression when it comes to the use of their own language. In certain countries and in certain contexts, Deaf people are told that their language is not a real language, that it’s monkey language, and that it’s not equivalent to written or spoken language.

“Some people have the notion that sign language can’t express everything that a spoken or written language can. Of course, none of that is true. Sign languages are rich, deep, complex languages. In fact, people could make the argument that sign languages are linguistically more complex than spoken or written languages.”

(Graphic courtesy of DOOR International)

Another misconception is that sign languages are simply a different medium of spoken or written language—for example, that Spanish Sign Language is Spanish in sign format.

“Back in the 1960s, linguists started to realize that, no, these languages have their own grammar, their own structure. They’re very, very distinct from the written languages around them,” Myers says.

By 2023, around a third of the countries of the world had recognized their country’s sign language as an official language. That number will continue to trend upward.

“Twenty percent of that recognition has happened just in the last five years,” Myers says.

This is a long-overdue change. Resources such as Bible translations and learning materials are scant in the around 375 sign languages known to exist. DOOR works to advance Bible translation, church planting, and evangelism by the Deaf for the Deaf. That has to be done in their heart languages, which are sign languages.

Pray for DOOR’s innovative translation work, and learn more about the facts, not fiction, of Deaf experience by visiting DOOR’s website.  Not sure where to start? Check out DOOR’s white paper here, which discusses myths as well as the best next steps for engaging with Deaf communities

You can also find DOOR International on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

The header image is a representative photo depicting a Hearing person learning sign language in an online course. (Photo courtesy of SHVETS Production/Pexels)

But what is it in the first place? According to Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs USA, “it’s a day to honor the example and honor the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for Christ, as well as, hopefully, sort of spend some time in self-reflection.”

Nettleton hopes the day will drive people to engage in deep reflection and prayer. He wants Christians to ask questions like “What would I give up? What would I sacrifice to see God’s kingdom advanced, to see the gospel preached?”

Since the birth of the Church, Christians have undergone persecution, and this new day hopes to shed light on their plight by recognizing both ancient and modern martyrs. After all, June 29 is the anniversary of the apostle Paul’s execution, while the day was used to recognize a more recent tragedy.

Remembering the Groenewalds

“One of the things we did was add some names to the Martyrs Memorial at our headquarters,” Nettleton explains. “We added the names of the Groenewald family that was martyred in Afghanistan in 2014, and it was really a good day of honoring their memory.”

Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA

The Groenewalds were serving in Afghanistan when Taliban insurgents launched an assault on their compound. Werner Groenewald and his children, Jean-Pierre (17) and Rode (15), were shot and killed by the insurgents. Only mother and wife Dr. Hannelie Groenewald, who was working at a nearby medical clinic at the time of the attack, survived.

“They knew it was dangerous, they knew they could be killed, and yet when God called they said, ‘Ok, we’ll go,’ and they went, they served there for more than 10 years, had really an amazing ministry there to the Afghan people, and ultimately, three members of the family did give their lives,” Nettleton says. “We think that’s worth having a day on the calendar to think about that, to reflect on that, and to honor their sacrifice.

Stories like theirs are what drove Nettleton and others to institute this day of recognition in the first place.

“We hope it will become a day that is on the church calendar and doesn’t get buried. We hope it will rise to the top as people really understand the power of the example of the martyrs.”

Day of the Christian Martyr might only be celebrated one day every year, but the gravity of giving everything for ministry is painfully and daily on the minds of some survivors.

“In the case of the Groenewald family, Hannelie, the wife and the mom of the husband and two teenage children that were killed, she’s still alive, she’s still going on in ministry, she’s still serving the Lord, but I’m certain that she still misses her family, so we can pray for those left behind as the martyrs made that ultimate sacrifice that God will sustain them and comfort them and open doors for ministry for them.”

You can watch the ceremonies of the first Day of the Christian Martyrs right here.

Header photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA

Christians know that our ultimate award awaits us in heaven. But on earth, recognition can serves as a means of accountability, transparency, and the pursuit of excellence. Recognition also motivates and refocuses ministries. Wycliffe Bible Translators USA recently received the GuideStar Platinum Seal recognition. This means that Wycliffe has been diligent in measuring progress, has improved their impact, and continues to look for ways to be more effective.

Chris Winkler of Wycliffe explains, “We’ve been really blessed to be honored with the GuideStar Platinum Seal and status with Guidestar. Guidestar is one of the largest independent evaluators of nonprofits in the country. And one of the things we’ve been striving for is to be fully transparent with the public, with our donors, those that are wanting to pray with us, those that are wanting to serve with us.”

Wycliffe works in many areas of the world, but all Bible Translation projects take hard work, diligence, and collaboration (photo courtesy of Wyclffe USA via facebook)

Financial transparency is important in building trust with donors and volunteers in both secular organizations and Christians organizations. But for the latter, the transparency has to do with honoring God.

“We do feel that we should be doing everything as unto the Lord, whether that’s translating God’s Word or whether it’s working with our finances. In our culture, we tend to demand excellence from our sports teams, from our retails stores.

“But in my thinking, we need to be striving for excellence when dealing with some of the most important things that God has called us to, like the translation of God’s Word, church planting. The souls of men and women are at stake and they deserve nothing less than our absolute best.”

Winkler says they’ve been blessed by the thousands of people in the United States praying and supporting their work financially. He understands that this group of supporters cares about transparency and knowing that the resources they give are going to good use.

(Image courtesy of Wycliffe USA).

It comes down to this: In their work as Bible translators, Wycliffe is a steward of the people, prayers, and funds that God has given them.

“They’re not Wycliffe’s—those are God’s that we’ve been entrusted to steward for this season.”

If you’d like to get involved with Wycliffe, Winkler says now is the time:

“The work of Bible translation is at a really exciting point where we’ve never seen translation starts happening as quickly as they’re happening now. There’s great movements all over the world. And we invite those listeners to be a part of that—you can go to Wycliffe.org and find out how you can pray for this work. You can adopt a Bible-less people group to be praying for. You can give to the work, you can serve.”

For more information, click here.